Introduction
Reference Materials
Books
Articles
Audiovisual Materials
Websites
Help
This guide is intended to provide an introduction to resources available from the University of Lethbridge Library in the area of marketing. It is a guide to get you started; there are many more resources available, so this is just a jumping-off point for your research. If you are looking at marketing internationally, you may also find the International Management Resources guide helpful to determine economic and market data for that country.
If you require more help finding resources, please visit the Information and Research Assistance Desk on level 10 of the library, or phone us at 403.329.2263.
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Reference materials can provide a good overview of a subject and lead you to further related resources, and are a great place to start your research. Some reference material specific to the area of marketing include:
Dic·tio·nary of Marketing Communications
Contains 4,000 common and professional terms, including acronyms, legislative acts, major market research firms, marketing directories, marketing publications, traditional marketing terms, the latest buzzwords, concepts, and Web-related terms.
The Advanced Dictionary of Marketing: Putting Theory to Use (print and e-resource)
With over 500 entries, this source focuses on key concepts, grouped into four categories: concepts, laws, theories, and effects. Also available electronically: http://darius.uleth.ca/record=b1612118~S1.
Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns, Vol 1
Looks at what worked and what didn't in advertising campaigns that were important for their innovation, effectiveness in selling products or services, or the significance of their companies. Each of the 500 articles looks at the campaign's or market initiative's historical context, target market, expected outcomes, competition, marketing strategy and development hurdles, and the outcome.
Encyclopedia of Major Marketing Campaigns, Vol 2 (print and e-resource)
This volume [2] contains essays on campaigns that appeared between the late 1990s and 2005. Also available online: http://darius.uleth.ca/record=b1640784~S1
The Handbook of Marketing Research: Uses, Misuses, and Future Advances
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Search the library catalogue to find books on marketing. You can do keyword searches as well as subject searches, which utilize the Library of Congress Subject Headings to locate items on the same subject. Some relevant subject headings include:
Notice all of the sub-headings beneath the major subject terms which allow you to get more and more specific in terms of topic or geographic location.
These same terms (and more) will work as keyword searches, but you will get many more (and possibly irrelevant) results using a keyword search. Try both and take it from there. If you search any term in the 'subject' field, the catalogue will try to suggest related subjects for you to try, as well as more sub-categories of the subject. Of course, if you know the title or author of a book, you can search the catalogue using those fields as well.
You can also do an 'advanced keyword search' and restrict the 'material type' to limit your search to e-books only.
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Journal articles contain more up-to-date research than books, and are a great way to supplement your research. The library subscribes to many indexes and databases which allow you search by keyword, subject, and many more fields to find articles on your topic. These tools provide not only the citation for the articles, but often abstracts (summaries of what the article is about), and increasingly link you to the full text of the article. If the full text isn't available either from the database in which you found the citation or by clicking the 'find full text' button, you can try obtaining the article via interlibrary loan. Ensure that the articles you are citing are scholarly in nature; for guidelines on how to evaluate journal articles, see our how-to guides.
The easiest way to decide which index or database to use is to look at the library's listing of indexes and databases by subject. Remember, your subject might be somewhat multidisciplinary in nature, so consider what other subjects' databases you may want to search, as well as the databases that specialize in multidisciplinary or general topics. Some good databases to start with for marketing-related resources are:
Communication and Mass Media Complete
Search journals in areas related to communication and mass media, such as journalism, television, radio, newspaper publishing, speech, broadcasting, communication theory, and advertising. Also features over 5,000 author profiles and searchable cited references.
Access scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. Relevant to the study of consumer behaviour.
Produced by the American Psychological Association (APA), this database provides full text scholarly journal articles covering academic, research and practice literature in psychology, neuroscience, psychiatry, behavioral sciences and related disciplines. NOTE: Click on Journals@Ovid Full Text for the link.
Passport Global Market Information Database
Published by Euromonitor International, Passport GMID provides key business intelligence on industries, countries, and consumers including historical statistics and forecasts, analysis of consumers' lifestyles, information sources, brand and company information, plus full-text market analysis. Covers more than 200 countries worldwide with in-depth coverage of 80 countries.
Be sure to look at the complete list of databases which may be helpful for the area of marketing. In addition to the marketing-specific databases, it may also be worthwhile to check the following general management databases for articles on any topic:
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In addition to searching in the library catalogue for videos on any subject (go to 'advanced keyword' search and then limit by material type: film/video), several Harvard Business School Faculty Seminar Series videos are available to us through Business Source Complete, including several marketing-related topics. For a complete list of videos available in this series, please visit http://support.epnet.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=4699. To access these videos in Business Source Complete, click the 'more' link in the top toolbar in EBSCOhost and select Business Videos/Images from the drop-down menu. The Business Videos search screen is displayed. Enter your search terms in the Find field and click Search, or to view all available business videos, search for the term Business. Both videos and PDF transcripts are available.
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From Duke University, this site contains images and database information for over 7,000 advertisements printed in U.S. and Canadian newspapers and magazines between 1911 and 1955, concentrating on five main subject areas: Radio, Television, Transportation, Beauty & Hygiene, and World War II.
Also provided by Duke University, this site is a free digital archive of more than 12,000 television commercials from the 1950s-1980s created or collected by the ad agency Benton & Bowles.
Purported to be "the world's largest searchable database of classic print ads". You can browse by year; contains ads from 1940 - 2001. Searchability is limited without a paid subscription, but still a neat exercise.
Basically Advertising Age's 1999 report "The Advertising Century" translated to web. Contents include the top 100 campaigns and ad people, and the top 10 slogans, jingles and icons, of the 1900s. Also includes a detailed timeline of the history of advertising from 1704 - 1999.
Glossary of Marketing Terms - Quirk's.com
The Quirks.com glossary has defined more than 1,600 marketing research terms. Search by term, definition or by marketing research topic.
Articles and videos on various topics regarding internet marketing and e-commerce.
Institute for Public Relations
The web site from this independent nonprofit organization contains information centered on research, education, and education-industry affairs. The Research tab provides bibliographies, case studies, papers, and reports on more than 20 relevant PR topics; abstracts and free PDF links direct readers to material written by academics and practitioners. Other relevant sections as well.
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If you have difficulty finding or using the information you require:
Developed by business librarians at American universities, this site allows you to search several academic business libraries' sites of frequently asked business reference questions. While some sites may refer you to subscription databases (check to see if we subscribe at the U of L to gain access), lots of general information and links to free sites as well.
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Content Revised: March 3, 2011
Content Created: February 23, 2010
