EMP 389 - Capstone: Find Company-specific Information

For when you know a brand and not the owner (i.e. Vitaminwater, a product manufactured by Energy Brands Inc., a subsiderary of Coca Cola):

Books: 

• International Directory of Company Histories, vols. 1-67 in print: R 338.74 I61; vols. 1-150+ available online in Gale Virtual Reference Library through this link.

• Encyclopedia of Consumer Brands (3 volumes), Describes brand origins, product importance, marketing strategies, litigation, etc.;  R 658.8343 E56 
  

Online resources:

• Make sure you know if the company has a parent company or not.
  
  
• Use the most precise name for the company (ex., "gap inc" instead of "the gap" or gap).  This helps eliminate "garbage results".
  
  
• Spelling counts.

WARNING: Keep in mind that all of the information that you want may not be found at the company web site. Big corporations pay fancy consultants lots of money to complete market research; often, companies aren't willing to share the information that has cost so much to obtain.

Trade Associations are a good way to find competitor websites.
Most of them have public member lists.

Using Google, search "trade association" and the words from the NAICS codes.

NAICS Codes (North American Industrial Classification System); R338.02012 N864ic