QUESTIONS

Questions

Questions

Q1.

Introduction

Business is a very complex operation with hard work and a product or service is not enough. Market is a very important area where the trading of goods or services takes place. In order to succeed and correctly identify a market, a product or service, people need to do market research. There are two general types of market research tactics: primary and secondary. Secondary research involves studying data that has already been collected and published by somebody else.

Secondary Research

If you're considering extending your business into new markets or adding new services or product lines, start with secondary research. This type of research is based on information gleaned from studies previously performed by government agencies, chambers of commerce, trade associations, and other organizations. This includes Census Bureau information and Nielsen ratings(Dev Schultz 2005).

You can find much of this kind of information in local libraries or on the Web, but books and business publications, as well as magazines and newspapers, are also great sources. Secondary research is more economical and easier to do when compared to primary research” (Flatworld, 2009). With secondary research there is less cost involved but more analyzing of information. The information obtained is usually written or presented for some other reason other than what the company is trying to accomplish so interpretation is part of this research and can be less accurate than primary research. These secondary sources could include previous research reports, newspaper, magazine and journal content, and government and NGO statistics. Sometimes secondary research is required in the preliminary stages of research to determine what is known already and what new data is required, or to inform research design. At other times, it may make be the only research technique used. A key performance area in secondary research is the full citation of original sources, usually in the form of a complete listing or annotated listing(Adcock Halborg Ross 2001 p. 16).

In most cases this means finding information from third-party sources such as marketing research reports, company websites, magazine articles, and other sources. But in actuality any information previously gathered, whether from sources external to the marketer or from internal sources, such as accessing material from previous market research carried out by the marketer's organization, old sales reports, accounting records and many others, falls under the heading of secondary research. Although secondary research is less expensive than primary research, it's not as accurate, or as useful, as specific and customized research. For instance, secondary research will tell you how much teenagers spent last year on basketball shoes, but not how much they're willing to pay for the shoe design your company has in mind.

Conclusion

Marketing research is essential to a company in the beginning and even through the life of a company. Understanding which type of research best fits the company's needs is important. Success is a company's bottom line and using both types of research can be helpful(Dev Schultz 2005). Given the understanding of both; even though the cost is higher, primary marketing research can ...