Market research is extremely crucial for the success of any business endeavor in the present day and age. In order to survive the cut-throat competition, it's important for businesses to conduct market research to keep a tab on the emerging market trends, competitors, target demographics, economic shifts, and the buying patterns of their customers.
Though primary research is the stepping stone to any online market research, organizations lack time and resources to conduct preliminary research from scratch. Conducting secondary market research is therefore the most widely used method to leverage assembled and ready-made data to draw meaningful business insights.
Secondary research makes use of a data that is not collected by the researcher himself! Therefore, if you want to conduct secondary research, you need to get your hands on primary research data.
Secondary data can be categorized into two types; internal data and external data. You can leverage the following types of data, to conduct your first secondary research -
Internal Data is the data gathered from internal databases, applications and tools of the researcher's firm, and is often the first line of enquiry, as competitors can't have access to it, and is exclusive to the firm. It's the most convenient, fastest available and cheapest source of market research information.
Some examples of internal secondary research data are:
External data comes handy if a project is new and when there is no internal data to bank on, or if the internal data is incomplete or irrelevant or has become obsolete. In such cases, you can rely on following types of external secondary data sources -
You can follow the below mentioned secondary research methodology to conduct your own research successfully -
Before commencing Secondary Research, define the area of research and list out questions you need answer for by the end of the process. Basically, you need to narrow down your search topic, identify the research domain and finalize which information source to use to get required data
Once the area of research and source is decided, you need to start collecting the existing data and break it down into keywords and synonyms, so get concrete results
In most cases, the data retrieved from different sources will be in different formats, so you need to normalize it as a uniform database
Review the findings and determine whether you have got all the answers to the questions you had in step one, and repeat all the steps again if you feel the need to dwell further for actionable insights
You can follow the techniques and guidelines mentioned above to conduct your first secondary research. In case you are hard pressed for time and resources, you can opt for primary and secondary market research services from a reliable outsourcing vendor.
You can leverage the following advantages of secondary research by outsourcing to a right partner -
Outsource2india is one of the leading research and analysis service providers in India offering an assortment of market research services to global clients. We have the expertise and resources to meet all your research and analysis requirements effectively.
Read our article - Internet of Things is Big, and Market Researchers Can No Longer Ignore It and learn more about how IoT can help you achieve better market research results.
Contact us today to know more about our R&A services, or to know more about various secondary research methods.
Decide in 24 hours whether outsourcing will work for you.
Have specific requirements? Email us at:
Flatworld Solutions Pvt. Ltd.
No.6, Banaswadi Main Road, Dodda Banaswadi, Bangalore - 560 043
#81, Survey No.11, Indraprastha, Gubbi Cross,
Kothanur P.O., Hennur Bagalur Main Road, Bangalore - 560 077
Corporate Court, #15, Infantry Road,
Bangalore - 560 001
Flatworld Mortgage Pvt. Ltd.
No.744, 15th Cross, 24th Main, J P Nagar 6th Phase,
Bangalore - 560 078
Flatworld Solutions
116 Village Blvd, Suite 200, Princeton, NJ 08540
Flatworld Mortgage LLC
116 Village Blvd, Suite 220, Princeton, NJ 08540
135 Camino Dorado, Suite 7, Napa, CA 94588.
Aeon Towers, J.P. Laurel Avenue, Bajada,
Davao 8000
KSS Building, Buhangin Road Cor Olive Street, Davao City 8000