Market research is essential for any business looking to grow, expand, or sustain its present trajectory. Understanding your market, from your competition to your clientele, can be a great way to help improve your business. Whether improving services, keeping up with technological advancements, adding new goods or services to your list, or spotting trends, market research matters greatly. However, there is more than one form of market research.
Among the most important methods for market research is desk research, sometimes known as secondary research. It is a critical part of any market and competitor analysis. Secondary research is vital for better understanding your current situation and helping your business spot potential ways to improve further.
What Is Desk Research?
One of the main forms of desk research involves looking at valid sources of information. These could include market reports that have already been generated. Businesses can gain insights into data collated elsewhere by reviewing these market reports.
Another form of desk research might include reading other academic studies. These can give insight into the broader percentage of clients using a certain feature or service or a rise in interest/demand for a specific kind of good or service. These studies can serve as the backbone of decision-making for the future, giving your business a leg-up over the competition.
Why does that matter? Because it can play a leading role in helping your business make better decisions. By being informed by verified sources, your business can learn much about your market and the wider industry you operate within.
Getting To Know Your Market
Another benefit of desk research is that it often involves using already-present data. You do not have to wait for this data to be collated and verified; this has already been done. A market research specialist will take the already-present information and look through it to find useful information. These relevant facts and figures can then be collated today into a report that is contextual to you.
This allows for more organized conclusions to be drawn. Since most desk research data is pretty large-scale rather than highly specific, it can give a broad-level understanding of the current market. This is especially useful when a company wants to move into a new area or intends to bring a new related product or service. By using desk research, present data is collated and analyzed for insight.
This can help better understand the market, spotting trends within already-complete research. It can also be useful for setting the benchmark of what your competitors are doing. By using up-to-date information and historical data, desk research can be a great help to ensure that your business better understands the challenges that it is facing at present.
Why Is Desk Research Useful?
This provides much background information and details that might have slipped the next. When aligned with more specific and contextual primary research, this can give your business lots of information that might have passed you by. However, a high-quality and reputable market research firm must conduct any desk research you need.
Why? Because the research has to come from reputable sources that can be trusted. Many secondary research forms will lean on data from groups that cannot be verified or trusted. A reputable research firm, on top of secondary research, can use verifiable sources.
This information is brilliant for anyone looking to get a broader market view. It might be the market you already operate in or a market you think your business could enter and benefit from. However, desk research can be great for getting insights into any niche or industry you wish to target. Since information is already present, it is cheaper and quicker to analyze.
Secondary research can be followed up with more bespoke and specific primary research. This results in greater accuracy in your research and provides your primary research with a more particular scope for evaluating and understanding.
Primary research is time-consuming and expensive. However, a round of secondary research beforehand can be exceptional for building context before investing in more expensive marketing forms.
Looking For A Specialist In Desk Research?
Then contact the team today at QAFQAZ. As Azerbaijan’s leading market research company, we are an EMRA member, which means we are a trusted source of market research for various Euro-Asian businesses. As a member of ESOMAR, we are one of the most reputable market research firms in Europe and Asia.
You can trust that we can carry out comprehensive and detailed desk research in a timely and affordable manner. This will give you a broader insight into your industry so that you can start making more informed choices about what lies ahead for your business.
With our help, you can set the tone for your analysis and research. Contact us today to discuss your needs and whether you wish to invest in desk research or primary research solutions.