Research Strategy
- Identify competitors using industry codes & company directories
- Find business & trade journal articles and company & industry reports on your company and/or competition
- Discover terms used by industry insiders
- Be on the lookout for trade associations that compile market data. They are often quoted in new or trade magazine articles and may post information on their web site.
Finding Competitors
First things first, you must understand industry codes before you can successfully search for competitors. - SIC - Standard Industrial Classification Manual
HF1042.A55 (Information Desk1)
Describes the scope of each 4-digit SIC code. Some codes are catchalls for different products, or will be designated "NEC" or "not elsewhere classified."
NAICS - North American Industry Classification System
HF1042.N6 (Information Desk1)
The list of NAICS codes, tables showing correspondence between NAICS and SIC, and indexing are included.
The U.S. Economic Census is done every 5 years. See www.census.gov for this data, which, if you are lucky enough to find a NAICS code for your industry, will give you the market size (revenues, number of establishments, payroll). You can even get this information by state or local market (city, even Zip code). See Business Patterns information for industry trends, such as growth.
See our Researching an Industry: SIC and NAICS Codes Industry Classifications for more details.
Hoovers Useful for larger, established companies. Search by company name, choose Profile, then click competitors. Also, go into profile section, SEC filings to pull up any public companies 10-K report. 10-K Competition Section - Edgar Database of Corporate Filings
TIP: Use Control-F or Edit, Find in Page to quickly find the text string competit to get to the following type of information: COMPETITION section for Home Depot: "Our business is highly competitive, based in part on price, store location, customer service and depth of merchandise. In each of the markets we serve, there are a number of other home improvement stores, electrical, plumbing and building materials supply houses and lumber yards. With respect to some products, we also compete with discount stores, local, regional and national hardware stores, mail order firms, warehouse clubs, independent building supply stores and, to a lesser extent, other retailers. In addition to these entities, our EXPO Design Center stores also compete with specialty design stores or showrooms, some of which are only open to interior design professionals.
Due to the variety of competition we face, we are unable to precisely measure our market share in existing market areas. We believe that we are an effective and significant competitor in our markets. Based on U.S. Census data estimates, internal estimates and data provided by the Home Improvement Research Institute, we believe that our market share in the U.S. and Canada, currently defined as including the Do-It-Yourself/Buy-It-Yourself, Tradesmen, Builders/General Contractors, Heavy Industrial, Repair and Remodeling and Property Maintenance markets, is approximately 9.4%."
Source: Home Depot. Form 10-K. http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/354950/000095014401005194/g68482e10-k.txt BONUS: Sometimes they'll even self-report their market share! - Dun & Bradsteet's Million Dollar Database
Look up your company to get an estimated sales revenue figure and basic company directory information, and use to find competitors as well. Note that D&B expands the SIC code to 8 digits, which helps to refine your search. They also allow searching by NAICS codes.
TIP: Use COMPANY search tab to look up company you already know about in your industry then copy & paste the industry code into the INDUSTRY search area to find competitors with the same code. Choose OUTPUT to export data into a .csv (comma separated values) file which can be opened in Excel. If you are not finding your company in D&B, or your competitors are small local business (like bicycle repair shops or chinese restaurants), try Switchboard.com and other free online yellow pages.
Factiva
Search for articles. Good local and regional news coverage, as well as broad industry scope. Try the following search (cut & paste these into the search box):
competit* near18 company name
This searches for the word root competit (including competition, competitors). In the full text of the articles, the word must appear within 18 words of the company name.
Ward's Business Directory
HC102.W3114 annual vol. 8 (Information Desk1)
Has a volume with rankings arranged by the NAICS code. Useful for finding a quick listing of competitors or trying to calculate market share. If you are still having trouble obtaining a "list" of competitors, create your own by gleaning company names from the above directory sources, journal and trade articles, and internet search engines. 
Market Share & Size - Definition at QuickMBA
"When asked how Rawlings plans to compete in the baseball glove market with newcomer Nike Inc. (NKE), O'Hara said Rawlings will continue providing a better product at competitive prices and better customer service. Rawlings plans to defend its baseball glove market share, which is estimated at 35%, and let Nike take sales from the competition, O'Hara said." (Dow Jones News Service 4/4/2002)
RDS Bizsuite
TableBase provides current market share and rankings. Table data is obtained worldwide from privately-published statistical annuals, trade associations, non-profit research groups, government agencies, investment research, and all the trade publications covered in Business & Industry database.
Search either company name or industry keywords. You can use SIC codes as well, but note that RDS uses their own expanded 6-digit code (add * if you know only the 4-digit code). Choose the following concept terms (hold down CTRL key to select more than one term):
- market share
- market size
- sales
Euromonitor Euromonitor provides volume and market size statistics and forecasts for 330 consumer products in 52 countries plus market analysis and other data.
Factiva
Search for articles. Try the following searches (cut & paste these into the search box):
(market share* or market size) near8 (company name or industry keyword)
(share near15 percent*) near15 (cell phone* or mobile phone* or nokia or motorola or cellular phone*)
Tap into industry association or market research companies information with Factiva by simulating the following example:
(CEA or consumer electronics association) near5 DVD
Investext Plus
Investment research reports that are written by analysts at investment banks, brokerage houses and consulting firms who closely follow particular companies or industries. Look for LONGER reports (scan for page length longer than 15 pages). To limit your search to only industry reports, type INDUSTRY REPORT in the keyword box and your industry terms:
industry report and wireless
Too many results? Use advanced search to limit by title, geographic area, and date. Have the sales for a company, but can't find it's market share? Identify other companies that make the same product. Find out their sales in a 10-K report or trade journal article. Divide your sales by the total for the companies you found.
Smaller private companies will be tricky! Try LexisNexis Academic (Business, Company Profiles section, choose Private Company Directory as the source) for estimated sales figures.
Industry & trade associations often provide industry overviews which may include market size information. To track down associations try google.com and search for industry keywords along with "association". For example: restaurant association
Additional information can be found in the following library Topics: 
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