Interpret the Need for External and Internal Data Sources

Companies have access to more consumer information than ever before. However, the volume of data available raises the question of how and where to source the best information, and at what cost.

Find out more about the benefits and limitations of secondary data sources with Paul Egan, Co-Convenor on the Market Research, Consumer Insights, and Competitor Analysis online short course from the University of Cape Town.

Transcript

We are in a world where there is more information about consumers than ever before.

So, have you ever wondered how companies decide where to locate a new supermarket or maybe how governments know exactly when to build new roads, schools, hospitals, and houses? Where and how do they get the information to know where to add new resources to an economy? Secondary data is data that is already available and would have been collected for purposes other than solving your particular research problem.

There are two main sources of secondary data. One of which is often sitting under our noses. If you work for a company or an organisation, it is likely that there is already an array of data to access. This is called internal data.

Increasingly, companies are sitting on a wealth of data that is collected by different parts of the organisation in the normal course of business.

For example, information about sales: when it comes to transactions, a company should know to whom and to which locations these are taking place. Companies may be sitting on valuable information gathered from research and surveys which had been carried out previously. Other forms of information could include point-of-sales data, website activity, or even apps.

These days, many companies often record information gathered from complaints or queries from customers.

External sources of data is data found outside the organisation and is made up of all available data in a wide variety of reports. For example, an organisation may be part of a trade body representing an industry, car manufacturers for example, which may have a wealth of information related to that particular industry already.

Then there is Stats SA, which publishes hundreds of reports every year. It’s everything from spending to health. Other sources of external data include libraries, information collected by government departments, textbooks, journal articles, and many, many more, which are easily accessible via the web.

Although it will take you some time to find the information you need from secondary sources, it will inevitably be much quicker than conducting new research yourself.