PROCEDURESANDTECHNIQUESINMARKETINGRESEARCH 61- Publiclibraries.
- Universities-libraryfacilitiesandbureausofbusinessandeconomicresearch.
- Governmentagencies--especiallydepartmentsofcommerce, agriculture,andlabor.
- Professionalandtradeassociations.
- Commercialpublishers--especiallytradepublications.
- Researchandnonprofitorganizations.
- Conferencesandpersonalcontact.
- Computer-providedsearchsystems.
Therearetremendousadvantagesinusingdatafromsecondaryso urces.In thefirst
place,theexpenseofgatheringinformationfromsecondarysourcesisa fractionofthecost
ofcollectingprimarydata.Thetimerequiredtocollect dataisalsoless. Frequently,the
informationrequiredtosolvea managementproblemmustbeobtain~dquickly. Thanksto
computertechnology, it isnowpossibletogather,merge,andreformulatemanysecond-
arysourcesofdata.Thiscapabilityhasmadesecondarydataevenmoreattractive.
Theinherentlimitationsofusingsecondarysourcesdataaretwofold.First,the infor-
mationisfrequentlydated.Second,seldomaresecondarydatacollectedforpreciselythe
samereasonsthattheinformationissoughttosolve~hecurrentmarketingproblem.Inspite
oftheselimitations,theadvantagesofsecondaryresearcharesogreatthatit is a common
procedurenottoproceedwiththecollectionofprimarydatauntilaftera thoroughsearch
ofsecondaryinformationsourcehasbeencompleted.
Primaryinformationisobtaineddirectlyfromitssource.Itinvolves datathat are
notavailableinpublishedformorincompanyrecords.Itisgatheredspecificallytoanswer
yourresearchquestion.Thesourcesofprimaryinformation,however,cannotbeaseas-
ilyidentifiedascanthesourcesofsecondarymarketdata.Havingidentified theinformation
requiredtohelpmanagementsolvea problem,it is usuallypossibietoidentifytheperson
orpersonspossessingtheinformationdesired.Insomecases,theinfor:nationcanbeobtained
fromoneofseveralsources.Inothersituations, theinformationcanbeobtainedonlyby
contactingspecificsources.Forexample,a manufacturerofvitaminsforchildrendiscovered
thatit wasnecessarytoobtaininformationfromtheusers(children),purchasers(parents),
sellers(forthemostpart,druggists),andpurchaseinfluencers(pediatricians).Similarly,
a manufactureroffeedfordairycattlefounditdesirabletoseekmarketinformationfrom
farmers,feeddealers, anddairyspecialists.Obviously,itisexpensivetocollectmarket-
inginformationfrommultiplesources,andoftenitisratnertime-consuming.Thesetwo
disadvantagesareoffsetbythefactth at theinformationsoobtainedis tailoredtothespe-
cificproblemathand.Ultimately,thequestionastowhichsourceofmarketinformation
tousedependsonthevalueoftheinformationinrelationshiptothetimeand cos t required
togatherit.^4
ChoosingtheMethodofCollectingData Therearevariousmethodsofcollect-
ingdata,bothsecondaryandprimary. Secondarysourcesofinformation,listedearlier,can
begatheredthrougha numberofmeans.Acompanymayestablisha data-gathering/stor-
agesystemaspartoftheircomputersystem.Sales, expenses,inventory,returns,andcus-
tomercomplaintsarethengatheredautomatically. Ora companycansubscribetooneor
morepublicresearchcompaniesthatgatherrelevantinformation.Finally,a companycan
obtaininformationona problem-by-problembasis.
Therearethreecommonmethods usedtocollectprimaryinformation:observation,
questionnaire,andself-report.Observationaldatacollectionmaybetheoldestmethod.
Sincethebeginningofcommerce,merchants have beenwatchingtheircustomersand