Secondary research is the most common research method employed in the industry today. It involves processing data that has already been collected by another party. With this form, researchers will consult previous studies and findings such as reports, press articles and previous market research projects in order to come to a conclusion. The relatively low expense in comparison to primary research is the main advantage of this research as no new research needs to be commissioned. However, its main disadvantage is that the data used in the analysis may be out-dated and therefore return inaccurate results. Furthermore, previous studies may not have targeted the exact issue that the current research requires.
Secondary research (or desk research) gathers existing information through available sources. Secondary research examples include:
- information on the internet
- existing market research results
- existing data from your own stock lists and customer database
- information from agencies such as industry bodies, government agencies, libraries and local councils.
Advantages of using secondary data are that it already exists, so it saves time.It is often cheaper than doing primary research and it may allow you access to data you could not otherwise get. Disadvantages are that in some cases, it is very expensive (scanner data, e.g.) You may have less control over how the data was collected also there may be biases in the data that you don't know about. Its answers may not exactly fit your research questions.
and it may be obsolete data.
