Top seven ways the Simmons database can help you research customers, products, and brands

We were very excited to recently receive and install a new version of the Simmons Choices (III) database here at the library. And by “excited,” I of course mean “terrified” – because of all the complicated business databases out there, Simmons is the most complicated. But after poking around in it a bit, it turns out that Simmons is actually more parts awesome than terrifying (although there is some “intimidating” in the mix). You’ll see why it’s so neat in just a minute, but first, some background.

The Simmons Choices III database contains consumer product and brand usage data. You can use it to find characteristics of the people who consume particular types of products, or to find brand market share, state-specific customer research, and statistics on market potential. The database covers all sorts of products and consumer types, and works by combining these characteristics to find what the market looks like where they intersect. So, for example, you can use Simmons to find out how many 18-24 year-olds (characteristic #1) prefer Budweiser (characteristic #2). Data comes from a survey of several thousand people.
 
The top seven ways Simmons can help you do business research:

7. Segment the market for a product by age, race, etc.

6. Research levels of consumer preference for a type of product.

5. Compare specific brands.

4. Build a psychographic customer profile.

3. Research a brand or product in a particular state.

2. Do all sorts of other ridiculously specific customer research. You’ll find crazy specific research in abundance in Simmons. For example, here are some random reports I ran:

• Use Simmons to find what types of candy people who’ve tried to quit smoking in the past year prefer (Hundred Grand bar is a pretty likely bet at 162 on the index; Brach’s, not so much at 90).

• Learn how many cups of coffee Hispanic families who’ve purchased weatherstripping in the last year consume per day (8.5% of weatherstrip-purchasing Hispanics have 10-14 cups per day, which makes them 2.27 times more likely than the average consumer to have drank that many cups).

• Discover the relationship between the number of laundry loads done by families in Iowa and the brand of detergent they use (42% of Iowans who do 10-12 loads per week use Tide).

I told you: specific.

But the top reason to use the Simmons database for your business research?

1. It’s free at the Hill Library. Come on down. Or, you don’t even have to come here. Just give us a call or send us an email (info at jjhill.org) detailing what you’re hoping to find. We’ll brave this terrifying and awesome database to provide it.