Hello, I received this information from my Communication Research class. This handout is filled with useful tools to provide research for your plan.

-Sabrina

Library Instruction session:

Principles of Communication Research

(Communications 410 Professor Cynthia King)

by:

John Hickok Communications Librarian

657-278-4394, jhickok@fullerton.edu

INTRODUCTION

This library handout will explain: (A) library resources for doing Communication research and how to access them; and (B)

which sources to consult for creating a Situation Analysis report (the 5c’s) in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP):

1. Company (history, image, technology, product/place/price/promotion)

2. Collaborators (distributors, suppliers, alliances)

3. Customers (demographics/psychographics of target customers)

4. Competitors (actual & potential, and their products/positioning/shares)

5. Climate (PEST analysis: Political/regulatory environment, Economic

environment, Social/Cultural environment, Technological environment)

!!! NOTE !!! The Library’s homepage has changed!

1. Use the top (first) blue tab called “RESEARCH.”

This will open up a new window, with choices on the left sidebar

2. What about the search boxes & grey tabs?

These are Google-like search boxes that attempt to mass-search the

library’s databases (or catalog) all at once. It is a nice idea, but the

problem is it provides random results, with no way to fine-tune your

searching. So if you just want “any” random article on a topic (like
Global Warming) these search boxes will find something. But if you

need specific articles on a narrow topic, DO NOT use these! You will

get much better results going to, and searching, the databases directly

A. OVERVIEW OF SCHOLARLY SOURCES

What is scholarly and what is not? You must follow your professor’s instructions on which are acceptable.

SCHOLARLY SEMI-SCHOLARLY NON-SCHOLARLY

ARTICLES

COMMUNICATIONS: BUSINESS:

Communication & Mass Media Complete (1) ABI/Inform (2) Business Source Premier

You don’t have to limit yourself ONLY to the above two databases. Other databases might be useful too:

· ACADEMIC SEARCH PREMIER (articles from all disciplines)

· PSYCINFO (articles from psychology journals…like the psychographics of customers)

· AMERICA HISTORY & LIFE (articles from history journals…like the history of business startups)

BOOKS

The CSUF Library Catalog has many books & e-books on issues/topics. The easiest way to search for these is by Keyword

Examples: small businesses

restaurants

orange county business

marketing

B. SOURCES FOR SITUATION ANALYSIS REPORTS

1. Company Information

þ LIBRARY COMPANY DIRECTORIES: they give full profiles of medium to large companies.

MINT GLOBAL HOOVER’S DATAMONITOR MERGENT LEXIS-NEXIS

þ SMALL BUSINESS WEB DIRECTORY

www.manta.com is a free website giving

info on small businesses. But since it is free,

don’t expect much. Sometimes the info listed
there is very limited.

þ ARTICLES IN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS

Your company or organization is likely written about in business publications (like Wall Street Journal, Businessweek, Inc.,

Forbes, etc.) The CSUF Library has several excellent databases that pull up full-text articles from business publications.

(1) ABI/Inform (2) Bus.Source.Prem. (3) Bus.Fulltext

þ ARTICLES IN NEWSPAPERS

In addition to business publications, your company or organization will likely be mentioned in regular newspapers (like LA

Times, OC Register, etc.). The library subscribes to 2 news databases: PROQUEST and LEXIS-NEXIS. In these databases,

you can search for, and find, news stories on anything, going back for 25 years!

ProQuest Newsstand Lexis-Nexis

(Best: U.S./local papers) (Best: worldwide papers;

newswires, broadcasts)

þ SEARCH THE INTERNET

Yes, the Internet is a valuable resource. But you can find a lot of JUNK on the Internet too! For example, lies about your

organization from a disgruntled ex-employee…or an old website with totally outdated data…or someone’s personal homepage

passing off “opinions” as facts. Before trusting ANY information you find from Websites, you have to scrutinize and

comparatively-check the information. Ask yourself these questions:

· Authoritative? Objective? Accurate? Current?

SEARCH DIRECTORIES

1. www.dmoz.org

2. http://dir.yahoo.com/

SEARCH ENGINES

1. www.google.com/advanced_search

2. www.yippy.com (categorizes results!)

3. www.bing.com

2. Collaborators

In most of the above sources—the company directories, business articles, newspaper articles—you will learn of the collaborators of your business. In addition to them, business-to-business directories help:

þ OC BUSINESS DIRECTORIES

· Orange County Business Directory
(1^st floor North Reference Desk: HD2346.U5 O7051 2012)

· Southern California Business Directory

(1^st floor North Reference HF5065.S2 S66 2012 )

· Orange County.net Business2Business

www.orangecounty.net/html/biz.html

3. Customers

First: learn your geographic demographics

Books

You can find demographic data for the local (city/county/state) areas by using the following books. Unfortunately, the library does not currently have these demographic books in e-book form, so you will have to consult them in-person, at the library.

· MSA Profile HC106.8 .M47 2010 1^st floor north Reference

· MPA, Market Profile Analysis. HC108.A64 M22x 2006: 1^st floor north Reference

· Community Sourcebook of County Demographics HA203 .S65 2008: 1^st floor north Reference

· Community Sourcebook of Zip Code Demographics HA 203 S67 2008 1^st floor north Reference

These four statistical sources include estimates for population, households, household income, household
expenditure, ethnic populations, and more, by zip code, MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area), county, or other.

