1.

Secondary
Data

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What is secondary data?
• Data gathered and recorded by someone else
prior to and for purposes other than the current
project.
• Historical
• Already assembled
• Needs no access to subjects

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What is secondary data?

desk research, is a research

existing information and
method that involves the
data to arrive at specific
use of information
research conclusions or
previously collected for
outcomes.
another research purpose.
Primary versus Secondary Data
 Primary data are those originated by the researcher for the
specific purpose of addressing the problem at hand

Interviewing respondents to determine their satisfaction with

their lecturer on a weekly basis

 Secondary data are those which have already been collected

for purposes other than the problem at hand
ABS data reporting the proportion of Australian households
who have access to the Internet
Secondary Data Pro’s and Con’s

May not be 100% relevant

Cheap Unsure about quality
Quick (can be immediate) May not answer all
Population census questions

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ALWAYS start with
Secondary Data!!

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WAIT!
• So we start with SECONDARY data, then PRIMARY data comes
second?
• YES!
• “Secondary” refers to using it for a secondary purpose, not that
you use it second.
• Secondary data also helps define the research problem
(background)

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Secondary Data
Sources
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Secondary Data Sources

Secondary
Data

Internal External

Sales Website Social media Call centre

Public Govt. Syndicated
transactions visits interactions calls

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Internal Secondary Data (1)
Sales
• Sales by product line
• Sales by major department (e.g., menswear, housewares)
• Sales by specific stores
• Sales by geographical region
• Sales by cash versus credit purchases
• Sales in specific time periods
• Sales by size of purchase
• Sales trends in many of these classifications
Internal Secondary
Customer Databases
• warranty cards and loyalty programs (e.g., airline
frequent flier programs):
• Demographic: names, addresses, and a great deal of
individual-specific data
• Psychographic information refers to quantified
psychological profiles of individuals.
Data (2)

E.g. Wal-Mart, has more than 75 percent of

U.S. households in its customer database.

These customer databases reside in a data

warehouse.
Internal Secondary Data (2)
• Demographic data
• Identification (name, address, telephone)
• Sex
• Marital status
• Names of family members
• Age (including ages of family members)
• Income
• Occupation
• Number of children present
• Home ownership, e.t.c
• Psychographic data
• Interrest
• In the beginning, Caterpillar had no database,
• To address:
• What truck fleets are we not calling on?
• What fleets should test our two new engines?
• How can we get a marketing strategy that can be measured?
• How do we adjust to the coming downturn in sales?
• Solution: Database marketing
• give laptops to the 260 members of the Caterpillar sales force with this provision: “You get paid for sales,
but only if the customer name and other data are entered into the laptop database.”
• 58,000 customers and 11,000 fleets of 10 trucks or more
• combined the internal databases, appended data, Motor Carriers Directory
(motorcarrierdirectory.com/), Dun &Bradstreet (www.dnb.com), and trade publication lists.
• After two years of work, they had a file of 110,000 customers, 8,000 mid-range fleets, and 34,000 heavy-duty fleets
• With the data available, they estimated
• customer lifetime value.
• Sales, service, usage, and engine model combined determined that value for
customers.
• Prospect value was determined by the group to which each prospect had been
assigned.
• CEO developed a set of different messages that could be sent to each customer and
prospect.
• sign up 500 conquest fleets.
• sold an average of 50 to 100 engines per fleet at about $15,000 per engine.
• Caterpillar market share for enginesincreased and stood at 41.04 percent in 2016.10
https://youtu.be/OFAqbfEl870

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External Secondary Data

External data is created, recorded or generated by an entity

other than the researcher’s organisation.

Sources
• Business/Nongovernment Data - Public sources (books, periodicals,
journals, newspapers, magazines, reports, and trade literature)
• Government sources (e.g. ABS)
• Syndicated sources (e.g. ACNeilsen, Kantar)

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 • There are a number of public (and

Public
often free!) sources of useful
information
• Google – and Google Trends

Sourc • Annual reports

• News and media stories

es • Trade publications
• Academic journals

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Public Sources: Google
• It has everything!
• Google Trends is particularly useful:

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Public Sources: Annual Reports
• Includes information about financial performance and future strategy
• Great way to learn about competitors!

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Public Sources: Media
• Media report on industry trends, and sometimes commission their
own research
• Australian Financial Review, The Australian
• Factiva.com is a searchable database of news

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Public Sources: Trade Publications
• Various industries have trade newsletters/ publications that provide
useful industry trends (e.g. Inside Retail)
• There are also dedicated trends publications (e.g. Stylus, WGSN)

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 • Academic journals publish the latest academic research
• Introduce new findings, theories, or methods
Public • EBSCO (www.ebscohost.com)

Sources: • Social Sciences Citation Index® (www.thomsonreuters.com) provides you

with quick, powerful access to the bibliographic and citation information you
Academic need to find research data, analyze trends, and locate jour- nals and
researchers.
Journals • Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com), have an index to conduct a guided
search.
• CI Resource Index (www.bidigital.com/ci) features competitive intelligence
information. 24
Government sources
Government Sources
• Government agencies collect and report data
• Often including full population censuses
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reports a lot of useful data for
Australia
• Birthplace of residents
• Language spoken at home by residents
• Family size
• Income levels
• Level of education

