COB 300 - Integrative Business

Questions to consider when completing the marketing exhibits of your business plan:

 Restrictions on AI usage

Market research reports are among the most expensive types of business information. The companies that provide our market research reports can be very strict about how their information can be used in AI tools.

Mintel Academic prohibits the uploading of reports to third parties, including generative AI tools like Copilot

Consumer needs, wants, and usage rates often closely reflect demographic variables such as age, gender, family size, income, race, religion, etc.

Many nations collect demographic data about their citizens through agencies such as the U.S. Census Bureau. Demographic data can be used to tell you how many consumers fit the variables you have identified as likely users of your product.

Photo by Barry Talley on Unsplash

Target Marketing. (2022). In Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 785-786). Macmillan Reference USA.

Who is the end-user for your product? What are their personal characteristics? Where do they live? And what need does your product solve for them?

Answering these questions requires market segmentation. Your team will need data about your consumers - demographics (age, gender, etc.), psychographics (attitudes, interests, etc.) geographics (neighborhood, climate, etc.) and product benefits (perceived value or advantage).

This type of consumer data is expensive and often won't be available for free via a search engine or generative AI tool. That's why JMU Libraries subscribes to this data for students to use.

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Market Segmentation. (2022). In Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 559-561). Macmillan Reference USA.

When establishing a price for a product or service, companies must consider many factors and determine their pricing objectives, such as:

• matching the industry leaders (competitive)
• aiming for higher-end consumers (prestige)
• maximizing profit (profitability)

Few library databases have pricing data for consumer products. You'll gather that data from shopping sites like Amazon and other retailers and review competitors' income statements to estimate the costs of raw materials (often grouped in costs of goods sold).

Pricing. (2022). In Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (4th ed., Vol. 2, pp. 665-668). Macmillan Reference USA.

Photo by Chris Blakeley on flickr

So, the library can't help with pricing data?

Try the library database ProcurementIQ. Its audience is businesses who are sourcing materials, equipment or components, so it only covers products or services that businesses buy from one another (B2B). It can be used to determine how much equipment might cost and the leadtime for purchasing them.

Copyrights, patents and trademarks are different types of intellectual property.

• A patent is granted to an inventor to prevent others from using their invention, process, or design for a designated period. 
• Copyright protects original creative works like writing, music, software and art.
• A trademark is a word, phrase design, or a combination of those that identifies your goods or services. 

In the United States, the Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) grants patents and registers trademarks, while the U.S. Copyright Office registers copyrights.

In COB 300 business plans, teams are most likely investigating whether a process or design could be patented.

JMU Libraries has created several tutorials in Google Slides to help students use our specialized business resources.

Click on the name of the database to open the tutorial that shows how to search for data and cite the information you find in APA style.