Businesses need to conduct primary research in order to shape their future plans. Everyone does it – although you might not realize it.
A multinational corporation will spend millions of dollars on primary research to understand its audiences and customers better before launching a marketing campaign. The owner of a downtown coffee shop will do their own primary research when talking to customers to see what drinks are most popular.
Primary research can help shift your marketing strategy, mold your future product designs, and push you towards a new target market.
This quick guide will show you five of the simplest primary research methods available to any business. Learn how to conduct primary research and what you can do with your own data to make smarter decisions.
What Is Primary Research?
Let's start from the top. Primary research is any new data you've gathered directly from sources. These sources include assessing your own data, asking people questions, using focus groups to understand audiences, and testing products in the market.
The idea is to tailor your business based on the findings of your data analysis. You could find yourself conducting research for months, or realize that one big survey is enough to improve your products and services.
No matter how you do it, the key is that you're getting fresh information. This data is unique to your project and it hasn't been collected or analyzed by anyone else before.
5 Top Primary Research Methods
There are plenty of types of primary research out there, but the five methods below are the best and easiest ways for businesses to get started. It's fairly easy to gather information from them and decipher the data collected.
1. Surveys and Questionnaires
Surveys aren't as common as they used to be, but they remain a great way to understand your audience. Ask a fanbase, a community, or a customer base to answer online surveys and see what results emerge.
They're particularly great for event organizers that want to know what people think about their venue.
Short surveys tend to get more responses. If you mix question types like multiple choice, rating scales, and open-ended questions, then you'll get both quantitative and qualitative data.
2. Interviews
Interviews are more time consuming than questionnaires, but they're very effective if you get the right person on the phone. You can also do interviews in person or via video calls. So long as you can have a two-way conversation, then you can get really good quantitative or qualitative data from primary sources.
Interviews need a structure that includes core questions, but also the flexibility to go off topic.
Make sure you record your interviews, with permission, and listen back to them to improve your content analysis. This also frees you to focus on the conversation instead of taking notes.
You may have to input the data from your interviews into a spreadsheet or some market research software yourself – but the results should be worth it.
3. Focus Groups
Focus groups can be quite expensive, especially if you require between six and 10 people to be together all day. A moderator guides the conversation and keeps it on track, but the idea is that people feel comfortable enough to express themselves.
Political parties use focus groups all the time to try and understand voters. There is a huge amount of primary and secondary research in political science, and this method is great for exploring opinions and generating new ideas.
However, be sure you choose participants carefully. You might want a large variation of demographics to help you start researching a new marketing campaign. Or, you might already know your audience demographics and now want to zoom in on their specific interests.
4. Observational Research
Observational research is less data-driven than other research methods, but it can be very effective. Watching where people linger in stores, tracing their path through a website, and even monitoring their language is all about observing, rather than participating.
Observation entails measuring people's natural behavior to see what happens. You can then use data from this research method to build a better strategy.
Perhaps you need to move your store merchandise around, or tweak your website's sales journey.
5. Product Trials
Brands often launch test products to see what works and what doesn't. Take McDonald's Filet-O-Fish origin. In 1962, franchise owner Lou Groen noticed his Cincinnati store endured a downturn in sales every Friday because of the large Catholic neighborhood where his restaurant was based. So, he tried a fish item on the menu and it became hugely popular.
Of course, many, many more product trials flop than become successful. Yet, that's often the only way of knowing if a product or service will work.
McDonald's still tests new menu items to this day.
Choosing the Right Primary Research Method
Finding the right primary research method might, weirdly, require you to do some primary research. Why? Because you may not know which is the most effective until you've tried them all. However, there are ways to think strategically about this. Here are two considerations to get you started.
1. Aligning with Research Objectives
Your research objectives should guide your method selection. If you need hard numbers, surveys might be your best bet because they help you collect quantitative data from a large group quickly.
For deeper insights – such as looking into people's relationship with your brand – you're going to need more expensive, time-consuming options. Interviews and focus groups are the way to go here.
Consider what type of data you need. Do you want to measure something specific? Or are you trying to understand complex feelings and motivations? Match your method to the kind of information you're after.
2. Considering Target Audience and Resources
Loop back to your business plan and think about who you're trying to reach and what resources you have. If you need primary data on a young target audience, then conduct research via a medium they'll relate to – such as social media surveys or handing out free products in return for feedback.
Older generations may be more willing to speak on the phone for 30 minutes as part of a research study.
Remember your budget, too. It may be cheaper to hand out 1,000 bottles of your new soda and ask for immediate feedback from each primary source. Or it may be more cost effective to get 10 target audience members in one room and hear their voice as one big focus group.
PR measurement tools can also help you analyze the data you collect, making it easier to turn raw information into actionable insights.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary Research
This guide has largely focused on what's good about conducting primary research. However, we have to admit there are some drawbacks too. Here are some of the good and bad things to consider when you collect data in this way.
Benefits
Primary research gives you fresh, relevant data tailored to your specific needs – so long as you do it right. You get to collect first-hand information directly from your target audience. You hear from them, speak to them, and understand them better.
The data you collect is up-to-date and original. You won't have to rely on outdated statistics or information that may no longer apply. This is particularly useful for political parties that are desperate to know what voters really think.
You can also control the quality of the data. By designing your own research, you ensure high standards and reliability.
Challenges
Primary research can be time-consuming and expensive. After all, you're the one generating the data by asking other people their views. You'll need to invest resources in planning, conducting, and analyzing your study.
A primary research project can quickly cost more than a small business's entire marketing budget.
There's also a risk of bias in your data collection. Your own viewpoints or the way you phrase questions can influence responses. Be aware of potential biases and try to minimize them. A good way to get around this is to hire an external consultancy to oversee your research project.
Getting enough participants can also be difficult and that can ruin your data. If you want to interview 20 millennials who live within a one-mile radius of your restaurant, but only four show up, then your data will lack the required depth to make reliable decisions.
Primary Vs. Secondary Research
Before we end this guide, it's worth explaining why primary and secondary research are so different. They are two key approaches for gathering information, but have their own unique uses.
Primary research is about collecting new data directly from your sources. As we've explored above in this article, primary research studies involve surveys, interviews, and test launches. This gives you fresh, specific data tailored to your needs.
Secondary research uses existing data from other sources. This means looking at social media data, industry reports, and published articles in the media. It's more cost and time effective but the info may not be as current or specific to your goals.
That's why primary research, with its first hand data, is often the preferred method for brands at the start. Secondary research data becomes valuable once you've collected the primary data.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are our answers to some of the most common questions we are asked about types of primary research.
What are the key differences between primary and secondary research methods?
Primary research collects new data from the source, while secondary research uses existing information from other sources. Some marketers may view it as 'primary vs secondary' but you don't have to choose one or the other. Combined, you get fresh, targeted insights from primary research and wider, deeper data from secondary research.
Could you list some common primary research techniques used in market analysis?
Of course! The five most common types of primary research are: surveys, interviews, focus groups, observational research, and product launches.
What are the main advantages of implementing primary research in a study?
The best thing about primary research is you control the entire process. You tailor questions to your exact needs and, if the data isn't good enough, you can ask more questions. Primary research is very specific to your needs but can be expensive to operate.
How do primary research methods typically differ from secondary ones in terms of data collection?
Primary methods involve direct contact with sources and may result in manual data collection. Secondary methods use existing data like reports or articles, and often software such as CisionOne to crunch the numbers.
