Public Relations: Company Sources

- Does your company sell stock on a U.S. stock exchange? If so, you will be able to find a variety of reports prepared by the company for investors.  In general more information will be availalbe on public companies or larger organizations.

- Check out tthe company/organization webpages, 10Ks and annual reports.

- What can you determine about the company's image? How does the company promote its products/services?

- Find out as much as you can about the product. brand or service that will be the topic of your PR plan.

Do you want to find out how Nike, Inc. stacks up against the competition?  Need to know the business forecast in Brazil?  Find market research about Toyota?  These links will help you.

It's helpful to start with general overviews of a company. Background information will make it easier to search for company specifics on the Internet or to find articles in the business press.

• Private and non-profit - use the materials on the organization's webpages in addition to new articles.
• Larger private and non-profits are covered in the business databases.
• Small businesses - for a small business such as a restaurant, you probably won't find much written about the organization, except perhaps reviews. Try to research the industry instead of the company.
• Public companies - more information will be available about publicly traded companies.  You may need to identify the parent company first, especially in a database like Hoover's Academic.
• Go to the Database List

There are many business directories in LexisNexis Academic (think lists). These can be useful for identifying companies in a particular industry or location. 

Both ABI and Business Source Premier also contain market research reports. In addition, the following databases may contain detailed reports on specific industries/businesses.