The joy of the Internet, amongst many, is that it has made the job of being a market researcher just a bit easier. It has also complicated many aspects of our daily lives - but that is a tale for another day. Here’s an example: I have been tasked with creating a survey to measure attitudes of high-wealth individuals, which is not an easy task as they tend to be a difficult group to reach. However, with a quick search I was able to find numerous studies published and accessible.

What the Internet has done has streamlined the process of secondary research. Now a B2B market research professional like myself can get up to speed quickly on a given topic. This is very useful for those in agency positions where the time to ramp up is often very compressed. It has also made it possible to improve your survey design. Let me explain…

The Internet, as a source of secondary market research, enables the survey designer to have access to studies that otherwise would have not been available. This facilitates the incorporation of questions into your survey that can be directly compared against the results from other published studies. Many of these studies are derived from national samples.

From a consumer market research standpoint the king of secondary sources is the US Census. This is the nation’s demographic report card. It is recommend when designing your survey that you incorporate the same categories these larger studies utilize. This allows for a one to one comparison.

Branching out from your survey by including published questions can strengthen your argument by providing a valid benchmark to compare against. There is one caveat, however. With all secondary research you must consider that the project in question was designed with someone else’s goals in mind. This means there maybe margin for error. When comparing to other studies, with the possible exception of the Census, it is advised to note any stated limitations associated with the secondary study. This shows the reader that you are conscious to potential error bias.

Secondary research can offer a solid benchmark that expands the scope of your research. However it does come with some baggage, so be aware.