Sizing an industry, profiling its competitors, and sizing the target market with syndicated consumer data.
Marketing Research, WWU · Summer 2026 · Industry Analysis
Challenge
A market recommendation is only as strong as the industry picture behind it. This project built that picture from scratch for Instagram’s category: how big the industry is, who else is competing for the same attention, and who the target consumer actually is.
Method
5
competitors profiled
NAICS 516210
industry identified
3
consumer segments sized
2
metro markets compared
I identified the industry and its growth trends through IBISWorld, built competitive profiles of five platforms—TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, Reddit, and Snapchat—using revenue, net income, and market share data from Business Source Complete and Mergent Online, then sized the target market by age, gender, education, and occupation using Simmons Insights, benchmarking Los Angeles against San Francisco with Census and ESRI data.
Analysis
Simmons data put the core target between 18 and 34, skewing female (58% vs. 42% male) and more credentialed than the general population (40% with a bachelor’s degree or higher). Comparing that profile across two metro markets showed how much a “national” target audience varies locally (and the kind of gap a one-size-fits-all recommendation misses).
Takeaway
The industry and competitive data set the boundaries of what’s realistic; the demographic data set the target inside those boundaries. Every number traces to a named syndicated source—IBISWorld, Simmons, Census—not an assumption.
This team also fielded an original survey experiment on the same platform. See Celebrity-Owned vs. Celebrity-Endorsed Brands →