Reducing uncertainty in organizational decision-making is one of the main objectives of market studies. To solve this goal there are multiple techniques and sources that we can use. Document review is one of these. Last week we started a list of original sources that can be used by analysts. It should be noted that for the purposes of this blog post we use the concept of Historiography for sources.
The latter is well worth remembering since there are other concepts in this regard. Based on the book “Marketing Research” by Teodoro Luque, information sources can also be classified by their existence as primary and secondary. The first are all those results of field surveys made to order and the second are the results of research done by third parties. Below we continue with our list considering the primary sources as testimonies of their time.
Books. A typical scene of a researcher involves him reading a stack of books. There is a huge variety of these documents. Some of them cover topics that can help us answer the questions of our project. However, this task can be somewhat tedious and slow because it requires access to titles that have the necessary quality and validity. Nowadays it is possible to obtain some texts in electronic version, but in any case they need to be reviewed by a person to collect the information and data of interest.
Indices. These are lists of reference values for a certain topic. Some of the best known are stock markets and exchange rates. Although at first they may be somewhat complex to understand for the average reader, they also offer a starting point for many decisions. Thanks to the participation of analysts knowledgeable about each category, it is possible to summarize the most relevant figures and even make regressions with the available numbers if they meet certain conditions.
Research. Even if a topic seems like it has never been reviewed, it is very possible that it has a history made by one or more researchers. The results of these studies may be published or stored in a public or private institution. In Latin America, a case of this situation is the degree theses that are available in various online repositories. However, it is necessary to have very solid criteria to know how to discern low-quality results from those that can be useful to us.
Videos. There are now multiple platforms for uploading long-form multimedia files. Whether through interviews, video recordings or films, it is possible to access a large number of findings. The difficulty in using this primary source lies in the time and experience required to carefully review each file. Likewise, many times there are no transcripts of what each footage contains, which is why the vast majority of the time these types of documents are rejected in our sector.
Desk research, although in principle it seems to be a technique of the past, continues to demonstrate its relevance every day by contributing its results to verify or refute the hypotheses raised in the planning or throughout the execution of a project. On more than one occasion, and despite what its name indicates, it requires field work to collect what is not yet recorded in a document for whatever reason.
At Acertiva we know of the enormous number of fonts that are available. Thanks to our more than twenty years of conducting studies in LATAM, we have a team of analysts who will help you satisfy your Market Research needs. If you are looking for suppliers in the matter, you can write to us. Write us about your next projects and we in turn will tell you how together we will make your next success story a reality.
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