Author: Shabbir Chunawalla

Internal Data

There are old research reports in the company library. Summer placement reports of MBA students in the company’s archives are also useful. The information is free of cost.

Census Report

Census is conducted by the Govt of India every ten years, and it covers the whole of India — state by state, city by city, town by town and village by village. It is a very rich source of demographic data.

NCAER

The National Council of Applied Economic Research publishes income pattern reports. Their studies on product penetration and usage are very useful.

The Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy  (CMIE)

It publishes a monthly information bulletin and industry reports. It collates corporate and government data.

Industry Bodies

Industry bodies like associations and chambers of commerce publish data at regular intervals. These data are gathered from the members and from the market. The Automobile Manufacturer’s Association, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry are examples of such bodies. National Association of Software and Services Companies ( NASSCOM ) and Organisation of Pharmaceutical Products of India ( OPI ) actively present information to gain media and government attention.

Media Research

National Redearship Survey ( NRS ) throw up a large data about media circulation, reach, household size distribution, SEC distribution, income-age distribution, and media habits of people. It also provides data of product usage.

Internet

Web-based information services of networks like VANS and Indian Market Monitor collate data from diverse sources, and make them available to paid users. India Infoline is another source for data on Indian corporates.

 

 

Merits

1. It is more economical and time saving to use secondary data.

2. As secondary data are collected after the occurence of an event, they are not biased. Besides collecting primary data may be very tedious, whereas the secondary data are freely available off-shelf.

Limitations

1. The secondary data may have limited application. There are many problems. The unit of measurement, the definition of data classes and the outdated nature of data may make the data irrelevant. The data must be modified before using.

2. The accuracy of secondary data may be questionable. If the data are inaccurate, the prsent research findings will be distorted.

Question: What information is gathered ? Issue: Is it relevant ?

Question: When has it been gathered ? Issue : Is it outdated ?

Question ; Where has it been gathered ? Issue : Is it from markets similar to those of our products ?

Question : How has the information been gathered ? Issue : Was the methodology appropriate ?

Question: Who sponsored the research ? Issue : Are they objective ?

Question : Who conducted the research ? Issue : Are they competent ?

Question : Who gave the information ?  Issue : Are they representative of the target audience ?

Question : Who reported the information ? Issue : Are they objective ?

Types and Importance of Data in Marketing Research. We have already examined, though somewhat briefly, the nature and scope of marketing research and its applications. But it must be borne in mind that without any data, no research can be meaningful. We should, therefore, have sufficient data. In this section, we shall discuss the types of data and their application in marketing research.

The kinds of facts or data used in marketing research are many and varied. One useful classification divides marketing data into primary data and secondary data.

Primary data are the data that have been observed or recorded by the researchers for the first time to their knowledge.

Secondary data may be described as those data that have been copiled by some agency other than the user. But the issue is not so simple. For example, if a company is subscribing to one of the syndicated data services requests special information that is not ordinarily tabulated but is available in the data collected by the services, is the company seeking primary or secondary data ? If the available data are secured rapidly and at low cost, there is no sense in spending time and effort to acquire primary data. Such considerations as the availability of experienced personnel and access to the sources of data materially affect the decision to collect primary data. Most marketing decisions do not warrant the time or cost involved in the collection of primary data. Even if it is necessary or desirable to obtain the original information in a research project, secondary data are still useful in the total research effort. The secondary data are useful in the exploring research, especially for the hypothetical solutions of the problem, suggested or inspired by other publications or data. Secondary data are essential in planning the sample from which the information is to be obtained. They may be usedto describe the target population that is to be sampled, as parameters and guide in the actual sample selection process, and are a base for validating the obtained sample. Moreover, secondary data often enables us to carry out conclusiveresearch to verify the expected effect of hypothesis under consideration.

The source of secondary data are many and varied. They may be grouped into two general kinds:

( i ) Internal data — that is, data available within the organisation for which the research is being done, and

( ii ) External data, which are obtained from outside sources.

