Sources of Information

Primary Information is gathered first hand and normally it is gathered for a specific purpose. It is also called Field Research. Reasons for primary research may be to find customer views on a new product or to get feedback on existing products and services.

Primary information is gathered from: interviews, surveys, questionnaires, focus groups, hall tests, observations.

Secondary Information, also called Desk Research is information already published. You don't gather it but you do have to find it! Secondary information can be found in newspapers, internet, magazines, books, timetables, reference books, government reports and statistics, and business reports such as MINTEL.

Internal information is gathered from within the company. Examples are: customer records, sales figures, company reports or accounts and meetings of meetings.

External Information is gathered outwith the organisation and it could be information from other companies such as suppliers, competitors or customers. Government information, TV and media or Internet.

When creating your own notes for this particular topic, draw up a T-Chart or a table to include not only the definitions of each of these sources of information and the key features, but include the advantages and disadvantages of each to an organisation.

Remember when you are looking at +/- (or costs and benefits) think about TCP = Time, Cost and People.

Time = how long would it take? And what are the implications?
Cost = what is the financial cost? Is there an initial outlay or expense?
People = how will it help or hinder people? People can be viewed as employees (do they need training?), customers, suppliers etc.

Use key words to then expand and generate sensible, plausible answers.