when you gotta do some market research in the world where consumers shop - from clothing to groceries to electronics - it’s always important to understand exactly who owns those top brands… a long time ago, specialty beer devotees learned this the hard way by discovering that just about every nascent microbrew was really just the bastard brother of pabst or schlitz…or up for adoption.

just as i was suprised to hear that walt disney’s ‘family friendly’ empire was behind abc’s production of the upcoming television show “wife swap,” so too was i aghast when i learned that mars inc, makers of snickers (breakfast of champions), skittles (great for spitting), m&m’s (got a serious problem with these) and twix (candy and a kid’s school snack!) also makes massive amounts of dog and cat food …that’s what one will learn by doing some very basic brand research at a site like transnationale, which covers over 21 thousand brands, replete with market share data….this is a wonderful free resource (oh, and if you ever hear me actually say the word ‘wonderful’ out loud, please kick my ass)

the alternative to this? well, one might consider paying a lotta money for a resource like the directory of corporate affiliations from lexis nexis, which covers over 180 thousand brands (yes, that’s the same 180 that shows up on john edwards’ wife’s scale every morning)..it starts at about 2 to 3 thousand bucks for full web access (the directory you perverts, not his wife!)…hey, i guess that you get what you pay for…but in this case, many independent researchers would probably much rather put that green toward health insurance, or perhaps a new treo 600.

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