Desk research, as mentioned in the previous article, is a part of the tool kit of market researchers. What is desk research? What is it used for and employed?

Definition

Desk research involves gathering data from available resources. It is considered a low-cost research technique compared to field research.

Desk research is a popular method, relatively easy to implement with low cost, but results are not very accurate.

Objectives

Businesses conduct desk research to do initial assessments, finding information available in statistics, books, journals, and from agencies and organizations.

To do desk research effectively, we need to indicate the source of the information we use and make the most of it.

Source of information for desk research

Desk research methods often exploit internal and external sources of information. We can get data right in our office or our commercial bookcase. In addition, data from organizations and agencies such as libraries, government agencies, chambers of commerce, trade associations, banks, etc. can also be analyzed.

Apart from it, information from the internet is also useful. The internet is a treasure and an invaluable resource. We can easily search for information on the internet by particular languages, geographical area, industry, and problems we are interested in.

To process and evaluate information more accurately in desk research, we can cross-check information sources.