Primary research is that you conduct (or employ someone to do for you) by going all the way to a source — generally customers and potential customers in your target market — to ask questions and collect data.
Primary market research is a tailored study method for directly extracting information from a company’s sources or potential customers. Primary market research seeks at gathering customer feedback from all aspects: social, emotional, cultural, rational, economic, etc. To name a few, it helps in investigating deeply into particular company fields, assessing demand for both new and existing products and services, analyzing regions for enhancement and drawing more compact inferences.
Examples of primary research are:
1. interviews (telephone or face-to-face)
2. surveys (online or mail)
3. questionnaires (online or mail)
4. focus groups
5. Visits to competitor places
When conducting main research, typically two basic types of data are collected: exploratory & specific.
In a nutshell, you (or someone you employ) conduct primary research to collect information specifically for your ongoing objectives. You may be conducting a survey, conducting an interview or target group, observing behavior, or doing an experiment. You will be the individual directly obtaining this raw information and it will be gathered specifically for your present need for research. Primary research is generally more expensive and often takes longer than secondary research, but it does yield conclusive outcomes.
Secondary research or desk research is a technique of research involving the use of information already available. To improve the general efficiency of research, existing information are summarized and gathered.
Secondary research involves study content that has been published in study reports and such like. Public libraries, websites, information acquired from surveys already filled in, etc. can make these records accessible. Some government agencies and non-governmental organizations also store information that can be used and obtained from research purposes.
Secondary research is much more cost-effective than primary research because it uses current information, unlike primary research where information is gathered by organisations or companies first-hand or where they can hire a third party to collect information on their behalf.
There is plenty of secondary research accessible on the web, merely by entering keywords and sentences for the sort of data you are searching for. By reading articles in magazines, trade journals, and business publications, visiting a reference library, and contacting industry associations or trade organisations, you can also acquire secondary research. (Note: When you locate the research you want, check its publication date to be sure the data is fresh and not outdated.)
One excellent source of secondary research data is government agencies; this data is usually available free of charge. On the other side, information released by private firms may require authorization to access it, and sometimes a fee.
Disadvantages of Secondary Research:
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