Marketing: Demographics

A guide to market research, consumer research, and articles covering the full scope of marketing.

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Check consumer data resources (print and online), polls and surveys, U.S. Census,  (see government sources) and newspaper and journal articles.  See links below.  

Use your local Chamber of Commerce as a resource, for example:

What are Demographics?

What are Demographics?

The characteristics of human populations and population segments, especially when used to identify consumer markets.  Common groupings are:

  • Educational attainment or enrollment
  • Geographic Area
  • Income
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Race
  • Home ownership
  • Employment status

Effective Demographic-based Targeting course

Marketing foundations customer segmentation

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Using Madison College Library Databases to Find Demographic or Psychographic Information

You can use business databases such as Business Source Complete to find demographic and/or psychographic information.

For demographic information, use a search such as [your topic] AND demograph*.

You may also want to include terms for particular demographic groups in your searches -- for example, [your topic] AND "generation x" or [your topic] AND (hispanic* OR latino* OR latina*).

For psychographic information, use a search such as [your topic] AND (psychograph* OR "consumer attitude*" OR "consumer behavior*").

It will also be helpful to search for [your topic] AND ("consumer research" OR "market research").

Find Consumer Spending Information on the Free Web

Social Surveys

Finding Demographic Resources - Free Online

They have listings of all the Member Businesses.  Competitor websites may give you some great ideas about buying trends as well.  Also, look for industry publications and trade journals. These will be very helpful with trends, suppliers, marketing ideas and much more.   

Find Demographic Information in Books