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    Researching Brands & Companies

    Keep in mind when researching a brand or company:

    • Different pieces of information will be included under the brand name versus under the company name. While these may be the same for some, they can be very different for others.
      • Google or Wikipedia will quickly tell you if an owning company has a different name than the brands they sell. 
    • To locate a full picture of how a brand is doing financially, you will need to research the owning company.

    Brand Research

    How to Filter by Content Type

    • Once you have search results, you can filter to a specific type of resource by clicking on it on the menu:

    types include statistics, forecasts, reports and topics

    • What are the content types?
      • Statistics: Over 1,000,000 statistics.
      • Forecasts & surveys: 5-year forecasts on hot topics and exclusive surveys among consumers and experts.
      • Infographics: Easy and appealing visualization of topical events.
      • Topics: Over 80,000 topics are the ideal starting point for your research.
      • Studies & reports: Studies database containing over 32,000 external studies.
      • Digital Market Outlook: Detailed analyses and in-depth evaluations for various digital markets.
      • Consumer Market Outlook: Detailed analyses and in-depth evaluations for the consumer goods sector.
      • Companies: Company database for over 5,000 companies.

    How to Improve Search Results

    • The Statista search understands the use of "quotes" to keep words together as a phrase.
    • An asterisk * can be used as a wildcard at the end or beginning of words to search multiple forms:
      • For example  *ballsearches football, basketball, and so on.
    • There are two quick filters at the top after a search, Sort Byand Location Focus.
      • Sort by orders the results by relevance, date, or popularity.
      • Location focus moves items from your country higher in the search results.

    the two main filters are just after the main search box

    • Location focus will generally default to the location of your IP address, you can change it if you need to focus on different locations.
    • Additional filters are in the side menu after you search, below the content types.

    search accuracy regions, category, and date are all filters

    • Statista does not use OR or AND or NOT as operators within the search box.
    • Searches default to the use of AND when there is a space between terms in the search, returning only results that match on all entered terms. Changing search accuracyto Wide changes AND to OR, which then will match documents on any one term entered.
    • Changing search accuracy to high searches only the most highly relevant items and searches only for items that match on all entered terms.
    • You can also limit to a specific year.
    • You can limit to a particular country or region.

    How to Change Data Visualizations

    • On most statistics you can change the chart type.
    • Click the gear to the side of the chart.

    the gear will list available graph types after it is clicked.

    • Select the type you need from the displayed choices, such as line graph, bar chart, or a data table.
    • You can then download the chart for use in your paper under Download. Many graphs will allow you to download them as images.

    Citing From Statista

    • Some articles, particularly topic overviews, will have listed authors.
    • Individual statistics will list a source. Use the source as the author.
    • Individual statistics have a citation helper that is not updated for APA 7.
    • All other documents, such as the dossiers and reports, that do not list other authors or sources, will be cited with Statista as the author.
    • Statista publishes original content, so the database is listed when not the author.
    • Label all images you are citing with a content type label in [brackets].

    Examples:

    Articles With Individual Authors:

    Guttman, A. (2019, January 22). Influencer marketing: Statistics & facts. Statista Database .

    Individual Statistics From Other Sources:

    ThinkNow. (2019, October). Share of online users in the United States who say they pay attention to recommendations from social media influencers as of April 2019, by age group [Graph]. Statista Database .

    • The stats author can be found under Source:

    Source lists the graph author

    Dossiers & Other Documents:

    Statista. (2020). Influencer marketing. Article did-28362-1.

    • The dossiers have article numbers at the bottom of the download page.
    • The date is also there.

