6 Top Mintel Alternatives & Competitors
Mintel is a market intelligence company that collects data on consumer trends and buying habits. B2C brands typically use Mintel’s insights to plan marketing campaigns, product launches, and more.
Mintel reports, published periodically, are available for individual purchase. If you need a thorough analysis of consumer trends in a specific market—such as car shopping habits in Germany—then these reports might provide just the data you need.
But if you need B2B market research, or real-time data, you’ll want to try some of the other alternatives to Mintel on this list.
1. Exploding Topics
Exploding Topics is a platform designed to help you discover trends before they go mainstream.
It works for both B2C and B2B market research, and can help you:
- Locate hot markets and fast-growing startups
- Discover ideas for new products and services in 50+ industries
- Conduct business development research
- Get a better understanding about what your audience is interested in
- Figure out how different industry trends relate to each other
One of the biggest benefits of using Exploding Topics for market intelligence research is that you’ll be able to learn about trends just as they’re starting to get traction.
For example, anyone working in the skincare industry today is probably pretty familiar with vitamin C serum—it’s received a lot of attention over the past few months.
Allure magazine recently recommended its users take advantage of Amazon Prime Day sales to try these serums for the first time, calling vitamin C a “star ingredient” in skincare.
Exploding Topics users interested in consumer skincare trends already knew about this product, though—we first identified it as a trend to watch in 2020.
If you were relying on annual reports to tell you about consumer trends, you might have missed a valuable opportunity to add a product like vitamin C serum to your inventory—or invest in companies that produce it.
You can browse many of our available trend graphs right now for free. And if you’d like to go deeper into the data, you can do so with an Exploding Topics Pro subscription. Depending on your plan, you’ll get access to:
- The full Exploding Topics Pro trend database
- All trend reports
- Instant trend alerts
- Our lists of trending startups and products to watch
- The Exploding Topics API
It’s just $1 for your first week of Exploding Topics Pro access.
Exploding Topics vs. Mintel: At a Glance
| Exploding Topics | Mintel | |
| Best for | B2B and B2C market research | B2C market research |
| Industries covered | 30+ | 16 |
| Unique features | Daily data updates, instant trend alerts | Deep dives on specific industry niches |
| Free access? | Yes, but limited | Yes, but limited |
| Paid access starts at | $39 per month, billed annually | Varies; single reports range from several hundred dollars to $4,000+ |
2. Kantar
Kantar is a market intelligence consulting company.
They provide data about 10 industries across 75 global markets, and provide solutions for:
- Measuring audience interest
- Creating consumer behavior predictions
- Improving brand positioning
- Understanding consumer shopping habits
- Developing new products and services
Most of the company’s data focuses on consumer activity and demographic data that will be of use to B2C brands.
Interestingly, Kantar also provides data to support public policy development. The governments of Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and various European Union countries all rely on Kantar data.
Kantar updates some of its self-service data reports daily, and you can access this information through the Kantar Marketplace. Plan prices start at $50,000 and vary by usage and region.
You can also opt to work with Kantar consultants for more personalized support.
Kantar vs. Mintel: At a Glance
| Kantar | Mintel | |
| Best for | B2C market research | B2C market research |
| Industries covered | 10 | 16 |
| Unique features | Daily data updates, public policy insights | Deep dives on specific industry niches |
| Free access? | Yes, but limited | Yes, but limited |
| Paid access starts at | $50,000 and up | Varies; single reports range from several hundred dollars to $4,000+ |
3. Mordor Intelligence
Mordor Intelligence is a market research company that provides insights to B2B and B2C brands.
Companies can work with Mordor Intelligence by:
- Exploring over 17,000 reports with data about 20 industries
- Engaging the services of Mordor Intelligence researchers who can provide customized reports and insights
The company’s custom research solution supports a variety of business activities, including data for:
- International expansion opportunity analysis
- Competitor profiles
- Supply chain analysis
- Product development and valuation
- Production analysis
- New market opportunities and segmentation
- Growth strategy
- Acquisition assessment
Access to Mordor Intelligence market reports is priced per item, and the company offers three levels of access:
- $4750 for a single user license
- $5250 for a team license
- $8750 for a corporate license
To access all the reports available for a particular industry, or to work with a Mordor research expert, users have to get in touch with the company for a customized quote.
