Doing Research During an Economic Slowdown
December 17th, 2009 |
The current economic slow down has forced companies to cut down on research spend. One of the key reasons being the cost associated in conducting such studies. Industries across the globe used to thrive on primary methodologies and spend huge amounts on primary research initiatives, but the recent economic slowdown has forced them to cut down on their spend.
However many fail to acknowledge the fact that a major portion of these research needs could be met affordably by deploying desk research prior to the primary phase, this aids in streamlining primary research initiatives and enables significant reduction on overall research investments. Another perspective of desk research is that it is affordable to small and medium businesses working on shoe string budgets.
Desk Research till recently has been categorized as purely Secondary research. Secondary research involves gathering data that already exists with internal sources - like sales reports, intellectual property, market experience and other external sources like publications of government and non-government institutions, free and subscribed access to data on the internet, information in professional newspapers and magazines, information in annual reports of companies and commercial databases, the list is endless.
But today desk research is much more, it not only includes secondary research but also is supplemented by other affordable techniques like telephonic interviews and online surveys.
Recently desk researchers have walked an extra mile to provide value added service by conducting content analysis of industry related information shared through blogs and other online social and professional networks. Thus making it a powerful tool for understanding demand/supply situation, market estimation, market shares and many more specific research needs like brand perception.
The power of desk research to deliver information is exponential, there are numerous methods and sources to collate information, but identifying and capturing these sources requires patience, intelligence and an ability to think beyond conventions.
