Team Librarian Consultation

Web Resources:

Unlike library databases, these Web resources are available wherever you have web access; they do not require that you access them via the UW Connectivity Kit or the UW Libraries Proxy Server for authentication. When using web resources, be sure to evaluate the credibility of these resources. For a subject index to web resources, see Business Resources on the Web on the Foster Business Library homepage.
• Chocolate Manufacturers Association:   Industry and trade associations are often excellent sources for information on specific industries. "Since 1923, the Chocolate Manufacturers Association has served as the premiere trade group for manufacturers and distributors of cocoa and chocolate products in the United States." "CMA members produce roughly 95% of all cocoa and chocolate sold in the United States." See their Producing Chocolate and the Fun Facts section of their News & Events.

• National Confectioners Association:   "Founded in 1884 in Chicago by representatives of 69 confectionery manufacturing firms," this organization "the entire confection industry, offering education and leadership in manufacturing, technical research, public relations, retailing practices, government relations, and statistical analyses." See their U.S. 2002 Statistics and Chocolate Information.

• International Trade Industry Information:   This U.S. government site, maintained by the International Trade Administration, provides useful information and links to many valuable sources in what they call basic industries, consumer goods, environmental technologies, tourism, technology and aerospace, and textiles and apparel. The orientation is towards international trade and imports and exports but the links to sources of information and statistics are well organized and extensive. See their U.S. Chocolate Imports and their Beverages Index Page.

• Campbell Soup Company:   As the parent company of Godiva, Campbell Soup Company may provide information on its website, in its S.E.C. filings, or in its annual reports about the premium chocolate market. See the company's Investor Center for this sort of information. Campbell's most recent Annual Report (in 54 PDF pages) includes over half a dozen references to chocolate. Their most recent S.E.C. 10-K filing has few references to chocolate. See also the related Godiva Chocolatier homepage.

• Food Marketing Institute:   This organization is the primary trade association of food retailers and wholesalers in the U.S and world, composed of companies operating 21,000 retail food stores in the U.S. alone, with an annual sales volume of $300 billion. The institute includes some online grocery companies and its website offers some demographic and market trend information. There is a text search feature on this website as well as a search engine for their publications. Some of the material on this site is available to members only, or is only available for purchase. See their Supermarket Research for chocolate (eight pages, in PDF format).

• U.S. Food Marketing System:   This report (98 pages, in PDF format) was produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and issued as ERS Agricultural Economic Report No. AER811, in August 2002. "The U.S. Food Marketing System, 2002 provides a detailed overview of the structure, performance, information systems, new technology, and foreign direct investment of the food manufacturing, wholesaling, grocery retailing, and food service sectors, including a comprehensive set of appendix tables containing sales, concentration, trade, productivity, and other indicators." See pages 53, 61, 63, 64, 69, 75, 77, 86, and 88 for Chocolate and Confectionary Products.

• Consumer Expenditure Surveys:   This Bureau of Labor Statistics site provides a wealth of data about consumer spending in the United States. Demographic information such as average number in consumer unit, percent male and female, education level, age and income groups, is detailed along with average annual expenditures consisting of fourteen main catergories: Food, alcoholic beverages, housing, apparel and services, transportation, health care, entertainment, personal care products and services, reading, education, tobacco products and smoking supplies, miscellaneous, cash contributions, and personal insurance and pensions. Data is available back to 1984 and is sorted by metropolitan statistical areas, regions and other groupings. See their Consumer Expenditures in 2001 (16 pages in PDF format) for data on household expenditures on food.

• Association of the Chocolate, Biscuit & Confectionery Industries of the EU:   This organization consists of nearly 2,000 European companies in the chocolate and related industries. Its website offers statistics, publications, a dictionary, and more. As an example, see their Ranking of Chocolate Consumption by country, a one-page PDF document. Some of this site is still under construction.

• Campaign for Real Chocolate:   This organization is dedicated to raising the awareness of British and American consumers to higher quality chocolate and lobbies to improve chocolate quality. See their list of industrial chocolate producers who meet their requirements:   Belcolade, Barry Callebaut (Belgium), Green & Black (U.K.), Lindt (Switzerland), Amadei (Italy), Bernachon (France), El Rey (Venezuela), Chocolaterie de L'Opera (France), Chocovic (Spain), Scharffenberger (U.S.), and Valrhona (France).

