Marketing Research for Managers, 3rd Edition

4	‘Off-the-peg’ research

4.1	Introduction
4.2	Secondary desk research
4.3	Syndicated research services
4.4	Omnibus research surveys
4.5	Specialist research services
4.6	Summary

4.1 Introduction

Much of the data that a company new to marketing research might want to know is probably already in existence; for example, overall market size and structure, basic information about consumer spending patterns, major social and economic trends, financial data about customer firms, competitor firms, supplier firms, markets that are growing and profitable, and markets that are in decline or unprofitable. The purpose of this chapter is to give some indication of the vast amount of ‘off-the-peg’ data available and an idea about where ...