5 Types of Secondary Data

In marketing research, there are two types of data: primary and secondary. Primary data is data that has to be collected and analyzed from scratch, while secondary data refers to data that already exists and was gathered for purposes other than current research project. It is increasingly used to examine a wide variety of marketing and business problems because of the relative speed and cost-effectiveness of obtaining the data. Below are 5 types of secondary data that a company that can collect to help it decide whether it should go into a new catering business (Hair et. al, 2009):

1. Sales data - Sales Activity Reports (Internal)
These reports contain data on sales, competition, territory activities, and changes in the market place (if it is competitor intelligence, it is not considered internal data) , enabling the company to identify potential target markets, sales trends and competition. With this data, the company would be able to forecast future sales trends and revenues for its catering business. For example, the daily sales activity report would provide the company with insight: the monitoring and identifying of sales frequency (i.e. cyclical nature of the sales – sale increase during festive seasons) would enable the company to formulate its marketing strategy appropriately (i.e. set promotions and pricing), or translate the data for other expenses (i.e. price promotions may boost sales volume but does not generate profit)...more >>