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Market Research Collection
and Analysis Via the Internet

 

The Internet is having a dramatic impact on the way firms collect and analyze data about their customers and competitors. This is true with respect to both primary and secondary data, which are the two general categories of market research information.

Following are brief descriptions of these categories, and links to more detailed explanations for how the Internet is influencing them.

Primary Data: Information that a firm collects itself for the purpose of solving a particular problem or investigating a specific issue.  This information might be gathered by survey, observation or controlled experiment.

Secondary Data: Information that has been collected or published by other people or organizations. For example, information found at the library is secondary data -- as is information found in electronic databases and other sources that can be accessed via the Internet.