Secondary Research

Secondary Research

Secondary research is data that has already been collected and published by someone else. You can get hold of this information over the internet, books and encyclopedia.

Example of a secondary research;

·         Periodicals.

·         Specialist marketing reports i.e Mintel

·         Industry magazines.

·         Chamber of commerce.

·         Government statistics.

·         Internet.

·         Professional bodies.

·         Trade associations.

Here Is an example

Off the internet

Xbox 360 games which have sold or shipped five million copies

Title	Total copies sold	Sales breakdown	Release date	Genre	Developer	Publisher
Grand Theft Auto V	8 million? (16 million is TOTAL sales including PS3 numbers)[29]	N/A	NA September 17, 2013 AUS September 17, 2013 EU September 17, 2013	Action-adventure game	Rockstar North	Rockstar Games
Call of Duty: Black Ops	12 million[30]	N/A	WWNovember 9, 2010[31] JPNovember 18, 2010(Sub) JPDecember 16, 2010(Dub)	First-person shooter	Treyarch	Activision
Halo 3	8.1 million[32]	N/A	NA September 25, 2007 AUS September 25, 2007 EU September 26, 2007	First-person shooter	Bungie	Microsoft
Minecraft	8 million[33]	N/A	WW May 9, 2012[34]	Sandbox game	Mojang/4J Studios	Microsoft
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2	7.562 million	6.471 million in the US[35][36][37][38] 1 million in the UK[39] 87,374 plus 3,944 The Best in Japan[40]	NA November 10, 2009 PAL November 10, 2009	First-person shooter	Infinity Ward	Activision
Gears of War	5 million[b][41]	N/A	NA November 7, 2006 EU November 17, 2006 AUS November 23, 2006 JP January 18, 2007	Third-person shooter	Epic Games	Microsoft
Gears of War 2	5 million[42]	N/A	WWNovember 7, 2008[43] JP July 30, 2009	Third-person shooter	Epic Games	Microsoft

This is a good secondary research because it is clear and gives us some good information about the games sold for a console. However, This is bad data o use because we do not know if this is correct information about the games. On the other hand, We do not know who has done this table and if we can trust this data in our research.

Disavanages of Secondary Research;

·         The information and data may not be accurate

·         The data maybe old and out of date.

·         The sample used to generate the secondary data maybe small.

·         The company publishing the data may not be reputable. 

Advantages of Secodary Research;

·         Easy to get hold of the data.

·         It can also save you alot of money.

·         Saves time and effort.

·         Can sometimes be reliable.