Finding Secondary Research

High-Cost Market Research Sources

While research seekers can get lucky finding information through inexpensive means, the realty is that, in many situations, locating in-depth, numbers-related market information is difficult and expensive.  Companies in the business of producing market metrics are mostly doing so to make money and do not give the information away for free.  Consequently, in many research situations, especially those in which reliable market estimates are critical, acquiring the best researched market information requires a fee.

Expensive sources of information generally include accessing reports from the originators of the research, such as market research firms.  However, since gaining access to good research can be costly, on the surface it may not seem practical for small companies or individuals to take advantage of these sources.  Yet, research seekers also know that the level of detail available in a single report may be enough to provide answers to most of their questions in which case these reports can be real time savers (though marketers are cautioned against relying on a single source for information to make marketing decisions).

Also, while the cost of reports can appear prohibitive, today’s reports are much more accessible than in the past when research suppliers required clients to sign up for high-priced subscription services.  Purchasing a subscription would then give the client access to a large number of reports.  Today many information sources permit the purchase of single research reports without the requirement to commit to a subscription.

Our coverage of high-cost market research looks at the following sources:

• Market Research Companies
• Financial Services Companies
• Consulting Firms
• Research Distributors

It should be noted that some of these sources may make a limited amount of material available for free so it is worth a look no matter how much money the research seeker has to spend.