Using Publicly Available Research
Accessing and Understanding Secondary Research Sources
May 5, 2008
There are two types of research: primary and secondary. Primary consists of surveys and research that you carry out yourself. Secondary has already been produced by someone else. So it might not be exactly what you need, but it can be an extremely valuable source and may give you most of the information you need but quicker and at a lower cost than primary research.
How to Get Secondary Research
Many companies produce market research reports on particular market sectors. Although expensive, they can give you invaluable insights into developments in a market and your place in it. They can provide indications on market shares and how the market may be changing, including new products, new entrants and predictions of future developments.
Most of these companies will povide abstracts, or short samples of the data. A single abstract itself may provide enough information or you may be able to combine the data from several to create a more valuable picture.
Research companies tend to conduct research over time, so you can identify trends. If you subscribe to a regular report from a market research agency you’ll probably find that the cost comes down quite considerably.
The other main sources worth investigating are:
- Trade bodies – normally produce a regular snapshot report of their industry.
- Chambers of Commerce – often produce or subscribe to surveys covering their own local area. Visit the British Chambers of Commerce website to find your local chamber.
- Academic journals – these are often case studies into a particular industry or company, reviewed from an independent perspective. An internet search will provide details.
- Government sources – as an example, Companies House in the UK provide trading figures and directorships of every registered limited company. Some government bodies may also provide their own market research, particularly for overseas markets.
- Internet searches – nothing beats doing a search on your competitors or your product and seeing what comes up.
Using Secondary Research
Any research you obtain will have two types of information: commentary and figures. Commentary is obviously easy to follow but the figures can be quite complex, although should be presented in tables and graphs. More expensive and detailed reports can stretch to hundreds of pages so they’re not always easy to get through.
If you purchase the report you’ll often get access to the figures in the tables in their raw format. This can be useful if you or a colleague has some statistical experience as you can then analyse the data in any way useful to you. For example, the trends in a specific geographic region.
Disadvantages of Secondary Research
Secondary research should not be used on its own. Always read it in conjunction with other information you have.
Other disadvantages it has are:
- It wasn’t produced for you so will probably not answer everything you need to know. You weren’t involved in preparing it so you can’t know what might not be completely accurate.
- All your competitors have access to it so it might not give you the advantage over them you seek.
Secondary research can be used for a number of purposes. Two of the most common are researching competitors (which you can read about in Researching Competitors) and giving you overview information before you conduct your own more detailed research (which you can read more about in How to Conduct Market Research).
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