Everything you ever need to know about anything - information sources - includes related articles on new-agers, yuppies, baby boomers - International Association of Business Communicators: 1970 - 1990: Section 3: An Era Ended

Communication World, May-June, 1990 by Jeffery P. Davidson

No matter how well established you are in the marketplace door, to ensure that your marketing efforts continue to meet with optimal returns, you'll need to understand as much about your targets as you can. In this article we'll explore answers to the following:

How any business today can immediately gain a wealth of information about any target market

* How to find and use free sources of information

* How to track social trends and anticipate what will be hot

* How to readily keep tabs on the competition.

Today, no business, large or small, need lack comprehensive data about the target groups it wishes to serve. A variety of business services and information data bases can pinpoint your market, household by household if that is most convenient and appropriate for your business.

Key Directories and Services Help You Aim

Whether you are a one-person business or a corporation of thousands, you can virtually gain immediate, comprehensive prospect data on any United States market conceivable, from consumers and households, to the most sophisticated technological research and development corporations.

Let's walk through a couple of the leading directories and services which for several hundred dollars up to thousands of dollars will provide you with valuable data.

US Manufacturers Directory-This handy guide published by American Business Directories lists over 200,000 manufacturers by company name, address, zip code and phone number plus employee size, sales volume, owner, manager and chief executive officer's name, and up to three Standard Industry Codes (SIC) per company. It also cross indexes manufacturers by city and state, by industry, by the number of employees, and alphabetically. For more information call (402) 593-4600.

Corporate Technology Directory-Published by CorpTech in Wellesly Hills, Mass., this volume provides the names of 25,000 companies including 14,800 emerging private companies, and also lists 7,500 key executives and 85,000 high tech products. The publication is 4,000 pages in four volumes. Information is also cross-indexed by company name, geography, technology, product and other useful criteria. Further information is available by calling (800) 333-8036.

Findex-This publication identifies more than 1,100 research reports in 12 categories including business and finance, health care, consumer durables, consumer non-durables, defense and security systems, media and publishing. Also energy, utilities and related equipment; data processing systems and electronic; construction, materials and machinery; basic industries and related equipment; retailer and consumer services; and transportation. Findex advertises that "millions of dollars worth of market research is being produced every year, but if you can't find it ... you can't benefit from it." Call (800) 227-3052.

Contacts Influential and Lead Source-two separate business entities offer essentially the same information for selected metropolitan areas throughout the US. The Contacts Influential Directory is divided into eight major sections. For example, in the Dallas, Texas area, the names of Dallas-based businesses are presented by alphabet, standard industry code number, zip code on a street-by-street basis, product, telephone number, alphabet according to SIC code, and zip code according to the street index.

A Contacts Influential Directory enables you to identify businesses within a two-block radius of your own business. It literally enables you to produce a targeted list of businesses by building, by street, or by any number of criteria. Contacts Influential offers you Cheshire labels, pressure sensitive labels, 3x5 cards, or computer printouts, magnetic tapes or computer diskettes with which to approach the marketplace. For further information call (913) 677-2240.

Lead Source works much the same way. Lead Source provides volumes on 20 major metropolitan areas in the US (areas not covered by Contacts Influential) and offers data on selected target markets in the same array of formats as Contacts Influential. For more information call (703) 370-1655.

Note: The Metropolitan areas served by Contacts Influential and Lead Source do not overlap. Thus, to take advantage of this type of service for a particular metropolitan area one needs to determine whether Contacts Influential or Lead Source provides the data you require.

The List House-supplies data on business and consumers in five formats including mailing labels, 3x5 cards, magnetic tapes, PC diskettes, and prospect lists. As with many mailing list houses, The List House provides an array of available data: 14 million businesses in the United States, 3.2 millions in Canada, 515,000 physicians and dentists, and 415,000 lawyers, for example. On the consumer side, they can provide breakouts of 4.1 million high income Americans, 78 million households, 9 million high school and college students, 300,000 new homeowners and almost any other type of list requested. These lists can then further be broken down by region, state, country, town, zip code, section of city and neighborhood. For more information call (800) 634-1949.