PRIMARY DATA vs SECONDARY DATA RESEARCH Lesson 23 June 2016

Primary Source A primary source is a document created at the time of your research subject, about your research subject. These documents are directly connected with the events or people being researched. www.concordia.edu/library

Primary Source Data and Original Research Diaries and Journals Speeches and Interviews Letters and Memos Autobiographies and Memoirs Books or articles written at the time of the event Government Documents Census Statistics Organizational Records Documentaries Photographs Art (from the time period) Maps (from the time period) Internet communications (including listservs and Emails) www.concordia.edu/library

Secondary Source A secondary source is a document created at a later time than the event being researched, by someone who did not experience the said event. These documents have no direct connection with the events or people being researched. www.concordia.edu/library

Secondary Source Encyclopedias Chronologies Biographies Monographs (a specialized book or article) Most journal articles (unless written at the time of the event) Most published books (unless written at the time of the event) Abstracts of articles Paraphrased quotations Dictionaries Textbooks www.concordia.edu/library

Secondary Source What would be a source for the following data? Use Google to answer this. Population, average income, and employment rates Annual sales of the top ten fast-food companies Divorce trends The Census Web page (http://www.census.gov) has a link to state and county quick facts. The R. L. Polk Company (http://www.polk.com) publishes information on the automobile field, such as new car purchase rates and average car value information.

Research Activity Demand for Gas Guzzlers

Secondary Data Research

Does It Matter? Secondary research shows that services and value are most important to consumers.

Secondary Data Research (cont’d) Data conversion The process of changing the original form of the data to a format suitable to achieve the research objective Also called data transformation Cross-checks The comparison of data from one source with data from another source to determine the similarity of independent projects.

Typical Objectives for Secondary-Data Research Designs Fact Finding Identification of consumer behavior for a product category Trend Analysis Market tracking—the observation and analysis of trends in industry volume and brand share over time. Environmental Scanning Information gathering and fact-finding that is designed to detect indications of environmental changes in their initial stages of development.

Typical Objectives for Secondary-Data Research Designs Model Building Estimating market potential for geographic area Forecasting sales Analysis of trade areas and sites

Is the secondary data suitable?

Secondary Data for Calculating an Index of Retail Saturation

Data Mining Data Mining Neural Network The use of powerful computers to dig through volumes of data to discover patterns about an organization’s customers and products; applies to many different forms of analysis. Neural Network A form of artificial intelligence in which a computer is programmed to mimic the way that human brains process information.

Mining Data from Blogs Data-mining software, like Buzz Report, search millions of blogs looking for messages related to particular products and trends.

Data Mining (cont’d) Market-Basket Analysis Customer Discovery A form of data mining that analyzes anonymous point-of-sale transaction databases to identify coinciding purchases or relationships between products purchased and other retail shopping information. Customer Discovery Involves mining data to look for patterns identifying who is likely to be a valuable customer.

Database Marketing and Customer Relationship Management The use of customer relationship management (CRM) databases to promote one-to-one relationships with customers and create precisely targeted promotions. The practice of maintaining a customer database of: Names and addresses Past purchases Responses to past efforts Data from numerous other outside sources

Sources of Internal Secondary Data Internal and Proprietary Data Accounting information Sales information and backorders Customer complaints, service records, warranty card returns, and other records. Intranets

External Secondary Data Sources External Data Generated or recorded by an entity other than the researcher’s organization. Information as a product and its distribution Libraries Internet Vendors Producers Books and periodicals Government Media Trade associations Commercial sources

Information as a Product and its Distribution Channels

Commercial Sources Market-share data Demographic and census updates Consumer attitude and public opinion research Consumption and purchase behavior data Advertising research

Secondary Data Research Data gathered and recorded by someone else prior to and for a purpose other than the current project. Advantages Available Faster and less expensive than acquiring primary data Requires no access to subjects Inexpensive—government data is often free May provide information otherwise not accessible Disadvantages Uncertain validity Data not consistent with needs Inappropriate units of measurement Too old

Primary Data Research Survey Observation Experiment