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Explore the advantages of secondary market research methods to gather valuable consumer information quickly and cost-effectively. Discover various sources and strategies for conducting efficient secondary research projects.
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SECONDARY MARKET RESEARCH FINDING INFORMATION ABOUT CONSUMERS
Market Research • Two types of market research • Secondary: Use of existing information compiled by someone else or generated from internal records (e.g., billing statements, shipping records) • Primary research: Research performed expressly to obtain information on customers and markets (e.g., surveys, experiments, focus groups) • Secondary sources may not have sufficiently current and/or specific information. However, when these sources are available: • Costs are usually much lower • Information can be accessed much quickly
Some sources of secondary data: • Internal records/information system • Trade journals, magazines, and newspapers • Each industry usually has one or more trade journals—publications dealing with issues specific to this industry (e.g., Women’s Wear Daily, Air Cargo World, Ice Cream Reporter) • General business publications—e.g., Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Financial Times • General newspapers and magazines may address relevant issues • Reviews in consumer magazines of relevant product categories • Government documents • Compilations/reports (e.g., Economist Intelligence Unit reports on specific countries) • Other data bases (e.g., Hoover’s, Business & Company Resource Center)
AND: Both conditions have to be true ICE CREAM AND CARBOHYDRATE
OR: One or both conditions must be true DESSERT OR SNACK
AND NOT: The first but NOT the second condition must be true PRICING AND NOT FINANCE
The Search Form Note: In specifying searches, less is often more. You should avoid extraneous words that may have synonyms.
Other Search Types • Location (country or region) • Product name (but not company name) • NAICS code (see below) • Person name (e.g., the name of a company CEO)
“Snow Balling”: Using article records to find additional relevant articles
Demographic and Statistical Information: Quick Reference • Statistical Abstracts of the United States http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/
Finding Books • The USC Libraries have the HOMER database of books • However, Amazon.com may provide a more useful list: • Collaborative filtering: Comparison to what others who bought particular books bought • Expanded search algorithms to identify related topics • In the second phase, HOMER can help retrieve those books we have in stock
Closing Words • The only way to learn these searches is actual practice