Question

Secondary or extant data (data that is already available) can be very helpful for any marketing research project. Because it is already available, there is no need for you to spend the time or the money to repeat studies or surveys that have already been done. A quick scan of extant data at the beginning of a research project can save a lot of time and help you decide how to best budget your time and resources. Using extant data can also be problematic. If a study was conducted for a different purpose than yours, results may not be exactly applicable to your situation. Also, sometimes it can be just as difficult or expensive to get secondary data as it is to perform the actual research. Therefore, it is important to examine sources of extant data carefully and make good decisions about when it is appropriate to rely on existing information and when you need to conduct primary research yourself.

The purpose of this assignment is to identify sources of data and use the information from those sources to create a marketing research design.

First, identify a minimum of three sources of data. Using the data and your own research, write a 1,500-2,000 word research design. Include the following criteria:

1. A brief description of each sources of data and a 100-word summary of information collected.
2. A description of the research design.
3. A description of the type of data to be collected (qualitative/quantitative), with rationale for their use.
4. A description of the chosen data collection method with procedure.
5. A description of the population.
6. A description of sampling size, frame, and technique.

Answer 1

ANSWERS

1. There are two methods of collecting data i.e., through Primary data & secondary data which you have already mentioned. Now, we talk about the sources of data.

In primary data collection, the sources of collecting data can be through survey, interviews, Questionaire, community or large meetings, Observation, social media monitoring etc.

In Survey, we focus on a group of people or a segment of the total population. We forecast their behaviour on the basis of their characterstics, prefrences and their behavior. In simple words, we ask them questions or observe them and make our result on the basis of their behaviour.

In interviews, we can take individual interviews or group interviews. The interviews can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured. In structured interview, we have a formal pattern of asking questions to the interviewee. The same questions are asked to everyone and in the same order. in semi-structured, we have some specific questions to ask but also encourage interviewee to give their own opition on the related topic. In unstructured, this is more like a conversation than a formal interview. These type of interviews are less stressed.

In Questionaire, we design certain questions and ask the targeted audience to answer them and on the basis of their annswers we conclude the result of our research.

Obeservation is like someone go and get involve in the life of the population and observe their behaviour, actions and their interaction while recording which he gets as the result.

In secondary data collection, the sources of data are company websites, government statistics, newspapers, magazine articles and industrial assosiations.

Large companies have the section on their websites where they share the information related to their company like annual reports etc. Various government companies also share their information like detail about their products, annual reports , their policies, organizational structure etc. Newspapers and magazines are also a big source of information

2. Research design: It includes the strategy, methods and the procedure of collecting the data from various sources of information. In other words, it is the blueprint of collecting, measuring and analyzing the data to get the information out of this which are answers of the research questions. It includes all the information related to the sample plan and size of the sample. There are four types of research design:
a. Descriptive Research design: In this researcher describe a situation or a case study and gather data from that theory base research. These data is further measured and analyzed.
b. Experimental research design: In this researcher establish a relationship between the cause and effect of the situation.
c. Explanatory research design: This research done on the problem which was not researched properly, so this includes the detailed research.
d. Correlational Research Design: This research is based on two variables. It believes that one variable does not cause change in another variable.

3. It depends on what type of information the researcher wants to obtain. If he wants to get the results which are analyzed in numerical terms or the facts and the opinions of the population.

Quantitative research is made when the data should be analyzed in numerical terms e.g. making the census record of the voter population in the country. Another example can be if the research is done on some beauty product so we can ask like rate the product from 1 to 5 in which 1 is very poor and 5 is very good. So such type of information can me measured in the numerical terms and helps in getting the accurate results. This can be obtained in both primary and secondary research.

Qualitative research is made when the researcher wants to get the answer of questions that can't be measured numerically or when we want deeper examination of the community or the situation. For example you are researching on what are the needs of the community and how they can be fulfilled, so such kind of research results cannot be measured in numeric terms. Here, we determine the preferences of the customers. The results that we get from qualitative research can be further used to do the quantitative research to get more accurate results and facts.

4. Here we are choosing the secondary data research method and our source of data are the websites, newspaper articles and magazines. We will consider some of the primary and secondary research (which were done earlier) to check what are their different sources of collecting data for their search and how much they succeed after using those sources.