Research Guides: Consumer Research: Consumer Behavior

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Who are your consumers?

Consumers Mind 2008 by Christopher Dombres is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Consumer Surveys & Opinion

Consumer Expenditure Survey
Consists of two surveys, the quarterly Interview Survey and the Diary Survey, that provide information on the buying habits of American consumers, including data on their expenditures, income, and consumer unit (families and single consumers) characteristics. This is the only federal survey to provide information on the complete range of consumer expenditures and incomes in the United States.
American Time Use Survey
Data on the "amount of time people spend doing various activities, such as paid work, childcare, volunteering, and socializing."

Roper iPoll
Public opinion data covering topics as diverse as animals, culture, government and much more.

Consumer Interests

Reference Solutions
The US Consumers and Lifestyles Module allows you to determine lifestyle interests, home ownership, and income in a given area.

MRI-Simmons Catalyst
Data for creating in-depth analysis of the U.S. consumer and determining consumer product, media, and lifestyle preferences. Check out the guide linked at the bottom of the page for assistance with this source.
Statistical Insight
This is a good source for annual reports for a variety of associations that can give a good picture of the consumers of a particular product. For an example check out this report on ski and snowboarders.
eMarketer
eMarketer provides market data, statistics and analysis on the Internet, e-business, online marketing, media and emerging technologies

Articles

Another source of information on the behavior of consumers is articles, while you can't create your own dataset from these they can still give you a good picture of consumer behavior.

Business Source Ultimate (EBSCO)
Has a good collection of articles devoted to the topic of consumer behavior. See Journal of Consumer Research and Consumer Behavior
SAGE Journals Online
Try combing the term "consumer behavior" with the behavior, product, market and/or industry you are studying.
PsycINFO (ProQuest)
Psychologists are often studying the reasons behind certain behaviors, this database contains articles from this area of research.