Conducting secondary market research into publicly available information is important for many of the marketing decisions you make. Although the Internet contains a lot of data, much of the data you find might be irrelevant or useless for your purposes. In order to get the competitive edge in your marketing research, you need focused sources that provide relevant, high-quality information.

Identify your research sources

To start researching effectively, you first need to determine which research sources are best for you. Although some research sources are free—such as the Microsoft Encarta® multimedia encyclopedia, thesaurus, and translation services from WorldLingo—most are fee-based. You can use the Research service in Microsoft Office 2003 to locate several available resources from various companies. These resources include:

• LexisNexis  A wide selection of information from business, legal, news, medical, and public records sources.
• Factiva  Business and news information from over 8,000 sources.
• HighBeam eLibrary Research  The eLibrary proprietary search service that retrieves business and news information from 2,600 sources.
• Thomson Gale Company Profiles  In-depth profiles of over 450,000 public and private companies. Company information includes comparisons with other companies, business rankings, market share, and news stories about the company from 2,500 sources.

You can subscribe to the available fee-based research services by using Office Marketplace. After you've identified and subscribed to your sources, they are just a few clicks away when you are working in your Office 2003 program. The Research task pane makes gathering information from a large number of standard and customized sources quick and cost-effective.

Use the Research task pane

 Note   The Research task pane is available only in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003, Microsoft Office Publisher 2003, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Visio 2003, Microsoft Office OneNote 2003, and Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 (in e-mail reading and composing views only).

Using the Research task pane, you can search for information in the free or fee-based resources that are available to you. You can also add, update, or remove resources.

Open the Research pane

• On the Tools menu, click Research.

Search for available resources

1. In the Search for box, type the word or phrase that describes the information you want to find.
2. In the Research Sources list, click the resource you want to search in.
3. Click Start searching. The Research task pane displays the results of your search.

   

Note the following search tips:

• You can search in individual sources or multiple sources grouped as All Reference Books (dictionary, thesaurus, or translation), All Research Sites (online encyclopedias, such as Encarta, or other sources like HighBeam Research), or All Business and Financial Sites (stock quotes, company profiles, or information from other business sources).
• If you need help with the exact spelling of a word, you can type the first few letters of the word in the Search for box and then click Start searching. In the Research task pane under Can't find it?, click the nearest match in the spelling alternatives list.

Add research services

To activate research services that are available in the Research task pane

1. Click Research options.

   The Research Options dialog box displays all of the available research services. Research services that are selected are active; research services that are not selected are inactive.

   

2. Select check boxes next to the research services you want to activate.
3. Clear the check boxes next to the research services you want to make inactive, and then click OK.

To add research services that are not available in the Research task pane

1. Click Research options.
2. In the Research Options dialog box, click Add Services.
3. In the Add Services dialog box, select a research service listed in the Advertised services list or type the Internet address for the research service you want.

    Note   To add a Microsoft SharePoint® Portal Server 2003 site, type http://<the site's root directory>/_vt_bin/search.asmx.

4. Click Add.

   

   The added or activated research service now appears in the Search for list in the Research task pane.

Update or remove research services

1. To update or remove current research services listed in the Research task pane, click Research options.
2. In the Research Options dialog box, click Update/Remove.
3. In the Update or Remove Services dialog box, select the Research service you want to update or remove, and then click Update or Remove.

   

4. In the Research Options dialog box, click OK.

Using the Office Research task pane, you can perform focused secondary market research into any one of the many research services available to you. The research you obtain is invaluable for satisfying the decision-making needs in your marketing strategy.