Custom secondary research is affordable and better than primary research

According to Wikipedia, as of March 2009, the indexable web contains at least 25.21 billion pages. Google claims there are one trillion unique URLs.

Can you imagine the amount of information nuggets in web pages, blog posts, news articles, documents, discussions and social network chatter out there? Secondary research can tap into all that gold mine of information and make businesses rethink that “reliable market research only comes from primary research”.

Here are the drawbacks of Primary Research

1. Sample size is never big enough
2. Cannot guarantee that respondents are giving an honest answer
3. Respondents may not be qualified or have the right exposure to provide answers

For the same drawbacks here are the benefits of Secondary Research on the net

1. Sample size is practically limitless
2. Answers can be cross verified e.g. homes with two car garages in a suburban area is a more accurate indicator of mean income than asking 100 respondents from that area about their household income
3. When Apple wanted to determine the market size for iPhone I don’t suppose they asked the phone users if they would buy one.

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