Information Competence in Marketing

Vignettes and Instructional Cases:

Expand-a-Bowl

This Instructional Case was developed to support course-specific research needs. Course Guides and Instructional Cases are created through collaborative efforts between the Business Librarian and the instructor and focus on curricula and departmental learning outcomes.

Click the camera icon to view a demonstration tutorial of the database.

Expand-a-bowl is a disposable salad bowl, such as the ones with the black bottom and clear top used at Starbucks, McDonald's, etc. What differentiates this from the others is that the bottom pops out, allowing the salad to drop down about 3 inches. This gives the user room to toss the salad, eliminating the usual problem of not evenly distributing the dressing, dropping salad on the table, or both.

Research Question #1:
Identify the major manufacturers in North America

The first step here is to secure a list of manufactures that produce a variety of bowls - preferably plastic and salad bowls. The following resources supply comprehensive manufacturing-related data:

Online Directories – Manufacturers

ThomasNet
ThomasNet, powered by Thomas Register® and Thomas Regional®, is an industrial search engine that provides one source for finding the exact product, service, or supplier –quickly and efficiently. ThomasNet provides direct access to the detailed information needed to make a purchasing or specifying decision, including line-item product details, CAD drawings, and more.

TIP: Broaden the search terms (create a word bank) to include plastic trays, plastic food containers, restaurant equipment supplies, hotel & cafeteria supplies, etc.

Hoover's Online
Hoover's, Inc. delivers comprehensive company, industry, and market intelligence that drives business growth. This database covers 12 million companies with in-depth coverage of 35,000 of the world's top business enterprises.

TIP: Select the Industries tab. Next, select Browse Industries. Scroll down to Industrial Manufacturing - Foodservice & Food Retail Equipment. Another option is to scroll down to Leisure - Restaurants & Cafes.

Print Directories – United States

Encyclopedia of American Industries
REF HC 102.E53 (2 vols.)
This 2-volume edition is a widely acclaimed business reference which provides detailed, comprehensive information on a wide range of industries in every realm of American business. See Volume 1: Manufacturing Industries.

Ward's Business Directory of U.S. Private and Public Companies
REF HG 4057 .A575
Whether it be for contacting a company or calculating its market share, the Ward's series is an invaluable tool for librarians, executives, students, analysts, marketers and all other professionals who require updated company and industry profiles. Your researchers will use Ward's to:

• Identify market participants and study market share
• Locate potential clients and create targeted mailing lists
• Determine parent/subsidiary relationships
• Analyze market position and find specific data on targeted companies

TIP: Provides rankings by NAICS (NAICS 326199: Bowls and bowl covers, plastics manufacturing).

Print Directories - California

California Manufacturers Register
REF T12 C3

Northern California Business Directory and Buyers Guide
REF HF 5065 .C2 N67

Southern California Business Directory and Buyers Guide
REF HF 5065 S2

Directory of California Wholesalers and Service Companies
REF HD 9981.7 .C2

The next step is to gather information about the companies that you identified from the above resources. Please visit the Company Information Research Guide.

Research Question #2: Identify the major distributors of restaurant equipment and supplies in North America. Which are the biggest?

The following resources provide listings to thousands of wholesalers, suppliers, and distributors:

Print Directories
American Wholesalers and Distributors Directory
REF HF 5421 .A615
A comprehensive guide offering industry details on approximately 31,000 wholesalers and distributors in the United States.

Thomas Food and Beverage Market Place
REF HD 9003 .T48
Thomas Food and Beverage Market Place 2005 is the most comprehensive resource in the food and beverage industry. It combines Grey House's Food and Beverage Market Place, Food and Beverage Market Place - Suppliers Guide and Thomas Food Industry Register (TFIR), which Grey House acquired in February, 2001.

Completely updated for 2005, Thomas Food and Beverage Market Place contains more information than ever before, including thousands of new entries, and enhancements to many existing entries. Several new features have been added to this brand new edition, including completely revised and greatly expanded Food Product Category and Supplier Product Category Indexes -- finding a product or service has never been easier. Plus, the Importer and Exporter Indexes have been reworked to include the food and beverage product categories that the company imports or exports. With over 40,000 companies, 80,000+ key executive contacts and in-depth product categories Thomas Food & Beverage Market Place lets you find the products, services and new clients required to operate your business -- quicker and easier than ever before. Thomas Food and Beverage Market Place provides contact information and product details on over 40,000+ companies and over 80,000 executives in the following categories:

Food & Beverage Manufacturers, Processors and Ingredient Companies
Equipment Manufacturers, Supply & Service Companies
Transportation Firms
Warehouses
Wholesalers & Distributors
Brokers
Importers & Exporters
Industry Resources: Associations, Publications, Industry Web Sites, Databases, Government Resources & International Trade
Food & Beverage Catalogs

Also includes: 2 Product Category Sections, 14 Indexes and 2 major All-Volume Indexes

Thomas Food and Beverage Market Place is a valuable reference for executives, marketing firms, and anyone working in the food and beverage industry.

