Primary Data and Secondary Data

Primary data includes new information collected specifically for your purposes, directly from the people who know. Methods of primary data collection vary based upon the goals of the research, as well as the type and depth of information being sought.

For example – Surveys and Focus group discussions.

Secondary data is the data collected by others in the past. For example – the Internet, Newspaper articles, and Company reports. Primary data constitute basic information to solve marketing problems.

Primary data are expensive and the collection of primary data takes considerable time and effort.

In primary data, you are the one who is going to collect data specifically for your current objective. You might conduct a survey; runs an interview or a focus group. You have to observe behavior or do an experiment. You are going to be the person who obtains this raw data directly and it will be collected specifically for your current research need. Tophawks provides you both the type of data collection services.

For secondary data, you have to look in journals, libraries, or go to online sources. Secondary data is published data and not original data.

Secondary research is often free. Secondary data is easily available on the internet like US Census etc. You can apply that data by modifying it according to your specific project. They are used for exploring, defining, and understanding problems, which can be solved by primary data. For collecting secondary data, there is no need for employing qualified, experienced, and capable research officer.