• Ecole Chocolat:   This British Columbia professional school of chocolate making provides online instruction for those who wish to enter the profession. See their Chocolate Making News and Events.

• Cocoa Pete's Chocolate Adventures:   This 23-page PDF file is dated December 2002 and is from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a marketing class paper about a chocolate business, with information about the chocolate market, both mass market and gourmet.

• MarketResearch.Com:   Much of the most highly specific and targeted marketing research and intelligence is produced by commercial market research firms for corporate clients, with big business price tags (often in the thousands of dollars). Libraries, particularly at public universities, lack access to 75 page reports costing $2,000 but sometimes students find some value in the information disclosed in the abstracts of such research reports. MarketResearch.Com provides one-stop access to over 50,000 market research reports from 350 firms on 650 industry topics. Viewing of abstracts of reports requires free registration. See their listings for over 700 reports, available for purchase, on the topic of Gourmet Chocolate.

The Foster Reference Collection is located behind the Reference Desk in Foster.
• International marketing data and statistics.
  Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade, energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing information for the Americas, Asia, Africa and Oceania; companion volume to European marketing data and statistics.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA42 .I56. 2003.
  Also available online.

  See Chocolate Consumption on page 442.

• European marketing data and statistics.
  Demographic trends and forecasts, economic indicators, labor force, trade, energy, environment, consumer expenditures and market size, and retailing information for European countries.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HA1107 .E87 2002.
  Also available online.

  See Chocolate Consumption on page 310.

• International directory of company histories.
  Studying the history of leading companies in an industry is a good way to learn more about the history of an industry. This set of more than forty volumes covers over 5,600 company histories worldwide, with each history running just two to four pages; check the company index in the latest volume to locate a specific company history or update as well as any other references to that company in other company histories. There is also an index by industry.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HD2721 .I57

  The references to Godiva in volume II, on page 480, and in volume 26, on page 56 (in both cases in regard to parent company Campbell Soup).

• Thomas food industry register.
  This three-volume paperback is a guide to manufacturers and brokers in the U.S. food industry.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER:  HD9321 .T5 2000/2001.

  See Chocolate in volume one, index pages 224 to 230.

• Demographics USA. County edition.
  1,500 pages of maps, demographic and economic information, covering population, race and ethnicity, age and sex, income, retail sales, business establishments, consumer expenditures and employment data for states, counties, metro areas and cities.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF3007 .S96 2003.

  See Consumer Expenditures for total U.S., section 12, for expenditures on food.

• Market share reporter.
  Annual compilation of U.S., Canadian and Mexican market share data for companies, products and services, arranged by SIC code, and with indexes by product, company and topic.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .M35 2004.

  See Chocolate on pages 88 to 90.

• World market share reporter.
  An annual compilation of market share information for worldwide companies culled from thousands of periodical articles; use the company, product or brand indexes in the back of the volume to identify the company that you are researching.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5410 .W67 2001/2002.

  See Chocolate on pages 61 to 63.

• U.S. market trends & forecasts.
  This large volume provides an overview and projections for 400 significant industries and their component products or services, arranged alphabetically by industry name. For each product or service, there is a brief indication of the value of the U.S. market in 1998 and the compound U.S. market growth rate from 1993 to 1998 as well as a graph depicting market value in dollars and the growth rate. There is also a brief analysis of the market sectors for the product or service and a description of the market segmentation by volume for 1997, plus U.S. market share and market forecast information.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5415.1 .U8 2001.

  See Chocolate Confectionary on pages 547 to 554.

• The lifestyle market analyst.
  Market analysis information including demographic, geographic and lifestyle information to identify who customers are, where they live, how they spend their time and money and how to reach them.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: HF5415.33 .U6 .L54 2003.

  The most closely related lifestyle is probably Gourmet Cooking/Fine Foods on pages 776 to 779.

