In this video I demonstrate how to use the more advanced cross tab features in Simmons to analyze demographic characteristics of consumers. I use consumers of the amusement and theme parks industry in this example, though the steps outlined here can be applied to most consumer product categories and national brands. Check out my Simmons Tips & Tricks Guide or my Simmons Videos on YouTube for more information.
I've got tons of business students who are researching the amusement and theme park industry and they are starting to look for consumer demographics of park visitors. Mintel is a great resource to gather critical consumer information for consumers of a product category or who engage in a particular consumer activity. This video uses the amusement park / theme park consumer as an example to explore the Mintel Databook to gather consumer demographic data.
I've got tons of business students who are researching the amusement and theme park industry and they are starting to look for consumer demographics of park visitors. In this video, I show how to create a demographic profile of theme park consumers using Simmons.
For more help on using the database, check out my Simmons Tips & Tricks guide.
Greetings Faculty!
Given that we are well past the dog days of summer, I wanted to update you on a few things for the fall.
Ohio University Libraries has entered into a 3-year pilot subscription to the Wall Street Journal. Once you create your WSJ account, you can read the content on your computer or via smartphone app. Access the WSJ via my Business Databases page or in the ALICE Catalog. At the end of the 3-year pilot we will review usage stats and available funds to determine next steps for the subscription.
If you're a professor looking for business cases to use in the classroom, check out Sage Business Cases. The collection spans a wide range of business and management disciplines and includes teaching notes and discussion questions. Contact me and I will send you the special instructor code to access the teaching notes.
This summer I built a short tutorial to help first year business students Get Started With Business Research. The 15-minute learning experience helps students learn how to find our business database, introduces their business librarian, and shows them how to get help. Feel free to use the tutorial in your UC 1900 or other introductory courses.
If your students are struggling with their business research projects, encourage them to schedule an in-person or online research consultation with me. If there's overall room for improvement with your students' research projects, I'm also available to give research workshops in your classes. Just contact me with your research assignment and we can set something up.
As always, let me know if you have any questions.
Have a fantastic fall!
--Chad
Image above from yours truly. My dog, Calvin, and I spent lots of mornings on the bike path this summer.
Simmons is a fantastic resource to use to gather demographic information about consumers of particular products or brands, or about people who engage in particular activities.
The 400+ students in the Business Cluster are now in their second week of researching the Ice Cream Industry.
In the video below, I demonstrate how to use Simmons to create a demographic profile of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream consumers. You can follow the steps outlined in the video to compare profiles of consumers of multiple brands.
For more help with using this resource, visit my Simmons Tips & Tricks Guide.
I have 400+ students in the Business Cluster who are researching the Ice Cream Industry this fall.
Passport is an essential tool to gather both domestic and international data, statistics, and industry reports.
The video below highlights two top ways to use Passport for industry research.
This video walks you through the steps of how I make my instructional video tutorials for my YouTube channel. The longer, more descriptive written version can be found in my How I Make instructional videos blog post.
I created the video for the first assignment in the Filmmaking & Storytelling with Casey Neistat course that I'm currently taking. The assignment was to use your phone to document and tell a spontaneous story, so I got a bit meta and filmed myself making this business research video tutorial. I hope you find the short video useful and can adapt some of my process for your own videos.
Mergent Online is a great resource to use to compare multiple companies in the same industry. You can create custom comparison reports to analyze multiple companies at the same time. I made the video below to demonstrate how to build company comparison reports in Mergent.
Business Cluster students are researching the Leisure Travel and Tourism Industry this semester. The subscription database Passport is a great resource to find industry reports and statistics for travel, tourism, lodging, transportation, and more. I made the video below to highlight a few ways to find this fantastic information. Good luck with your research!
I’ve been making instructional videos and screencasts since before YouTube existed and I have changed my process over time as both my skills and technology improved. Another business librarian recently asked me about my current process, equipment, and software. Since it’s been a decade since I last shared how I make videos, I decided to write it up on my other blog.