Chapter Five
Secondary Sources of
Marketing Data
Esther, Tseng
曾愛華
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Outlines
 Data Sources
 Sources of Secondary Data
 Internal Sources, External Sources
 Uses of Secondary Data
 Benefits and Limitations of Secondary Data
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Internal Sources of Secondary Data
External Sources of Secondary Data
Appraising Secondary Sources
Sources of Secondary Data for International
Marketing Research
 Problems Associated with Secondary Data in
International Research
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Data Sources
 Secondary Data
 Primary Data
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Sources of Secondary Data
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Uses of Secondary Data
 May provide enough information to resolve the
problem being investigated
 Can be a source of new ideas that can be
explored later
 Acts as a prerequisite to collecting primary data
and can help in designing the primary data
collection process
 Helps to define the problem and formulate
hypotheses about its solution
 Helps in defining the population / sample /
parameters of primary research
 Can serve as a reference base to compare validity
of primary data
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Benefits and Limitations of
Secondary Data
Benefits
 Low cost
 Less effort
 Less time
 Sometimes more
accurate
 Sometimes only way
to obtain data
Limitations
 Collected for some other
purpose
 No control over data
collection
 May not be accurate
 May not be in correct form
 May be outdated
 May not meet data
requirements
 Assumptions have to be
made
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Internal Sources of Secondary
Data
 Accounting Data
 Sales Reports
 Inventory Management
 Customer Database
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External Sources of Secondary
Data
 Published data sources (e.g., Census,
publications of various trade associations)
 Trade directories
 Computer retrievable databases ("online"
databases)
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Appraising Secondary Sources
Factors to Be Considered:
 Who has collected the data (did they have
adequate resources)?
 Why was the data collected (how interests of the
agency matches with ours)?
 How was the data collected (what is the quality of
data on-hand)?
 What data was collected (geographic and
demographic limitations)?
 When was the data collected (how old/obsolete is
the data)? Is there consistency?
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Problems Associated with Secondary Data
in International Research
 Data Accuracy
 Comparability of Data
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The End
Thank you!!
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Applications of Secondary Data
 Demand Estimation
 Monitoring the Environment
 Segmentation and Targeting
 Developing a Business Intelligence
System
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Applications of Secondary Data (Contd.)
Demand Estimation
Monitoring the Environment
 Census data
 Standard Industrial
Classification (SIC)
 Trade association data
 Experts and authorities
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Press releases
Legislation and laws
Industry news
Business and
practitioner literature,
such as magazines
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Applications of Secondary Data (Contd.)
Developing a Business
Intelligence System
Segmentation and Targeting
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PRIZM
CLUSTER PLUS
ACORN
DMI
NAICS
TIGER
 Competitor’s annual
reports
 Press releases
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Applications of Secondary Data in
International Research
 Selecting countries or markets that merit
in-depth investigation
 Making an initial estimate of demand
potential in one or more countries using:
 Lead-lag Analysis
 Surrogate Indicators
 Cross-sectional Data / Barometric
Procedures
 Econometric Forecasting Model
 Monitoring environmental changes
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Sources of Secondary Data for
International Marketing Research
Economic Data
 United Nations
 World Bank
 Business International Publications
 Euromonitor
 World Casts
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Sources of Secondary Data for
International Marketing Research (Contd.)
Industry Data
 United Nations yearbooks
 U.S. Department of commerce
 The Economist (publication)
 Worldcasts
Background Data
 Dun and Bradstreet publications (e.g.,
Exporter's guide)
 Price Waterhouse publications
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