Mordor Intelligence vs. Mintel: At a Glance
| Mordor Intelligence | Mintel | |
| Best for | B2B and B2C market research | B2C market research |
| Industries covered | 20 | 16 |
| Unique features | Data points for acquisition research | Deep dives on specific industry niches |
| Free access? | No | Yes, but limited |
| Paid access starts at | $4,750 for one user license on a single report | Varies; single reports range from several hundred dollars to $4,000+ |
4. Euromonitor International
Euromonitor International is a global market research service.
They can provide help with:
- Discovering market trends in emerging and developed economies
- Assessing product demand in B2B and B2C markets
- Tracking sales and market share
The fee to access a single Euromonitor report can be as low as about $300, but many of the company’s reports cost between $1,325 and $2,450.
Euromonitor also offers two data research and visualization tools:
- Passport, which allows academic institutions to access Euromonitor data and prepare teaching materials or reports
- Via, which monitors the performance and inventory of over 1,500 e-commerce companies
This makes Euromonitor International a good choice for global e-commerce retailers and academics.
The company’s ability to help its users track their performance in a target market also makes Euromonitor International a useful option for anyone interested in a comprehensive intelligence solution.
Euromonitor International vs. Mintel: At a Glance
| Euromonitor International | Mintel | |
| Best for | B2B and B2C market research | B2C market research |
| Industries covered | 10 | 16 |
| Unique features | A special platform for academic use | Deep dives on specific industry niches |
| Free access? | Yes, but limited | Yes, but limited |
| Paid access starts at | $300 and up per report | Varies; single reports range from several hundred dollars to $4,000+ |
5. MarketResearch.com
MarketResearch.com is a service that curates reports—many of them published by other data providers. This library of data spans eight industries and includes information for both B2B and B2C markets.
The company also offers a custom research solution similar to that provided by Mordor intelligence.
What’s most interesting about MarketResearch.com, though, is its library of company reports. These reports can provide insights around your top competitors and other key industry players. Each one includes:
- A complete company overview including history and locations
- Information on any company subsidiaries
- Financial data
- An analysis of the company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)
You can begin exploring MarketResearch.com data for free—they offer a limited selection of eBooks, whitepapers, and videos at no cost.
To dig deeper into data provided by MarketResearch.com through its corporate research and partnerships, you’ll need to purchase individual reports. The cost ranges from several hundred dollars to $4,900+ for a single license.
Academic institutions can also get access to MarketResearch.com data; pricing is available upon request.
MarketResearch.com vs. Mintel: At a Glance
| MarketResearch.com | Mintel | |
| Best for | B2B and B2C market research | B2C market research |
| Industries covered | 8 | 16 |
| Unique features | Company-specific reports including SWOT analysis | Deep dives on specific industry niches |
| Free access? | Yes, but limited | Yes, but limited |
| Paid access starts at | Varies; reports range from several hundred to several thousand dollars each | Varies; single reports range from several hundred dollars to $4,000+ |
6. Circana
Circana is a market intelligence company focused on the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry.
The company’s core product is a reporting and insights platform called Passport+. Small to midsize CPG brands can use Passport+ to:
- Explore in-store retail point of sale (POS) data
- Understand consumer buying behavior
- Evaluate competitor market share
- Qualify demand for new products
- Find new markets to enter
- Improve ROI on advertising campaigns targeting consumers
This data covers a variety of CPG verticals, including:
- Apparel
- Beauty products
- Food and drink
- Home
- Media and entertainment
- Over-the-counter healthcare
- Consumer technology
Circana doesn’t offer any of its reports for free—anyone interested in using Passport+ will need to get in touch with the company for a demo and a price quote.
Circana vs. Mintel: At a Glance
| Circana | Mintel | |
| Best for | B2C CPG market research | B2C market research |
| Industries covered | 7+ | 16 |
| Unique features | Data and reports tailored to smaller companies | Deep dives on specific industry niches |
| Free access? | No | Yes, but limited |
| Paid access starts at | Custom quotes only | Varies; single reports range from several hundred dollars to $4,000+ |
Conclusion
Ultimately, if you’re searching for a company that prepares regular reports on very specific industry verticals, Mintel—and some of its competitors, like Kantar and Mordor Intelligence—can give you what you need.
It’s important to remember that many of the reports produced by Mintel are only available at set intervals, such as once per quarter or year. And when the data’s published, you’re getting access to it at the same time as all of your competitors.
If speed is of the essence, you’ll want to opt for a market intelligence service that offers fresh data daily, like Kantar or Exploding Topics. Having key industry data in your hands as early as possible can be the determining factor for how quickly—and broadly—your market share grows.
