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Putting Secondary Information to Good Use

• Discover extraneous factors impacting the marketplace and brands; both internal and competitive.
  
• Help identify ongoing trends that will impact future research design and marketing decisions.
  
• Determine what relevant data is already available from competitors or research suppliers who have published results online.
  
• Learn from market leaders and their opinions on areas of interest/focus.
  
• Glean additional relevant information from analyzing multiple custom study findings in greater depth.
  
• Save research dollars by more clearly identifying gaps in current data and by not inadvertently duplicating research questions and designs.
  
• Give context to marketing issues from a more informed global perspective.
  

Specific Benefits of Secondary Research

Secondary research is a very important and often overlooked step in the research process. When used in conjunction with primary research, it can benefit marketers in ways that custom research alone cannot. Integrating both internal and external research information can give context to a marketing question; one that will shed light on how internal questions can be answered while considering the global marketplace.

Custom research costs can be wasted focusing on asking questions that have already been answered. The ability to glean as much available information as possible prior to research design allows clients to identify information gaps and provides tools for more wisely focused research objectives.

​Secondary Research

Going through the effort to gain information from secondary sources can be a tedious process, and the end results may be useless if there is no one who can appropriately and insightfully report results. The characteristics needed to make good use of this information:

• Experience - Jane has worked on a wide variety of client products and is expert at understanding the marketing implications for her clients. As a result, she makes research reports actionable and succint. She can discern between information that is critical and that which brings little added value.
  
• Efficiency/Organization - Secondary research is not just about compiling information. It is critical to know how various pieces of the research puzzle fit together and relate. Jane is able to connect many pieces together to create a logical flow of information that is meaningful.
  
• Insight - Reading between the lines is essential in connecting all sources of information that accurately represents the voice of the customer. Jane Kinnaman enjoys linking pieces of information together with an intuitive thread.
  

Secondary research may involve external internet and other source searches and/or may consist of additional review and analyses of existing internal custom and syndicated research data.

In many cases, custom research analysis is done independent of other research already conducted. Further analysis and digging within current data bases may yield additional findings previously ignored or overlooked.

Discovering published findings on a relevant topic from external sources adds validity and insight into what was gained internally. What’s more, considering multiple sources of information collected and analyzed in a comprehensive whole rather than stand-alone pieces provides patterns of usage, ratings and trends that will facilitate the development of more effective research strategies and targeted efforts.

Merging all resources will provide a broader outlook, more global perspectives and insight into competitor products and services, social and demographic trends and current and emerging markets. 

Sources of Information

Importance