Print Reports
Plunkett's Transportation, Supply Chain & Logistics Industry Almanac
REF HE 9 .U5
Provides complete profiles of the transportation, supply chain and logistics industry 500 firms, and the latest statistics and trends in:

• Transportation
• Supply chain management
• Outsourcing
• Shipping
• Warehousing
• Distribution
• Intermodal Systems
• Logistics Services
• Technologies
  

Journals on Distribution
Distribution Management Briefing
Available through Lexis-Nexis

Industrial Distribution
Available through ABI/Inform

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
Available through Emerald

Logistics Management & Distribution Report
Available online through Factiva

Logistics Management
Available online through ABI/Inform

Logistics Today
Available online through ABI/Inform

Research Question #3: What companies are the largest users of salad bowls in the restaurant segment. What is the potential market size?

Market reports supply detailed industry data including market size, segments and growth. The following resources are recommended:

Databases

ABI Inform
ABI/INFORM provides in-depth coverage of business issues, management techniques, competitive information, and a variety of other topics. It indexes and abstracts articles from more than 1,000 leading business and management publications, including over 350 English-language titles from outside the United States. More than half of the articles are available in full-text or full-image.

TIP: Select Business - Snapshots North America form the Database drop box

TIP: Definition: CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate - see investopedia for a complete definition)

Global Market Information Database
Covers world consumer markets for thousands of products. In addition, Global Market Information Database offers comprehensive full-text market reports on industries, product categories, countries and companies.
The 8 Modules are:
Module 1. Marketing Parameters - 1,200 economic and demographic
parameters for 210 countries
Module 2. Consumer Lifestyles - Full text reports for 60 countries on
consumer behavior and key market drivers
Module 3. Consumer Market Sizes - We track the retail sales of 330
consumer product sectors across 52 countries
Module 4. Forecasts - Economic and Market data forecast to 2005
Module 5. Companies and Brands - The top 150,000 brands worldwide along
with profiles of the companies that own them
Module 6. Information Sources - Our own internal database of 30,000
sources of business information worldwide
Module 7. Major Market Profiles - Snapshot briefings of the worlds major
consumer and industrial markets
Module 8. Retail Trade International - Full text reports and statistics
following worldwide retailing trends

TIP: From the top navigation menu select Browse reports.

MarketResearch.com
MarketResearch.com Academic, formerly Kalorama Academic, offers access to previously unavailable market research reports. This fully searchable and browseable repository offers the complete text of over 500 market research reports on dozens of topics, complete with graphs, tables and charts.

Table Base
Table Base is a database comprised of tabular information of a strategic nature. The tables provide such information as: market share, market size, capacity, production, imports, exports, sales, product and brand rankings, forecasts and demographics.

Business & Industry
Business & Industry is a broad-based business information database that focuses on facts, figures, events and market information about companies, industries, products and markets. It covers all industries and is international in scope. B&I draws content from over 1000 trade and industry publications, regional, national and international newspapers, business dailies and newsletters. Use B&I when you want to find company, industry, market and product information.

TIP: Why just limit the search to restaurants? Can you think of other high-use segments for plastic trays and salad bowls? How about these: Hospitals; senior homes; conferences and professional gatherings; and event planning companies?

Print
Standard &Poor's Industry Surveys
Ask at Reference Desk
HC 106.6.S74
Standard & Poor's Industry Surveys are comprehensive overviews of 52 major U.S. Industries. These reports cover industry trends, developments and forecasts, major players and market share data, key ratios and statistics, comparative company analysis, general industry operations and other information. Be sure to examine the S&P Super 1500 Index Component Statistics, Outlooks and Charts, and the Company/Sub Industry reports in volume one.

Confidence Check

Quiz

Frank Vuotto, M.L.I.S., M.A.
Business & Agribusiness Librarian, Faculty
California Polytechnic State University
Robert E. Kennedy Library
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407

fvuotto@calpoly.edu