When should primary and secondary data be used?

Market research can be split into two broad categories; primary research and secondary research. Secondary research simply involves collating and summarising existing research, while primary research consists of collecting data through original research.

When Is Secondary Research Effective?

The Internet has brought with it the option for marketers to easily access high quality research and data. Getting hold of this secondary research is also much less expensive than if the researcher had to carry out original research themselves.

Researchers may find that the exact answers they are looking for are available via secondary sources, eliminating the need and expense of carrying out their own primary research.

Secondary Research Is Useful When…

• There is already an abundance of reliable and up-to-date research that can be accessed and applied to your specific project.
• Feedback is required quickly. Secondary research can usually be carried out immediately and results compiled swiftly.
• There is little or no budget to carry out original research. Secondary research is often free, or can be obtained for relatively small fee.
• Primary research objectives need to be clarified. Initial secondary research can be used to set the stage for larger-scale primary research.

Secondary Research Is Not Suitable When…

•  The project has unique needs or there is a shortage of accessible research that is specific to the researchers needs.
• It is difficult to evaluate the reliability and validity of the information, and how it was gathered, analysed and presented.
• The information was collected well in the past. Out-of-date information may offer little value, especially in fast-changing markets.
• The goal of the research is to gain a competitive advantage. Secondary research is not undertaken exclusively for one company – it’s available to many. Consequently there is no information advantage to be gained.

The Trend Report Library is an excellent secondary research resource for the K&B and home improvement industries.

When Is Primary Research Effective?

Carrying out primary research allows organisations to address issues and explore topics specific to their own situation.  Unlike secondary research, primary research also provides proprietary information which can potentially offer the company a competitive advantage.

Primary research gives the researcher a high level of control over how the data is collected – allowing them to tailor the size of the project, location of research and the demographics of participants to the organisation’s specific requirements.

It also allows the researcher to choose the best research methodology for their specific project; whether this is surveys, focus groups, field interviews, observation, experimental field tests, or a combination of several methodologies.

Primary research is research conducted by you or your team that examines and collects information directly from the context of the design problem. 

Simply put, primary research is research that is your own original work.

For example, if a researcher is interested in learning about the dietary habits of people in a particular region, he or she could administer a survey to residents of that region inquiring about what types of food they typically eat. 

Here, the researcher would be performing primary research.

What is Secondary Research?

Contrary to primary research, secondary research is research that was originally conducted by someone else.

Using our example from above, if after doing some investigation the researcher learns that a similar study has already been performed, he or she could utilize the results and findings from that study to assist him with his overall goal. 

Here the researcher would be performing secondary research.

Related: Why You Should Consider Secondary Data Analysis for Your Next Study 

Secondary research can be performed by leveraging the following sources:

• Academic peer-reviewed journals

• Magazines

• Books

• Market research reports

• Any other form of publicly available and accessible information


When to Use Secondary Research

Use secondary research as a starting point for your research process. 

Imagine that you’ve been tasked with developing an exercise program for elderly people. 

The goal of the program is to outline and schedule exercises and workouts in order to promote healthy lifestyles amongst senior citizens. 

But there’s a catch — You don’t have any experience in exercise science or developing this kind of program. 

The best place to start in order to kick off the project would be to leverage existing research.

You could review publicly available materials on exercise regimens optimized for the age of your target audience. This could involve reading published research reports, books, or articles.

Your findings from this secondary research could then help you define your own approach for how you plan to create the fitness plan for senior citizens. Additionally, starting with secondary research gives you an understanding of what's already been done, and it alerts you of where there may be gaps. 

Secondary research can help you understand what you don’t know.

Continuing on with our example above, you may realize that after researching existing materials on senior citizens and exercising that you know very little about what will motivate elderly people to exercise. 

If you find yourself in a similar situation, continue to identify resources to educate yourself on the matter at hand. 

In this case, secondary research has already saved you some time. If you had opted to not perform secondary research, and instead had made an attempt to build the exercise program from scratch using gut instinct, you would have spent a considerable amount of time banging your head against a theoretical wall to no avail.

If after digging into the available secondary sources, you realize that you still don’t have the precise knowledge needed to develop an effective program, you might then decide that primary research is the only viable way for you to move forward. 

Using Primary Research and Secondary Research Together

Once you have a deep understanding of the problem at hand thanks to your secondary research, you can then plan your primary research efforts accordingly, so that you can fill in any gaps and obtain any information that was previously missing.

Both methods are most effective when they work together.

Surveys Are Great Tools for Performing Primary Research 

Surveys are one of the most commonly used ways in which original data not found through secondary research is collected. 

This is because surveys are context-specific, meaning that the data collected from the survey comes directly from your exact target audience. Plus, there are essentially limitless ways to customize and tailor your survey to resonate with your target audience, which allows you to collect only the most pertinent data for your project.

When should primary data be used?

When should secondary data be used?

When it is better to use primary research and when it is best to use secondary research?