Research Reports: A Valuable Tool for Getting Up to Speed in the Marketplace, Part 3

Plunkett Research offers business intelligence, industry trends, statistics, market research, sales leads and corporate profiles in a variety of formats. The company profiles and annually updates 32 industries in its Industry Research Centers.

“These are pretty broad-scope industries that we cover in our Industry Research Centers,” said Heather Cook, Plunkett's customer relations manager. “Airline, hotel and travel is one of the industries, and it covers a lot of different market segments in that one industry. Research and engineering is another industry that we report on, and again, it covers a wide range of fields, but it's considered one industry, so we have 32 of those large industry groups.”

Plunkett profiles several industries each year that may be of special interest to safety sales executives:

Biotechnology, drugs and genetics
Chemicals, coatings and plastics
Energy and utilities
Nanotechnology and MEMS
Telecommunications
Transportation, supply chain & logistics

Content of Profiles

“Our research reports,” noted Cook, “are designed to give you a good overview of any particular industry as a whole. So if you are just getting into an industry, and you are not very familiar with it, you can find, through our reports, what's going on, and what terminology the industry uses.”

The reports, she added, “outline some of the trends that are going on in the industry today, as well as some basic projections for the next 3 to 5 years or so. There's also information on the leading players in that industry — who are the main companies that are working in that space.”

Plunkett's industry reports are loaded with information. Between 300 and 500 businesses are discussed in each industry profile, with data for each company including:

Web addresses & contact information
Headquarters contacts
Web site URLs for each company
Basic financial statistics
Detailed description of the company
Discussion of new projects or new technologies that the organization is developing
Company culture information, including an overview of each business that is a leader in that industry

Source of Plunkett's Info

Plunkett plumbs a variety of information sources in its search for data for its reports. Plunkett analysts peruse company filings to the federal Securities and Exchange Commission. These include 10K filings and S4 registration statements, as well as each company's annual report.

News items also are part of Plunkett's information hunt for company information, said Cook. “We look at press releases and at how the media has been covering different fields as well as different companies.” Plunkett researchers also scan trade magazines and trade journals for company information.

Analyzing data from an entire industry rather than one company is what separates Plunkett from other data providers, said Cook.

“Our focus is really on trying to give an overview of the whole industry, as well as the leading players, the associations and other organizations. We also provide the current and future outlook of the industry right now, whereas most of the other databases and data providers are really just company-focused.

“Some of the other data providers,” added Cook, “will give users all the companies that they can possibly find, but not very much information about those companies. At Plunkett, we focus on just the leaders in their industries, and we give very good information about those companies.”

Seekers of competitive intelligence turn to his company, said CEO Jack W. Plunkett, because the company's industry reports “are perfect tools for marketing executives who are either studying competitive intelligence or working on strategy projects.”

He added: “We present a full package of tools for each industry that we cover. These tools include things like industry trends analyses, statistics, market information, industry contacts, a glossary and profiles of industry-leading companies. And, we provide the ability to export business development lists through our online services and CD-ROMs. This makes Plunkett's reports a terrific resource for biz development.”

For more information, visit http://www.plunkettresearch.com.

Michael Keating is the research editor for EHS Today. He can be reached at [email protected].