Primary & Secondary Data in Marketing Research: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on May 8, 2024 in Social sciences

TOPIC 2: SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Primary Data vs. Secondary Data / Secondary Data vs. Marketing Intelligence

Primary Data:

Data originated by the researcher to solve the research problem at hand. (created specifically to solve your problem)

  • Tailored to the Research design
  • Serves specific Decision-Makers process
  • Costly and time-consuming

Secondary Data:

Data that have already been created for purposes other than the problem at hand. Start a research always with secondary data; proceed only to primary data when all the information available has been exhausted and it is not enough to answer the research problem.

Marketing Intelligence:

Qualified observations of events and developments in the Marketing Environment. Although it can be confused with Secondary Data because it is not information collected for solving the research problem at hand, it has a different nature and purposes.

  • Shadow Team: A small cross-functional boundary spanning team that learns everything of a competitive unit.

Advantages of Secondary Data:

  • Diagnose the research problem
  • Develop the approach to the problem
  • Develop a sampling plan
  • Construct the research design
  • Answer certain research questions or hypotheses or accomplish some research objectives
  • Helps to interpret primary data
  • Validate qualitative findings

Disadvantages of Secondary Data:

  • Limited usefulness
  • Can be not relevant or accurate
  • The information cannot be current
  • The sample can be different
  • Needs evaluation of the credibility

Criteria to Evaluate Secondary Data

  • Specification of the Research Design: Data should be reliable, valid, and generalizable to the problem at hand
  • Error and Accuracy: Compare several sources if available
  • Currency: Time lag between collection and publication
  • Objective: What was the purpose of the research
  • Nature and Dependability: Can be adapted to our purpose, How the information is reported and by whom

Types of Secondary Data

  • Internal Data: Collected by the organization for whom the research is being conducted. (could be ready to use and requires further processing)
  • External Data: Generated outside of the Organization. (like published materials, computerized databases, …)

TOPIC 3: FOCUS GROUP

Types of Qualitative Research

Direct:

A type of qualitative research where the purpose of the project is disclosed to the participant or are obvious given the nature of the interview. (people know perfectly the objective of the campaign, or something like that) (group or individual interviews)

Indirect:

A type of qualitative research where the purpose of the project is hidden to the participants. (confidential, without directly affecting people) (observation techniques (going to a school to see how they act, etc))

Focus Group Definition

  • It is a discussion (people interact)
  • It is directed by a trained moderator
  • The conversation is not structured (create a relaxed environment)
  • The process tries to be as natural as possible
  • Requires a small group of participants

Advantages of Focus Groups:

  • Synergy (opinion in a group has extra information)
  • Snowballing (persons get more involved so the topic starts growing)
  • Stimulation
  • Security (relaxed environment)
  • Spontaneity (in something that is relevant)
  • Specialization (has to be homogenous, similar characteristics)
  • Scientific scrutiny (we have many tools)
  • Structure (people participate in a close environment)

Disadvantages of Focus Groups:

  • Misjudgment (characteristics can be different)
  • Moderation (important to have a good moderator)
  • Messiness (different people with different opinions)
  • Misinterpretation (opinions to contrast the information)
  • Meeting (important to motivate people)

Topic Guide

A list of topics, questions, and probes that are used by a moderator to help manage the focus group discussion!

The advice is to use a list of broad issues that can be transformed into questions or probes as the focus group develops!

Generally, includes:

  • Introduction topics (where do you want to start, try to make it easy…)
  • Transition Questions (can use materials)
  • Key Questions (inside of each topic you have, when they buy it, …)

How Many Focus Groups?

  • Do we want to make comparisons between groups? (we need to have 2 different groups)
  • The characteristics of the participants and how well they mix together
  • The geographic spread (important, you need to conduct more focus groups)
  • The paradigm that underpins the focus group (main topic that you want to cover)
  • The time and budget

Focus Group Analysis

  • Evolving analysis (Change based on the issues discussed, Based on the stimuli used, Notes and Alternatives used by the moderator)
  • Not just the narrative
  • Make a transcript of the discussion
  • Using specialized software
  • The analysis should include more than words (reactions, dynamics, conflicts, etc.)