Primary Market Research vs. Secondary Market Research

Every business needs to understand its audience segment to sell anything. Conducting market research provides businesses with information that gives them a better understanding of what consumers need and want. There are two methods of collecting this data – primary market research and secondary market research. Most businesses use a combination of both these methods. Primary market research involves collecting information directly from the source through interviews, focus groups, and other interactions. Transcription supports this process. Research transcription agencies provide accurate text documents of these audio or video recordings, allowing researchers to analyze and interpret the data more easily.

Market research is essential for digital marketing. There are many cost-effective and efficient online and mobile market research methods that businesses can use to conduct market research for the following purposes:

• Track consumer journeys
• Discover opportunities and the best marketing avenues
• See what promos and ads perform the best
• Explore new markets and find which are easy to enter
• Evaluate and understand their target audience
• Uncover research potential for a product or service
• Understand market trends
• Monitor competitor activity and tactics
• Identify new topics or content to write about

The main difference between primary and secondary research is with regards to the source and how the information is collected. Understanding the processes of primary and secondary market research is essential to use them effectively and make informed decisions. Research transcription can ensure accurate reports of various audio/video interactions.

What is Primary Market Research?

Primary research involves collecting raw data or information directly from the source. It is used when information is not available from pre-existing data sources. Primary market research uses both qualitative research and quantitative research techniques. It involves conducting market research interviews, focus groups, polls, experiments, and observations and analyzing the data to gain insights.

• Interviews: Interviews are useful when you need to collect in-depth information about a specific topic from an expert. These question-answer sessions can be conducted over the phone or face-to-face. Asking follow-on questions can provide more clarity.

• Focus groups: This market research tool helps businesses collect qualitative information about a product or service through an interaction of individuals led by a moderator. Focus groups can provide information about customers’ specific wants, needs, and problems.

• Polls: Conducting polls is a great way to obtain general information about a particular thing. Polls focus on one multiple choice question to get an opinion about which product or service they prefer, which they use most often, why they don’t use a particular product, or service, etc. Social media polls can provide you with timely customer feedback about the type of services/products your customers need, though it is not recommended to collect detailed information over a longer time period.

• Surveys: While a poll helps you understand why people make specific choices via a single multiple choice question, a survey involves asking a series of questions to get more nuanced answers from a larger set of people. Drive Research, a market research company in NYC considers 400 responses as the ideal number of responses for market research surveys.

Conventional primary research is often costly and time-consuming. Today, there are many cost-effective online primary research tools that can help you collect accurate, customized data quickly.

What is Secondary Research?

Researchers also gather data from existing sources. This is secondary research. Secondary research involves collecting and analyzing information collected by other people. Sources of secondary data include government reports, industry publications, company websites, market research reports, articles and other published information.

Secondary market research usually precedes primary market research and is conducted on the internet. Online market research helps you collect data from various sources to support primary research or get more information about a particular topic. The data is then analyzed to learn more about something or validate a theory

Though secondary market research is easier, and less costly and time-consuming than primary research, it cannot provide original and detailed information.

Make the Most of Market Research Data with Transcription Services

Partnering with an online transcription company can help researchers make the most of the primary market research data they collect. Experienced transcriptionists will listen to the audio or video recordings of market research interviews or focus groups and convert the spoken words into text format. This will help you analyze and interpret the data collected via audio/video interactions more easily.

Accurate market research transcription can help researchers in many ways:

• Facilitates easier analysis of the data
• Performing keyword analysis on transcripts is an effective approach to analyze large volumes of customer data
• Helps distinguish key topics and trends
• Promotes informed decision making based on the insights
• Helps in the preparation of reports and summaries of the research findings

That’s why you need to make sure your market research transcription is handled by an experienced service provider:

• Experts will have a good understanding of the subject matter, technical jargon and industry-specific terminology.
• They can ensure accuracy and attention to detail, even for sessions that involve multiple participants.
• Identification of nonverbal cues, such as pauses, laughter, and tone of results, which can provide additional information about participants’ thoughts and feelings.
• Specialized software and other advanced tools are used to provide superior results.

Market research supported by research transcription services are an important tool for businesses to gain deeper insights about their target audience’s needs, wants and concerns as well as competitive trends. Whether it’s primary or secondary market research, accurate transcripts are essential to gain product, industry, and customer insights and make valid decisions based on the information.