Internal Sources : Secondary data may be gathered from within the organisation for which the marketing research programme is carried out. A giant firm would have sufficient sources for the generation of secondary data in the form of customer billing, sales activity, information by selling activity, stock availability and product costs. When the information listed on a product, customer and/or area basis is available, we can examine the changes between areas, product and customers over time. Standards or norms may be established to evaluate different parts of the marketing programme. There are various and obvious methods by which internal data may contribute to research studies. Most of the basic data are available in the accounting department, but co-ordination is essential between their recording procedures and the needs of marketing administration. Other types of data are not available from the accounting records. These data are frequently neglected, although they can be compiled and reported or at least filled in a manner which facilitates retrieval. Public utility firms often keep files of customer complaints that are analysed periodically. Marketing management also obtains important clues to protect deficiencies by examining service records which, in the absence of these records, would require large expenditure before the same information can be tabulated by collection of eliciting customer’ views as primary data.

External Sources : External sources are numerous and obvious. Some of these are :

Libraries : Libraries are useful sources of information. Most universities have schools of business and have special divisions or rooms to serve these schools. Various institutions and large companies maintain libraries with an excellent collection of information in the fields of their individual activity. They may be found in leading research institutions, banks, insurance companies, public utilities and manufacturing concerns.

Literature : A great volume of literature is published on various subjects with which the marketing researcher may be concerned. Even a librarian has difficulty in keeping abreast of all the new writings and the accumulated writings of the past. When research is undertaken in some area of marketing in a particular industry, a sizable task is involved in gathering these materials.

Trade Associations :  For the collection of data relating to a particular industry, its trade association, if one exists, may be an excellent source. The trade association may have basic information that is not available in libraries. In Indian context. you can approach a specialised board for a particular industry and the chambers of commerce with a view to collecting the relevant data.

Publishers : The leading publishers of general magazines and newspapers as well as the television networks have been highly enterprising in collecting data or conducting marketing research.

State and Central Governments : Governments also provide useful data. Often, different government departments have information that rarely find its way into public or private libraries.

Other external sources are private sources, such as specialsed marketing research firms, statistics available with private institutions or specialised agencies and so on.

Distinction between Primary and Secondary Data

Primary data are first-hand original data collected by the researcher through various methods. Secondary data are second-hand data collected by some other agency but not by the researcher.

Primary data collection is time and cost consuming. It is complicated too. Secondary data is easy and quick to collect at less cost.

Sources of primary data are the sampling units chosen. Secondary data sources could be internal or external records.

Primary data are reliable and accurate when properly collected. Secondary data supplements the primary data.

Primary data affect the research directly. Secondary data provide the secondary information.

Primary data are the latest and are useful for current problems. Secondary data are historical.

Primary data are reasearch related and relevant. We have to modify the secondary data and be selective about it.

A research problem is identified, and the need to receive the necessary information is determined. The next step is to look for the sources of data to fulfill the research objectives. Generally, researchers plunge into data collection by doing a survey. However, it is desirable that the secondary source of data are tapped first to get the required information. The primary data is then collected to meet the gaps in the desired information. Secondary data should be tapped first before collecting the primary data.

Broadly, data are put into two categories ( a ) primary data and ( b )  secondary data . Primary data means to generate the data first hand with respect to a problem at hand by doing surveys, using panels, doing observations or experimentation. Secondary data, on the other hand,is data already collected beforehand by someone and which has relevance for the study the researcher has undertaken.

We can illustrate the distinction between the primary data and secondary data by taking an example. Suppose we conduct a study the ‘ effectiveness of Fair and Lovely TV commercials ‘ in 2001. Later in 2003, again there was a need to conduct the same study. We can use some relevant data from 2001 study, which is the use of secondary data. The additional data can be collected by survey, which we call the primary data. Thus the primary data of the 2001 one study becomes the secondary data for 2003 study.

A research problem can be tackled partially at least by using the secondary data lying scattered across several sources. After exhausting these existing sources of secondary data, we shall resort to primary data collection. But the use of secondary data must be intelligent. We should be aware of the metodology by which the data are collected. We should be in a position to evaluate the secondary data. For this we must be familiar with the techniques of collecting primary data. If the available secondary data is not usable, we should go in for primary data 100 per cent. Secondary data are valuable if the present problem has relationship with earlier problems.