8

Secondary Data
Research in a Digital
Age

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May

not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a
publicly accessible
website,
in whole
or in part.
2013
Cengage
Learning.
All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

LEARNING
OUTCOMES

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of

secondary data
2. Define types of secondary data analysis
conducted by business research managers
3. Identify various internal and proprietary
sources of secondary data
4. Give examples of various external sources of
secondary data
5. Describe the impact of single-source data
and globalization on secondary data research

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8-2

Business Facts on a Grand Scale

The use of secondary
data has exploded with
the advent of largescale electronic
information sources and
the web.
Nielsen Claritas collects
and integrates businessrelated data from
difference sources.

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8-3

Secondary Data Research

Secondary Data
Data gathered and recorded by someone else
prior to and for a purpose other than the
current project.
Advantages

Disadvantages

Available

Uncertain validity

Faster and less expensive

Data not consistent with

than acquiring primary data

Requires no access to
subjects
Inexpensivegovernment
data is often free
May provide information
otherwise not accessible

needs
Inappropriate units of
measurement
Too old

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

84

Secondary Data Research (contd)

Data conversion
The process of changing the original form of
the data to a format suitable to achieve the
research objective
Also called data transformation

Cross-checks
The comparison of data from one source with
data from another source to determine the
similarity of independent projects.

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

85

EXHIBIT 8.1

Evaluating Secondary Data

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

86

Typical Objectives for Secondary-Data

Research Designs
Fact Finding
Identification of consumer behavior for a
product category
Trend Analysis
Market trackingthe observation and analysis of
trends in industry volume and brand share over
time.

Environmental Scanning
Information gathering and fact-finding that is
designed to detect indications of environmental
changes in their initial stages of development.
2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

87

Does It Matter?
Secondary research
shows that services
and value are most
important to
consumers.

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8-8

Typical Objectives for Secondary-Data

Research Designs
Model Building
Estimating market potential for geographic
area
Forecasting sales
Analysis of trade areas and sites

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

89

EXHIBIT 8.6

Secondary Data for Calculating an Index

of Retail Saturation

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

810

Data Mining
Data Mining
The use of powerful computers to dig through
volumes of data to discover patterns about an
organizations customers and products; applies
to many different forms of analysis.

Neural Network
A form of artificial intelligence in which a
computer is programmed to mimic the way
that human brains process information.

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

811

Mining Data from Blogs

Data-mining
software, like Buzz
Report, search
millions of blogs
looking for
messages related to
particular products
and trends.

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8-12

Data Mining (contd)

Market-Basket Analysis
A form of data mining that analyzes
anonymous point-of-sale transaction
databases to identify coinciding purchases or
relationships between products purchased and
other retail shopping information.

Customer Discovery
Involves mining data to look for patterns
identifying who is likely to be a valuable
customer.
2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

813

Database Marketing and Customer

Relationship Management
Database Marketing
The use of customer relationship management
(CRM) databases to promote one-to-one
relationships with customers and create precisely
targeted promotions.
The practice of maintaining a customer database
of:
Names and addresses
Past purchases
Responses to past efforts
Data from numerous other outside sources

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

814

Sources of Internal Secondary Data

Internal and Proprietary Data
Accounting information
Sales information and backorders
Customer complaints, service records, warranty
card returns, and other records.
Intranets

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

815

External Secondary Data Sources

External Data
Generated or recorded by an entity other than the researchers
organization.

Information as a product and its distribution

Libraries
Internet
Vendors
Producers
Books and periodicals
Government
Media
Trade associations
Commercial sources

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

816

EXHIBIT 8.7
Information
as a Product
and its
Distribution
Channels

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

817

Commercial Sources
Market-share data
Demographic and census updates
Consumer attitude and public opinion
research
Consumption and purchase behavior data
Advertising research

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

818

Whats That Buzzing Sound?

The Internet is filled
with billions of
consumer
conversations.
Buzzmetrics monitors
Internet conversations
for firms.

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8-19

Single-Source and Global Research Data

Single-Source Data
Diverse types of data offered by a single company.
Usually integrated on the basis of a common
variable (i.e., geographic area or store).

Government Agencies
Global secondary data
Typical limitations of secondary data
Additional pitfalls
Unavailable in some countries
Questionable accuracy (political influences)
Lack of standardized research terminology

CIAs World Factbook; National Trade Data Bank

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

820

Around the World of Data

2013 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

8-21