• How products are made.
  This multi-volume illustrated set explains in essay form, in simple terms, how more than 700 products are produced.
  Foster Business Library Reference, CALL NUMBER: TS146 .H67

  See volume one for Chocolates, on pages 129 to 133.

The Foster Business Library maintains a collection of over 70,000 books on all business topics, including many books useful for country research. To identify relevant books, go to the UW Libraries Catalog on the Foster Business Library homepage (under Business Databases). Try searching by keyword. Use the Limit/Sort feature to create a list of books in the Foster Business Library and in order from newest book to oldest. To do so, use the pulldown menu under WHERE item is located to specify Foster Business Library and click on the box near the bottom Sort results by year. Then click on Limit/sort items retrieved using above data. Clicking on the titles in the resulting list will bring up the full catalog record, indicating which Foster area has the book (general stacks, reference, reserve, etc.), the call number and the circulation status.

Circulation status is indicated in the box in the middle of each online catalog record, on the right. Check Shelf indicates that the book should be on the shelves under that call number and available for you to check out. Due and a date indicates that the book is already checked out to someone and is due back on the date indicated.

The Foster general stacks collection is located south of the main part of the Foster Business Library, through the two pass-throughs into the basement of Balmer. The arrangement is by call number, from A (at the east end, near the Copy Center) to Z (at the far west end).

See such subjects as:

• Chocolate Industry (16 records in UW Libraries)      (Five records in the Foster Business Library)
• Chocolate (Over 60 records in UW Libraries)      (Six records in the Foster Business Library)

Foster Business Library Articles:

In addition to the 800 journals in the Foster Business Library Periodicals Collection, the Foster Business Library offers access to 11,000 full text periodical articles through its full text article databases such as: ABI/Inform Global, Factiva, and Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe. These article databases may be found on the Foster Business Library homepage, listed alphabetically under Business Databases or in the Articles: Full Text folder.

Of these three main sources, all but Factiva are available from any computer on the campus network (as well as from home) via the UW Connectivity Kit or via the Libraries' proxy server. The easiest of these databases to use is ABI/Inform Global. For more information about accessing Foster Business Library databases from off campus, click here. For more information about business databases, click here.

• ABI/Inform Global:

  This database offers full text articles for over 800 journals. To find articles on specific topics, search by word or phrase by keying your search phrase into the search box. ABI/Inform Global includes journals but not national or Washington state newspapers (though the Wall Street Journal is included). It also does not include valuable trade and industry and other periodicals. Your searches will span the widest possible array of publications by expanding your search to all databases in ABI/Inform. To expand your search to include all collections in this database, click on Select multiple databases, to the right of the search box. Click on all of the databases.

  Your search terms will be highlighted in red in each article. For tips on searching this database, click here.

  A search in multiple databases for Gourmet Chocolate Market produced a list of over 200 articles while a search for the phrase "Gourmet Chocolate Market" produced no articles.

  A topic search in multiple databases for Chocolate produced two related subjects:

  • SUB(Chocolate), with over 2,400 articles, including 54 narrowing, related topics, from Advertising to Wines, including:
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Business growth) produced over 40 articles.
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Market strategy), 50 articles
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Marketing), 69 articles.
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Sales), 68 articles.
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Social conditions & trends), just five articles.
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Statistical data), over 20 articles.
    • SUB(Chocolate) and SUB(Trends), over 30 articles.

  • SUB(Chocolate Products Industry), with over 100 articles.

  As an example, see Premium brands gain, but overall U.S. chocolate consumption down , with good industry data.

The Foster Business Library Reference Desk is staffed nearly all of the hours that the library is open. The staff at the desk will be happy to help you find business research tools and resources, exploit business databases to the fullest or advise on research strategies. For e-mail questions, direct your query to balib@u.washington.edu. For assistance by telephone, dial (206) 543-8012 during library hours.

For research guides on a wide variety of industries, products, companies, issues and topics, see the Team Librarian Consultation archives.

• Team Consultation Course/Program Index      (Marketing Consultations)
• Team Consultation Industry Index      (Food, Beverage, Tobacco)
• Team Consultation Quarter Index
• Team Consultation Title Index
• Team Consultation and Research Guide Index

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