Market Research: Types of Data Mr. Singh

What is Market Research? Market research is the collection, analysis, and interpretation of information used to develop a marketing strategy or to solve a marketing problem This research provides hard data (information based on supportable fact)

What isn’t Market Research? Mr. Singh asks a few friends what they think of his new Jordan’s Not systematic (not in an organized way) Minimal analysis Very limited amount of data Mr. Singh has made an intuitive decision A decision based on feelings and prior knowledge, made automatically and instinctively

Who does Market Research? Marketing research firms are hired to collect, analyze, and interpret the data that is relevant to a specific business’s marketing effort These companies work with two types of information: Secondary data Primary data

Primary & Secondary Data Primary Data Unanalyzed, current information collected by a researcher for a specific purpose Secondary Data Information collected and published by others Secondary Research: searching for secondary data, then analyzing and interpreting it

Sources of Secondary Data Books Periodicals Indexes Databases Internet Consultants Market Research Professionals

Books

Periodicals Magazines Newspapers Journals Reports These are all examples of periodicals

Indexes and Databases Indexes – Articles published about a specific topic over a particular period of time Databases – List of information organized by category CanCorp provides financial and management information extracted from the corporate documents of over 13,000 Canadian companies http://www.lib.uwo.ca/business/cancorpdesc.html

Internet Search Engines Listserv - An e-mail list that sends information to all the people who subscribe

Consultants Experts or consultants provide secondary data to businesses Most consultants cost money, but some departments in the government and financial institutions are free Marketing – Research Professionals - they sell data they have gathered on specific markets Example: Netflix