· Lifestyle Market Analyst HF5415.3 .L5 2008 1^st floor north Reference

The statistical guide gives complete demographics of consumers by major metropolitan areas of every state. Published by SRDS: Standard Rate & Data Service (they publish all media’s ad rates)

· Survey of Buying Power and Media Markets HF5415 .S161 2010 2^nd floor north

A publication of Sales & Marketing Management magazine. Contains data of MSA’s, retail sales, number of households, etc. Last issue was Jan 2010 (ceased publication)

· Rand McNally Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide G1019 R24c2 2009: 1^st floor north Atlases

Showing similar data as above, but in map form (MSAs, counties, states, etc.)

Census Databases

In addition to the above demographic books, we also have two demographic databases. You can search these without having to come to the library. Rand, in particular, can narrow down to specific CA cities & counties. Access either of these databases at the Library’s homepage “Find Databases”

þ RAND CALIFORNIA

þ CENSUS (U.S.)

Second: apply audience characteristics (survey psychographics)

E-Books

To find out about your audience’s characteristics—like what Senior Citizen consumers are reading, what Hispanic/Latino consumers are buying, what college-aged females are watching on TV, etc.—you will consult a series of e-books that give the consumer characteristics of target populations. This is the “New Strategist” series. These e-books tell you about people’s attitudes & behaviors based on nationwide surveys. THEREFORE, THESE ARE NATIONAL, GENERALIZED characteristics…not specific to any one location, like Fullerton or Orange County. (That’s what you found in the first step, above). You use these e-books to get a general sense of consumer characteristics by age/gender/income/ethnicity/etc.

Some of the individual e-books include:

American attitudes: what Americans think about the issues that shape their lives
American generations: who they are and how they live
Household spending: who spends how much on what
American women who they are & how they live

Just type “New Strategist” in the online catalog ( http://opac.fullerton.edu ) and they will display. You can click on each one to read instantly on your computer, even off-campus. (NOTE: we have many of the “New Strategist” books in printed form, too, in case you prefer reading them hardcopy)

4. Competitors

In the sources explained in #1 above (company directories, etc.) you will learn about competitors. You will also find competitor information in the library’s Industry sources, such as these:

þ INDUSTRY DATABASES

Ÿ S&Ps Net Advantage Industry Surveys

Gives overviews of major industries. Sorry, small

niche industries (e.g. donut shops) are not provided

Ÿ ABI/Inform: Browse: First Research

Profiles, analysis, and statistics of hundreds of industries

in the U.S. and worldwide

Ÿ Mint Global: Datamonitor Industry Reports

Access the reports through the Mint Global database.

Click on Market Research.

Ÿ Snapshots North America (ProQuest)

Statistical profiles of industries in the United States and

Canada. Reports are provided in PDF format only.

þ INDUSTRY BOOKS/E-BOOKS

Ÿ Encyclopedia of American Industries (e-book)

A recurring publication that provides a profile of industries,

arranged by SIC codes. This source is good for smaller industries.

Ÿ Encyclopedia of Global Industries (e-book)

profiles of industries with an international focus.

Ÿ Encyclopedia of Emerging Industries (e-book)

Profiles of newer industries, such as green technology.

Ÿ Business Rankings Annual (e-book)

Ranks businesses, services, products according to market

research surveys, sales, etc.

Ÿ Market Share Reporter (e-book)

Provides market share data of companies, services, products

based on research surveys, sales, etc.

5. Climate

Researching the climate of your business involves conducting at PEST analysis: the Political/regulatory environment, Economic environment, Social/Cultural environment, Technological environment)

þ Use all the sources listed in 1-4 to collect this information

I am Heidi Chan. My major is business administration with a concentration in accounting. I can tell you that accounting is boring and stressful. However, the book of accounting will reveal the truth of the business operating activities. Business transactions always lie in the grey area, and only accounting can clearly define the transactions. I will utilize my truthful and honest personality in my dream career as a certified fraud examiner. This is my first time writing a blog and marketing a business. After two group discussions, we came up with a great name and strategy plan for our business. It is a good start to our project.

My name is George Dinh. I am a junior and an accounting major. My main interest is collecting shoes and street wear clothing. I resell the high demand shoes and street wear clothing I collect to cover my own personal expenses. I really enjoy playing sports. Even though I do not engage in sport activity as much as before, I try to watch sports and stay updated in the sports world. On my down time, I like to relax, listen to music, and watch movies. If I am awake early enough, I like to shoot hoops or go on short walks. Hopefully in the future, after I graduate, I’ll have time to travel before working in the Accounting industry. I might even open up my own boutique where I can continue my shoes and clothing interest.

My name is Michelle Choi and I am graduating CSUF this January. I am majoring in Communications with an emphasis in advertising. I love my major. As you all know, advertising constantly surrounds us. I have been fascinated with advertising since my freshman year of college. I always search for cool ads, collect them, and analyze them. I often find some amazing ads that make me dream about my future career. I do want to work at an advertising agency and I am ready to enjoy my career. Moreover, I want to travel to many countries to analyze their ads and learn about their culture. I have visited New Zealand, Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, China, and many states in the United States. I am excited for my upcoming trip to Europe. Thank you so much for reading my story and I hope you dream about your future as well!

I am Sabrina Valles, a senior communications major with an emphasis in public relations. I chose my major because I really like developing strategic relationships, the changing landscape of the field, the flexibility of career choices, and the opportunities to be a storyteller. I participate in several on-campus and off-campus activities, which keeps me busy throughout the year. In my spare time, I enjoy dancing, writing, and reading interesting articles. I love to travel the world and immerse myself in different cultures. After I graduate in May, I hope to obtain a public relations internship in Europe and to travel the world before I begin my career in Southern California.

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