Skip to Main Content

MBA 640: Innovation Through Marketing and Technology

A Library Subject Guide

Project 1 Tips: Overview

For project 1, you are being asked to analyze the market for digital fitness and well-being devices in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, to see if there is unmet demand for these types of devices in those locations.

This guide focuses on using the UMGC Library's databases to find information for project 1, but in order to find as much information as possible for this project, you may also want to run searches on the free web (i.e., use Google or Bing, etc.) to supplement what you find in Library databases. Be sure to carefully evaluate what you find.

Consumer Spending and/or Preferences

To find information about the current and potential market for digital fitness and well-being devices in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany, the following databases may be helpful:

  • Statista
    • In Statista, run searches such as:
      •  "digital fitness" "united states"
      • "fitness tracker" "united states"

It may also be helpful to run more general searches, such as:

"fitness market" "united states"

  • Business Source Ultimate and ABI/INFORM Collection
    • In Business Source Ultimate and/or ABI/INFORM Collection, run searches such as:
      • ("digital fitness" OR "well-being device*" OR "fitness tracker*" OR "fitness monitor*" OR "activity tracker*" OR "activity monitor*") AND (market* OR customer* OR consumer* OR sales) AND "united states"

It may also be helpful to run more general searches, such as:

("fitness market" OR "fitness industry") AND "united states"


Keep in mind that documents that discuss the general spending habits of people in the three areas of interest could be used to make informed inferences about their preferences with regard to digital fitness and well-being devices. That being the case, resources such as Santander's Reaching the Consumers information for Germany,  the United Kingdom, and the United States may be helpful for your research.

You may also want to consult the UMGC Library's Business Research: Finding Demographic or Psychographic Information page, which gives general guidance about how to find information about particular populations and their spending patterns, etc. The Library's Business Research: Conducting Market Research and/or Business Research: Finding Market Size Information pages may also help.

Competitor Information

To find information about the market share for the competitors mentioned for project 1 (Adidas, Fitbit, Nike, and Under Armour), see Finding Market Share Information.

Note that market share information for digital fitness and well-being devices is also available for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany in Statista.

To find information about the competitors' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, see Finding or Creating SWOT Analyses.

Information about whether companies are meeting customer demands can often be found in the companies' SWOT reports, but additional information can be found by using Business Source Ultimate and ABI/INFORM Collection to run searches such as:

(consumer* OR customer* OR market*) AND demand* AND adidas

Information about competitors' weaknesses, opportunities, and threats should be helpful in determining opportunities and potential challenges, etc. for a new entrant into the digital fitness and well-being devices market.

Using the Free Web to find Relevant Information

As noted above, in addition to running your searches in UMGC Library databases, you may need to also run searches on the free web, using a search engine such as Google or Bing, etc.

You may want to run searches such as:

"digital fitness devices" "united states" market

"digital fitness devices" "united states" consumer

etc.

Again, be sure to carefully evaluate what you find on the free web, to ensure that it comes from a credible source.

A General Note

Whether you're searching in UMGC Library databases or on the free web, your search results may sometimes include mentions of market reports or data compilations from market research firms such as Forrester Research, Frost & Sullivan, the Gartner Group, etc. Such reports are generally quite expensive; many cost anywhere from hundreds of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars apiece.

That being the case, the full text of such reports are not generally available in any library research database, and the UMGC Library may not be able to obtain the full-text reports for you via our DocumentExpress interlibrary loan service.

But press releases and other documents that discuss these reports -- documents that are often available from UMGC Library databases and/or posted on the free web -- may be useful for your research since such documents often summarize key findings from the reports.

Questions?

If you need additional assistance with finding information for project 1, please Ask a Librarian; if you have questions about the requirements for the assignment, please contact your instructor.