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Syndicated (Commercial) Sources
• Firms who collect, analyse and sell information to other companies
• E.g. IBISWorld, ACNielsen, Kantar, CI Research, Q&Me, Kompa,

• IBISWorld are a fantastic source of

industry data

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Others
• World Factbook by the CIA (www.cia.gov).
• Several U.S. government sources can be accessed at FedWorld
(www.fedworld.gov).
• Extensive business statistics can be obtained from FedStats
(fedstats.sites.usa.gov).
• FedStats compiles statistical information from more than 100 agencies. The
U.S. Department of Commerce can be reached at www.doc.gov.
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides useful information, especially
consumer expenditure surveys (www.bls.gov).
• A wide range of economic statistics can be obtained from the Bureau of
Economic Analysis (www.bea.gov)
Task
• Obtain inbound tourist figures for your country for the past five years
from secondary sources.
• Identify the key target tourist countries.
Or
• Visit the Web site of a company of your choice. Suppose the
management decision problem facing this company is to expand its
share of the market. Obtain secondary data from the Web site of this
company and other sources on the Internet that are relevant to this
problem.
Syndicated Sources of
Secondary Data
Syndicated Data from
Households/Consumers (1)
Surveys
• Interviews with a large number of respondents using a predesigned
questionnaire.
Syndicated panel surveys
• Surveys that measure the same group of respondents over time but
not necessarily on the same variables.
Psychographics and lifestyles
• Lifestyles refers to the distinctive modes of living of a society or some
of its segments.
Syndicated Data from
Households/Consumers (2)
• Lifestyles: Distinctive patterns of living that are described by:
• the activities people engage in,
• the interests they have,
• the opinions they hold of themselves and the world around them (AIOs).
• Kantar Futures (thefuturescompany.com) offers the Global Subscription that
covers global lifestyles, changes, and trends.
• GfK (www.gfk.com) offers a consumer panel that explores various aspects
of consumer lifestyles and shopping behavior.
• Several firms conduct surveys to compile demographic and psychographic
information at the household, subZIP (e.g., 30306-3035), and ZIP-Code
level, which is then made available on a subscription basis.
Syndicated Data from
Households/Consumers (3)
• ADVERTISING EVALUATION
• G&R Research and Consulting (www.gandrllc.com) is a well-known firm that
offers real-world solutions for each major media, including TV, digital, mobile,
magazines, and newspapers
• GENERAL SURVEYS
• The Harris Poll (www.theharrispoll.com) conducts surveys on wide-ranging
topics such as politics, sports, business, and health.
• USES OF SURVEYS
 Syndicated Data from
Households/Consumers (4)
• Purchase panels
• The NPD Group (www.npd.com) is a leading provider of market information collected and delivered
online for a wide range of industries and markets.
• The Kantar Worldpanel (www.kantarworldpanel.com) maintains several purchase and usage panels.
• the preferences of young consumers,
• manufacturer activity through new launches and media,
• the increased availability of imported products through online and overseas channels.
 According to Kantar Worldpanel’s research, the sales performance of breakfast cereal experienced dramatic
growth during 2012 to 2016.
• MEDIA PANELS
• Nielsen (www.nielsen.com), which provides television ratings and audience estimates
• Electronic Scanner Services
• Scantrack (Nielsen, www.nielsen.com)
• electronic point of sale (POS)
Syndicated
Data from
Institutions
Task
Go to Nielsen home page at www.nielsen.com. View the most recent
Total Audience Measurement Report. To download the full report, you
will have to provide some information and there is no cost. This report
examines trends in penetration, users, and usage across all platforms;
shows how different demographic groups spend their media time; and
explores the contributions of heavy users.

• Which type of media is the most popular among U.S. adults?

• Of the new technologies, which type of media has the largest reach?
• What are the major findings of this report?
Task
• Select an industry of your choice.
• Using secondary sources, obtain industry sales and the sales of the
major firms in that industry for the past year.
• Estimate the market shares of each major firm.
• From another source, obtain information on the market shares of
these same firms.
• Do the two estimates agree?
Evaluating Secondary Data

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 Why evaluate secondary data?
Secondary data can be very beneficial
HOWEVER, it is important that we evaluate the quality of the data.
•The source is trusted
•the sample characteristics, time of collection, and response rate (if
relevant) of the data are appropriate the methods of data collection are
appropriate and acceptable in your discipline
•the data were collected in a consistent way
•any data coding or modification is appropriate and sufficient
•the documentation of the original study in which the data were collected is
detailed enough for you to assess its quality
•there is enough information in the metadata or data to properly cite the
original source.
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Evaluating Secondary Data
Summary
Secondary Data can be extremely useful

• Cheaper and quicker than collecting our own data

• Help better define the research problem

There are internal and external sources

• Big Data and Social Media are big trends

BUT, it is crucial to evaluate the data

• Timeframe
• Measurement
• Accuracy

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