In fact, your ROI on market research often exceeds the cost of conducting the research. Proper market research helps you determine how to correctly target your marketing campaigns identify opportunities in the marketplace determine what you are doing wrong as well as what you are doing right identify your customers' specific needs uncover problems with your business that may not have surfaced otherwise evaluate your success with measurable data Secondary research Even though its name may imply otherwise, secondary research is where market research usually begins. Secondary research is conducted by consulting published reports from trusted sources in order to find out who makes up your target market what the needs of your market are the size of the potential market Secondary research is less expensive than primary research. It's often free, in fact. It's also more readily available than you may think.
Secondary research can be internal, like sales reports or internal market analyses.
It may make sense to use the knowledge gained through secondary research to guide your decisions regarding primary research or even to hire an outside consultant to do the analyzing for you. Primary research You can think of primary research as getting down to the nitty-gritty. Primary research is conducted to get really intimate with your market, to answer specific questions you might have or address specific areas of focus. It costs more and often takes longer to conduct than secondary research, but it gives conclusive results. Quantitative research Quantitative research includes studies done that result in a large amount of data-like surveys.