Show
Chapter Objectives Marketing information must be timely, organised, useful and in a simple form if it is to ease decision making. It should also be easily manipulated to satisfy the changing and ad hoc requirements of management for information. There is more to marketing information than marketing research. Indeed, marketing research is a subsystem of the marketing information system. A Marketing Information System (MIS) is a structure within an organisation designed to gather, process and store data from the organisation's external and internal environment and to disseminate this in the form of information to the organisation's marketing decision makers. The activities performed by an MIS and its subsystems include information discovery, collection, interpretation (which may involve validation and filtering), analysis, and intra-company dissemination (storage, transmission, and/or dumping). Chapter ObjectivesThe objectives of this chapter are: · To convince the reader of the benefits of beginning any marketing research with a thorough search of secondary sources of data Structure Of The ChapterAt the outset of the chapter a strong case is made for studying secondary data before engaging in primary research. The potential benefits of beginning any study with secondary data are outlined, including the prospect that in some cases possession of relevant secondary data may obviate the need for primary research to be undertaken at all. This discussion is followed by an overview of the questions that should be asked when evaluating secondary sources and data in terms of their validity and accuracy. Thereafter, the principal internal and external sources of secondary data are described. The final section of this chapter briefly points towards future developments in the storage and retrieval of secondary data. Mention is made of electronic systems like the Internet and CD-ROMs. The nature of secondary sources of informationSecondary data is data which has been collected by individuals or agencies for purposes other than those of our particular research study. For example, if a government department has conducted a survey of, say, family food expenditures, then a food manufacturer might use this data in the organisation's evaluations of the total potential market for a new product. Similarly, statistics prepared by a ministry on agricultural production will prove useful to a whole host of people and organisations, including those marketing agricultural supplies. No marketing research study should be undertaken without a prior search of secondary sources (also termed desk research). There are several grounds for making such a bold statement. · Secondary data may be available which is entirely appropriate and wholly adequate to draw conclusions and answer the question or solve the problem. Sometimes primary data collection simply is not necessary. The problems of secondary sourcesWhilst the benefits of secondary sources are considerable, their shortcomings have to be acknowledged. There is a need to evaluate the quality of both the source of the data and the data itself. The main problems may be categorised as follows:
Whenever possible, marketing researchers ought to use multiple sources of secondary data. In this way, these different sources can be cross-checked as confirmation of one another. Where differences occur an explanation for these must be found or the data should be set aside. Figure 2.1 presents a flowchart depicting the decision path that should be followed when using secondary data. As can be seen, the flowchart divides into two phases. The early stages of the flowchart relate to the relevance of the data to the research objectives. The later stages of the flowchart are concerned with questions about the accuracy of secondary data. Figure 2.1 Evaluating secondary data Sources of informationSecondary sources of information may be divided into two categories: internal sources and external sources. Internal sources of secondary informationSales data : All organisations collect information in the course of their everyday operations. Orders are received and delivered, costs are recorded, sales personnel submit visit reports, invoices are sent out, returned goods are recorded and so on. Much of this information is of potential use in marketing research but a surprising amount of it is actually used. Organisations frequently overlook this valuable resource by not beginning their search of secondary sources with an internal audit of sales invoices, orders, inquiries about products not stocked, returns from customers and sales force customer calling sheets. For example, consider how much information can be obtained from sales orders and invoices: · Sales by territory This type of data is useful for identifying an organisation's most profitable product and customers. It can also serve to track trends within the enterprise's existing customer group. Financial data: An organisation has a great deal of data within its files on the cost of producing, storing, transporting and marketing each of its products and product lines. Such data has many uses in marketing research including allowing measurement of the efficiency of marketing operations. It can also be used to estimate the costs attached to new products under consideration, of particular utilisation (in production, storage and transportation) at which an organisation's unit costs begin to fall. Transport data: Companies that keep good records relating to their transport operations are well placed to establish which are the most profitable routes, and loads, as well as the most cost effective routing patterns. Good data on transport operations enables the enterprise to perform trade-off analysis and thereby establish whether it makes economic sense to own or hire vehicles, or the point at which a balance of the two gives the best financial outcome. Storage data: The rate of stockturn, stockhandling costs, assessing the efficiency of certain marketing operations and the efficiency of the marketing system as a whole. More sophisticated