Marketing: Market share

Online, quick & easy

Below are quick & easy, online sources for market share data ... two publications in the database Business Insights - Essentials, all of which reproduce data from other sources, mostly trade magazine articles. The links will take you to all entries in each publication: use the Search Within boxes (upper left corner) to add your company name, product or brand to the search.

Market Share Reporter (in Gale Business Insights)
Use the Search Within Publication box (upper-right) to search for a company name, product or brand.
Business Rankings Annual (in Gale Business Insights)
Use the Search Within Publication box (upper-right) to search for a company name, product or brand. Sometimes there is market share data here ...

Online, but a little harder:

Passport has good coverage for consumer and packaged goods primarily (nothing for industrials or manufacturing), but can provide very detailed data on market share. Market share by two different measures even: by sales value and by sales volume.

➤ Use the Categories & Topics Full Tree search menu! The database contains market data on roughly 80 countries: the Full Tree Search menu allows you to limit your results most effectively.

IBISWorld provides coverage primarily for the US. If a keyword search fails (whether company name or product/service), be sure to browse through the NAICS code menu, as that can be a more reliable way to find reports. Once in a report, look at both the Competitive Landscape and Major Companies tabs.

Passport This link opens in a new window
On first use only, acknowledgement of privacy and security policy required.
Data, reports and analysis about countries, industries, companies and consumers. Includes: economic and social data for ~200 countries; market research reports for ~80 countries; company and consumer profiles. We do NOT subscribe to the Sustainability module.
Video demo on how to search in Passport.
Economic and social indicator data redistributed from IMF, UN, World Bank, OECD. Annual data only.
IBISWorld from IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
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If on campus and on MU-Secure wifi, use this link.
Collection of industry market research. Modules available: US Industry Reports (organized by NAICS codes), US Industry iExpert Summaries, and US Business Environment Profiles.
Keyword searching doesn't always work well; try browsing the NAICS menu tree also.

Online sources - not so easy

If the sources above all fail, then you'll need to check in some or all of the following. These will all entail a greater commitment of time, and require more sophisticated searching and/or more skimming through results. That's just how it is ...

Trade journal articles
You'll probably need to use more sophisticated search techniques, including proximity, nesting, and truncation. Be sure to read the help documentation for each interface if these are unfamiliar to you. Or ask for help at the Information Desk?!
Industry profiles
Industry profile reports often contain some data of this type. Since it may be included in a table, it may not be as easily accessible via a keyword search. It is worth your while to open some of these reports and just read them ...
Analyst reports
This link takes you to the Companies & Finance research guide.
SEC filings (disclosure documents)
This link also takes you to the Companies & Finance guide.

Definitions

Market share is:

Below are excerpts from two definitions, with links to their sources.

"Market share describes the relationship between a company's success and the success of its competitors. It is the percentage of an entire industry's sales earned by a particular company during a discrete period of time."

Definition of Market Share
Gale Business Insights Handbook of Investment Research, edited by Miranda Herbert Ferrara, Gale, 2013, pp. 309-311.

"Market share is the percentage of the total market (or industry) sales made by one firm. ... Share can be reflected as either percentage of sales dollars, percentage of units sold, or percentage of customers. Percentage of sales dollars is the most common reference."

Market Share
Encyclopedia of Management, edited by Sonya D. Hill, 7th ed., Gale, 2012, pp. 653-655.

Problems when defining a market:

Here are some of the main characteristics or things that can be used or considered when defining a market or industry:

NAICS codes, or other industry codes (more about industry codes)
Revenue or sales, i.e. company / brand size (Microsoft versus a neighborhood web design shop)
Target customers (Microsoft has a different customer base than a neighborhood web design shop; but both are in the software business!)
Who compiles the data?! E.g. a government agency, trade association, research firm, etc.