Thursday, 2 September 2010

Marketing vocabulary of the week: types of research

Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves analysing existing sources of information which have been collected for a different reason, such as published statistics, websites, bought-in reports, etc. It contrasts with primary research (also known as field research), which is collected for a particular purpose directly from the original source. Examples include surveys and interviews.

Example usage (extracts from the outline of a market research plan):

Primary research
We would like to focus most of our time on field research, both qualitative and quantitative. We recommend beginning with a series of focus groups.

Secondary research
We do not anticipate that extensive desk research will be required.

Taken from Cambridge English for Marketing, Unit 5 (Market research).

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