Primary and secondary research,
advantages and disadvantages of each
Primary research
Advantages
One of the advantages of primary
research is that you can get more
accurate results and you can get to
know what people are feeling on a
personal level, this would allow more
results that are accurate to be
collected..
Another advantage would be you could
advertise your business as well as
collecting research this could increase
customer numbers and increase profit for
your business.
Finally you could see what people are
more interested in, instead of looking
at numbers you could know how
people feel about your business and
you could adapt that to your business
plan.
Disadvantages
It may be quite expensive
getting all the equipment
also fuel (if you are using a
car) and if you needed people
to help you then you might
have to pay them more
wages as they would be
doing something that is
probably not on their
contract.
This would not apply to
everyone, if you was to
do primary research you
would have to target
certain people in a
certain area, this will not
be as effective as
looking at something
like national statistics.
Another thing would be that
you might create a bad rep
for your business, some
people do not like to be
pushed into something so
when you go up to them in
the street they may think
you are attention seeking
and will reduce the chance
of them buying something
from you.
Secondary research
Advantages
This could
provide
accurate
national (even
worldwide)
statistics and
would be more
efficient.
It could give you information
that people might not like to
give if they met you in public.
Things like where they live,
how many kids they have
what they do etc. So this
might provide good and
critical info on someone.
This would be cheaper
then going and doing
primary research as you
would not really need to
hire anyone and this
would mean that you
would not need to make
unnecessary costs.
Disadvantages
It would not be as effective
on a small area as you are
just reading what numbers
say and not what the
person is actually saying.
This could make research
pointless.
Another thing is that the
statistics might be out of date
as surveys on a national level
are only taking every couple of
years, so this might be a really
big knock back in terms of
research.
You don't know how valid the data
would be and this could mean
that the data could be false and
that might be a critical matter
when doing market research, this
could prove bad for you and your
business.