accounting systems assign costs to the cubic space occupied by individual products and the time period over which the product occupies the space. These systems can be further refined so that the profitability per unit, and rate of sale, are added. In this way, the direct product profitability can be calculated. External sources of secondary informationThe marketing researcher who seriously seeks after useful secondary data is more often surprised by its abundance than by its scarcity. Too often, the researcher has secretly (sometimes subconsciously) concluded from the outset that his/her topic of study is so unique or specialised that a research of secondary sources is futile. Consequently, only a specified search is made with no real expectation of sources. Cursory researches become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Dillon et. al3 give the following advice: "You should never begin a half-hearted search with the assumption that what is being sought is so unique that no one else has ever bothered to collect it and publish it. On the contrary, assume there are scrolling secondary data that should help provide definition and scope for the primary research effort." The same authors support their advice by citing the large numbers of organisations that provide marketing information including national and local government agencies, quasi-government agencies, trade associations, universities, research institutes, financial institutions, specialist suppliers of secondary marketing data and professional marketing research enterprises. Dillon et al further advise that searches of printed sources of secondary data begin with referral texts such as directories, indexes, handbooks and guides. These sorts of publications rarely provide the data in which the researcher is interested but serve in helping him/her locate potentially useful data sources. The main sources of external secondary sources are (1) government (federal, state and local) (2) trade associations (3) commercial services (4) national and international institutions.
The information super-highwayAdvances in computers and telecommunications technology have combined to allow people around the world to exchange information quickly and inexpensively. The computers of organisations, governments and even individuals can be linked to transmit and receive information through an international network of telephone lines, fibre optic cables and satellites. This international network is commonly known as the Internet. Chapter SummaryA search of secondary data sources should precede any primary research activity. Secondary data may be sufficient to solve the problem, or at least it helps the reader better understand the problem under study. Secondary data is cheaper and quicker to collect than primary data and can be more accurate. Before making use of secondary data there is need to evaluate both the data itself and its source. Particular attention should be paid to definitions used, measurement error, source bias, reliability and the time span of the secondary data. Where possible, multiple data sources should be used so that one source can be cross-checked for consistency with another. A great deal of potentially useful secondary information already exists within enterprises. Typically useful information would be that relating to sales, finance, production, storage and transportation. Where a serious search of secondary sources is undertaken then the marketing researcher often finds an abundance of relevant material. Searches of printed secondary data should begin with a consultation of referral sources such as directories, handbooks, indexes, and the like. It will almost certainly become the case, in all parts of the world, that electronic information sources will eventually supersede traditional printed sources. With the advent of Internet and CD-ROM, searches of secondary sources are becoming more efficient and more effective. Computer-based information systems give access to four different types of database bibliographic, numeric, directories and full-text. Key TermsFull-text databases Review QuestionsFrom your knowledge of the material in this chapter, give brief answers to the following questions: 1. How do Dillon et al. advise researchers to begin their search for secondary data? Chapter References1. Green, P.E. Tull, D.S. and Albaum G (1993) Research methods for marketing decisions, 5th edition, Prentice Hall, p.136. 2. Joselyn, R. W. (1977) Designing the marketing research, Petrocellis/Charter, New York, p.15. 3. Dillon, W.R., Madden, T.. and Firtle, N. H., (1994) Marketing Research in a Research Environment, 3rd edition, Irwin.
Which of the following describes data developed or gathered by the researcher specifically for the research project at hand?Primary data refers to the first hand data gathered by the researcher himself. Secondary data means data collected by someone else earlier. Surveys, observations, experiments, questionnaire, personal interview, etc.
Which type of data refers to data that have been gathered by someone other than the researcher and or for some other purpose than the research project at hand?Secondary data refers to data that is collected by someone other than the primary user. Common sources of secondary data for social science include censuses, information collected by government departments, organizational records and data that was originally collected for other research purposes.
Which type of data are information directly gathered by the researcher or are based on first hand experience?A primary data source is an original data source, that is, one in which the data are collected firsthand by the researcher for a specific research purpose or project.
Which type of data refers to the data or information previously gathered and published by organizations or persons?Secondary data is the data that has already been collected through primary sources and made readily available for researchers to use for their own research. It is a type of data that has already been collected in the past.
|