How Data Used in Marketing Research? 

Often, Marketers use what's called secondary data (data that's already available or on hand). This can be internet information. We can look at company records (such as sales records and all sorts of other data points).

Sometimes we have to go outside of the company. That's where public records can come in handy. The us government and other organizations out there track a lot of information and data. These public records can be a really useful source for guiding us and making decisions as well.

Sometimes, the data that we need or the information that we need to come up with is not available. In that case, we have to get what's called primary data. This is data that we go out and gather ourselves. 

Now, there's many different ways that we can gather that data. For example, we can ask questions surveys and things of that nature. Another source of primary data is checkout scanners. So you may not realize this but every time you buy something in a store that's creating data and somebody's tracking that data. 

Lastly. we can just observe what happens around us. By making observations we can generate primary data without even necessarily having to talk to anyone else or or use any sort of scanner. 

Related Topics

• Marketing Research Overview
• Quantitative and Qualitative Research
• Primary Research
• Secondary Research
• Determining the Right Marketing Strategy
• What is a Marketing Information System?
• What are Decision Support Systems?
• What are Marketing Models?
• What is a Marketing Dashboard?
• What Kinds of Data can we Use?
• Methods of Collecting Data
• What are Focus Groups?
• What is Group Think?
• What are Scanner Data?
• What is Web Tracking?
• What is Ethnography?
• What is Experimental` Research?
• What is Use of Statistics
• What Distorts the Results of Marketing Research?
• Challenges of International Market Research?