Primary vs. Secondary Research - What's the Deal?

Many marketers (and other business people) often confuse primary and secondary research; it's worth exploring the differences and understanding which is what.

Primary data is first-hand data elicited through direct interaction with the research subjects using primary methods such as interviews, focus groups, surveys and experiments. Typically, primary data is gathered for a specific research problem. Market research that leverages primary data is called primary research; this may include interviews and focus groups, for example.

There are three types of primary research - exploratory research, descriptive research and causal, or experimental research. I'll be delving into each of these in future segments of the blog.

Secondary data includes data not collected for a specific project and may include information made available by a wide variety of commercial and government sources. Research that leverages secondary data is called secondary research. Places for finding secondary research include the library, the Internet, proprietary databases, and research firms that supply syndicated data.

Primary research is more expensive and more time consuming to conduct. Therefore, secondary research will almost always precede primary research, because by undertaking secondary research we can determine whether primary research is a viable route to pursue - and we can also refine our research agenda along the way. Secondary research can be quick, effective and relatively inexpensive. The following table summarizes the differences between primary and secondary research (data) -



(based on: Marketing Research - An Applied Orientation by Naresh K. Malhotra)

Comments? Questions?

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