BASIC MARKETING RESEARCH: A DECISION MAKING APPROACH (3rd ed.)
LECTURE NOTES
Presented by: Teoman Duman
Chapter 4. Exploratory Research Design: Secondary Data
 Vindicator Example – The Vindicator newspaper compiled data from internal and outside
sources to use in advertising space selling. Sales reps were more successful to convince
customers to advertise with Vindicator by using actual data from different sources. External
secondary data were compiled by Inland Research Corp, a syndicated service that compiles and
sells data to companies.
 Figure 4.2. presents an overview of the chapter.
 Primary vs. secondary data – Primary data refer to data that are collected by the researcher for
the specific purpose of the research problem. Secondary data refer to data that are collected for
some purpose other than the problem at hand.
 Advantages of using secondary data – Useful for estimating demand, monitoring the
environment, developing business intelligence systems, segementing and targeting, and for other
marketing purposes. These data can be used in any phase of marketing research process. For
example, researcher can formulate the research problem more easily with some preconcieved
information as the researcher can interpret findings with secondary data more meaningfully.
 Disadvantages of secondary data – This type of data may not fit the current research problem.
Also, secondary data might be lacking in terms of accuracy, compatibility of units of
measurement, or time frame.
 Criteria for evaluating secondary data – Table 4.2. gives the criteria for evaluating secondary
data.
 Classification of secondary data – categorized into two groups – internal data, external data.
 Internal secondary data – generated within the organization for which the research is
being conducted. They come from accounting records, sales reports, production or
operation reports, internal experts.
 Data warehouse - Customer databases – centralized database that
consolidates company-wide data from a variety of operational systems.
 Psychographics – refer to quantified psychological profiles of
individuals.
 Data mining – technique involving the use of powerful computers and
advanced statistical and other software to analze large databases in order
to discover hidden patterns in data.
 Customer relationship management (CRM) – a decision support
system that is used for managing the interactions between an
organization and its customers.
 Database marketing – the practice of using CRM databases to develop
relationships and highly targeted marketing efforts with individuals and
customer groups.
 External secondary data – Published sources – A classification of published secondary
sources are given in Figure 4.4.
 Combining internal and external secondary data
 Geo-demographic coding – involves merging internal customer data with external
geographic, demographic and lifestyle data on the same customers.
 Syndicated services – Firms that sell membership to reach databases. Example –
Claritas sells its famous product PRIZM (Potential Rating Index for Zip Markets).
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