    Company Information from Library Databases

    Company Searches in Mergent Online

    • Mergent's basic search can search by company name or stock symbol.

    the basic start search screen has a search box for company name

    • The search will suggest possible matches.

    search match will suggest possible companies once 3 letters are entered

    • Each company profile includes a number of tabs and subtabs of information.

    each tab has several sub tabs

    • Tabs include:
      • Basic company information such as history and subsidiaries.
      • Financials including Balance Sheets and Ratios.
      • Executives.
      • Annual Reports.
      • Filings which includes SEC.
    • Financials can be downloaded in Excel format.

    mergent has a download option that defaults to excel

    Searching by NAICS Code or Company Characteristics

    • Want to look at companies that fall into a particular NAICS or SIC code?
    • Search under Classification Search on the Basic Search tab.

    the classification search has options for sic, naics, and ICB searches

    • Browse NAICS or SIC to locate the correct code with Code Lookup.

    for naics look up each category expands to subcategories until the full code is reached

    Advanced Search

    • Search by criteria when you don't know a company name.
    • Add as many or as few criteria as you want and get a list of matching companies.
      • Click the plus sign next to an option to add it as a possibility to your search.
    • For example:
      • Uncheck inactive to search only current companies.
      • Add Arizona as a state on the Corporate Information tab.

    the advanced search has a large number of options across basic criteria, financials, executives, and classification

    • Add Total revenue and set it to greater or equal than 500 million.

    most criteria have multiple options, such as greater or less than

    • Get a list of 43 large public companies based in Arizona.

    search results create a table of companies, each name will be a link to their full profile

    Citing From Mergent Online

    • Cite general Mergent information such a company details as information in a proprietary database with Mergent as the author. Mergent updates daily for material such as stock prices and current details.  

    Format:

    Mergent Online. (Today's Date). Company name. 

    Example:

    Mergent Online. (2021, April 7). Apple Inc.

    • Cite financial information, SEC filings, and annual reports by the date of the report and with the company as the author.

    Format:

    Company. (Date). Title . Mergent Online.

    Examples:

    Apple Inc. (2020, September 26). Annual balance sheet . Mergent Online. 

    Apple Inc. (2019, September 28). Form 10-k annual report pursuant to section 13 or 15(d) of the securities exchange act of 1934 . Mergent Online. 

    Locating Company Dossiers

    • From the main screen, click "Business" at the bottom under "Discover topics".

    • Click "Find a Company" under "Company Dossier".

    • Enter the company name.

    the form asks for the company name, type, and web address

    • You may need to narrow down your search with the other fields such as company type.

    company types include public or private or parent

    • The report includes tabs for different types of information.

    tabs include current news company info overview sec filings industry and investment

    Citing Nexis Uni

    The citation button is at the top of the document, below the document title.

    the citation helper button says export citation

    the menu allows a choice of APA, MLA, or Bluebook

    Saving a link to a document or search:

    Nexis Uni has permalinks, links you can save, for both searches and individual documents.

    • Click Actions next to the results summary or document name.
    • Then click "Link to this page".
    • Then copy the link and paste it into a document where you want to save it.

    Actions menu appears as part of the document title the link to this page option provides the permalink

    Company Information in Business Source Complete SWOT

    SWOT analysis gives a summary of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats facing a company.

    • You can search by company name or browse by industry.

    • Once you locate the company, check the dates in the results list to find the most recent.

    the results list show each report available

    • You can read the report by selecting "PDF Full Text".

    Business Source Complete includes a citation tool like other EBSCO databases and LopeSearch. Database citation tools are automatically generated-- which means that a person doesn't double check them for accuracy. They can have mistakes, and don't always keep up with the latest rules. It is your responsibility to review your citations.

    Always double check a computer created reference against a style guide.

    Especially look for mistakes in capitalization, punctuation, information that shouldn't be included, and missing information.

    Click on the title of the article to access the detailed record, with the tools menu at the top.

    Click the Cite button on the tools menu, which looks like a quotation mark.

    Select the citation style you need from the drop down menu.

    Highlight the reference, then copy and paste it into your paper.

    Don't forget to double check the formatting!

    Company Profiles in Business Market Research/Hoover's Company Profiles

    Hoover's Company Profiles gives general overviews of a company's history and structure.

    • It's best to search by company name in the company name search box.

    there are several search boxes including company name and NAICS code

    • Then locate the correct company and you will be taken to the most recent report.

    Citing Business Market Research/Hoover's Company Profiles

    This database includes a citation tool.

    • Click the Cite button on the tools menu, then copy the citation.

    the cite button is with the download button

    • Remember to check the citation for formatting, as computer generated citations can include mistakes.
    • Last Updated: May 1, 2026 7:06 AM
    • URL: https://libguides.gcu.edu/Advertising
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