Secondary Marketing Research

Secondary marketing research, or desk research, already exist in one form or another. It is relatively cheap, and can be conducted quite quickly .However, it tends to have been collected for reasons other than for the problem or objective at hand. So it may be untargeted, and difficult to use to make comparisons (e.g. financial data gather on Australian pensions will be different to data on Italian pensions).

We have given a general introduction to marketing research. Marketing research is a huge topic area and has many processes, procedures, and terminologies that build upon the points above. (See also lesson on market research and primary marketing research)

There are a number of such sources available to the marketer, and the following list is by no means conclusive:

Trade associations
National and local press Industry magazines
National/international governments
Websites
Informal contacts
Trade directories
Published company accounts
Business libraries
Professional institutes and organisations
Omnibus surveys
Previously gathered marketing research
Census data
Public records