In marketing, research is often conducted to make business decisions and to help understand marketing trends. With this research, marketers must make use of different types of data. One form of data that is commonly used is secondary data. Secondary data is the data that was collected previously for a different purpose other than the research at hand. It is data that was already collected, generally by another individual or organization. Secondary data is typically used for research papers but can also be used in marketing.
The secondary data definition can be compared to primary data, which is the data collected specifically for the research being done currently. Primary data in marketing would refer to the data that is collected directly from the marketers. This would include things such as surveys conducted and customer data, if they were completed by the marketing team. Secondary data, on the other hand, would come from other reliable sources, such as institutions and trade organizations.
When conducting marketing research, secondary data can be categorized into two different types: internal data and external data. Internal data refers to the data that comes directly from the company. It is internal since the documents and data provided were originally generated from within the company. This data may be from various departments within the organization, such as sales, accounting, or advertising. It may include data and information in different forms. Some internal secondary data examples include:
External data is the data that comes from other organizations outside of the company. It is the opposite of internal data. External data is collected by a third party, whereas internal data is generated by workers within the company. Some sources of external data may include:
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Try it nowSecondary data can be analyzed in a computerized database system or with paper records. With technological advancements, companies typically have information stored in a database that is easily searchable. However, if the marketing research is referring to older data to make comparisons, it may need to find this within stored paper records. Other examples of paper records may include transactions between the company and customers that were not stored in the database system or official documents that are owned by the company.
Internet access is crucial for searching through databases online. Tools such as archives are also helpful when looking through databases full of information. Librarians or archivists may be able to assist with the navigation of databases. Some programmers may also use bots which help to search for data automatically.
There are some general steps when analyzing secondary data for market research. The process for analyzing secondary data typically includes:
Using secondary data for market research has its advantages and disadvantages. Secondary data is beneficial as it is easily collected, it is cost-efficient, and it saves time. Secondary data is easily collected since it can generally be found in a database, which is easily searchable due to indexing and the method of data storage. Secondary data also costs less than conducting new research with primary data. Conducting new research with analysis or surveys is a time-consuming process that takes up payroll and resources. Collecting data from other studies shortens the time period for the research that needs to be conducted. Using secondary data might also provide high-quality data. For example, universities generally have larger funding for research, which may indicate higher quality results.
There are also disadvantages of using secondary data. For one, the company is relying on the work of a third party. The company may not be fully aware of the process of how the data was collected or its accuracy. Though the quality of the data has the potential to be high quality, it can also be low quality. Since the business uses this data for decisions, it is important to ensure it is reliable and can be used with the marketing research. The information provided by third parties may also be outdated. Since marketing trends can change quickly, relying on data that was previously conducted may not fit with recent trends or growing trends. It is important to evaluate whether the data is useful and can be applied in marketing research studies.
Secondary data refers to data that was previously collected for a different purpose besides the research at hand. This means the data has already been collected, generally by another individual or organization. Secondary data is used for different purposes but can be used specifically in marketing research. Secondary data is commonly compared to primary data. Primary data in marketing refers to data that is currently being collected from the marketers. This might include surveys being conducted or customer data being collected. Secondary data generally comes from reliable sources, such as institutions, universities, and government sources.
Secondary data can be divided into either internal data or external data. Internal data is the data that comes directly from the company, such as documents and other information that was originally generated from within the company. Some examples of internal data may include company annual reports, company financial statements, previous marketing studies, and inventory records. External data refers to the data that comes from other organizations outside of the company, which means it was originally generated by a third party. Some examples include data from government sources, universities, and trade organizations. There are both advantages and disadvantages of secondary data. Some advantages of secondary data include the ease of collecting searchable data because of indexing and the method of data storage and saving both time and money. Some disadvantages include the potential for low-quality data and possibly outdated information.
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Secondary data refers to the data that had already been previously collected for a different purpose. It is data that was previously collected for another research project but is also applicable to the current project.
An example of secondary data could be a study conducted by a university that was not affiliated with the organization at the time of the study. This specific example is external since it is outside of the organization and secondary since it uses data from research completed prior.
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