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MKT Brand Intelligence

A guide to analyzing a brand or group of products for use in all MKT courses.

Company information

Corporate sites

The major pages on the corporate web site to look for are the About Us, History, Investor Relations (if the company is public), Sustainability/Corporate Responsibility. Some also have one for Supply Chain.

Keep in mind that these pages will always present the company in a positive light.

How to find the corporate web site using the retail web page:

  1. Scroll down to the bottom of the web page.
  2. If you don't see the recommended ABOUT information,
    • look for a MORE drop down list.
    • look for a CORPORATE or COMPANY link
  3. If you don't find any of these, use the Company Directories to find the parent company.

Databases with credible company information

Company histories

Mergent Market Atlas (see bottom of box for link)

Company Financials  These do not work well for private companies or non-profits. These are very interesting databases with analysis and other special features that can be very useful for this project. You may not need all the information available for this part.

SWOT

 SWOT analyses are conclusions and observation that the project team decides answers the SWOT questions provided in your textbook. It is very rare to find an article that does the specific SWOT you need.  You can find general company SWOT analysis in several of our article databases. There is no guarantee that a SWOT has been done or done recently.

Try:

  • ABI/INFORM search for "company name" AND SWOT 
  • Nexis Uni  (search by company name and SWOT - eg  Company(3M Co) AND SWOT)
  • MarketLine and GlobalData Reports in Orbis (Click on the Industry Research tab and select the Document Library option.)

(see below for links)

Nonprofit Organization

Financials

The only financial information available is the IRS Form 990, which all non-profits must make available. Most of them now post this to their web site, but some may require you to visit in person.

For evaluations of the "charitableness" in the use of the money donated to them, we use the GuideStar Pro. You may also use the free version of Guidestar, but you need to register.

For Arizona charities, they must register with the Secretary of State, which is required in most other states as well.

We rely more on the local & national news for information about charities and how well they are doing or any trouble they may be in. Search the organization name and the names of any major donors, directors, or executives.