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Branding Strategy: Cite

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https://www.colorado.edu/program/writingcenter/

 

Why Cite?

Writing a presentation or report usually requires information from many sources (for example, a company's 10-K, market research reports, newspaper articles).

To maintain your professional and academic reputation, you must cite every source. 

In the academic setting, we use formalized styles of attribution. Formatting your citations in a format like APA is just a standardized means of giving credit to the person or company who created the content you use. The content creator may be an author, blogger, photographer, or your professor, for example. Outside of academia, you'll probably cite your work in different ways. For a list of great examples, see Corey Eridon's blog post How to Cite Sources & Not Steal People's Content on the Internet.

How to Cite Mintel

Screen capture of title page of Mintel report about marketing to Gen Z

  • Takemasa, H. (2024, June). Marketing to Gen Z - US - 2025. Retrieved from Mintel database. 

How to Cite IBISWorld

Screencapture of IBISWorld Ski and Snowboard Resorts in the US report title 

  • Posada, J. (2025, April). Ski & Snowboard Resorts in the US. Retrieved from IBISWorld database. 

How to Cite ReferenceUSA

Screenshot of Cosmo's Pizza 28th Street location company profile page on Reference Solutions

Data Axle is the corporate author of Reference Solutions.

  • Data Axle (2023, November). Cosmo's Pizza (3117 28th St., Boulder, CO) [Company profile]. Retrieved July 16, 2025 from Reference Solutions database.
Look in the Business Demographics section for the Last Updated date. 
 
If the title of the company profile is sufficiently unique to identify the company profile (i.e. there is only one of that company in that city & state), then the company name with city is the title:
 
  • Data Axle (2025, June). The Sink (Boulder, CO) [Company profile]. Retrieved July 16, 2025 from Reference Solutions database.
 
If there are multiple locations of that business in that city/state, include the exact address in parentheses as a form of unique number identifier:
 
  • Data Axle (2023, November). Cosmo's Pizza (3117 28th St., Boulder, CO) [Company profile]. Retrieved July 16, 2025 from Reference Solutions database.

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