If you didn't read the title of this post while imitating the iconic ad for a famous milk brand, then you missed out on a golden era of memorable commercials, full of quirky characters and catchy slogans! 😉 But let's get back to business: where does data come from?
As you surely already know, data is a valuable asset that helps create a sustainable competitive advantage. Indeed, by gathering a wealth of "data," marketing, R&D, design, and product teams can identify and define market opportunities, refine actions to be implemented, and monitor performance. In short, data enables companies to make informed strategic decisions. And there are two types, which are not necessarily used in the same way.
Secondary data : This refers to "off-the-shelf" data, which can, for example, give you an overall picture of a target market. It can come from internal company analyses (sales reporting, customer purchase history, financial reports, etc.) or external sources (social media, blogs, review sites, official reports, etc.). All this information gives you "the big picture," in essence. While this secondary data provides an excellent starting point for your projects, it does, however, come with several drawbacks: first, a large portion of it is often accessible to everyone (yes, even your competitors... ugh). Furthermore, it is unfortunately not specific to the project your teams are currently working on and therefore does not guarantee that your project your own will truly find its place in the market and achieve all the success you hope for. For example, just because the spreads market was worth 554.68 million euros in 2020, and superfoods are "trendy," doesn't necessarily mean that an organic chia seed spread will find its audience.
Secondary data : This refers to "off-the-shelf" data, which can, for example, give you an overall picture of a target market. It can come from internal company analyses (sales reporting, customer purchase history, financial reports, etc.) or external sources (social media, blogs, review sites, official reports, etc.). All this information gives you "the big picture," in essence. While this secondary data provides an excellent starting point for your projects, it does, however, come with several drawbacks: first, a large portion of it is often accessible to everyone (yes, even your competitors... ugh). Furthermore, it is unfortunately not specific to the project your teams are currently working on and therefore does not guarantee that your project your own will truly find its place in the market and achieve all the success you hope for. For example, just because the spreads market was worth 554.68 million euros in 2020, and superfoods are "trendy," doesn't necessarily mean that an organic chia seed spread will find its audience.
Primary data : More costly to implement but much more reliable because it is specifically gathered to address an ongoing project, primary data is collected "at the source." Surveys, individual interviews, focus groups, or behavioral observations... The choice of method depends on the objectives. Because the first (and essential!) step is to clearly define clearly your objectives; is it to better understand your brand image, test the potential success of a product before its market launch, explore future trends, measure customer satisfaction, or understand how to retain your consumers? Once the research objective is clearly defined and the execution framework is set (appropriate collection method, sample size, geographical targeting, profile selection, deadlines, etc.), all that's left is to collect and then analyze the information.
But then (you might rightly ask!), is secondary data better than primary data? Not necessarily. At Igonogo, we always advise combining primary and secondary data to get the most comprehensive view of your market and thus have the maximum amount of information... to make the right decisions 😉
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