What's The Difference Between Market Research And Consumer Research?

Marketing research and consumer research are both important parts of business activity. They’re used to understand customers’ needs, habits, and desires. Ultimately, they help us make informed decisions that help us serve our customers better as a company. Here’s how marketing research and consumer research differ:

Differences between Market Research and Marketing Research.

Key Takeaways
Market research focuses on industry analysis, market trends, and competition.
Consumer research delves into understanding consumer behaviors, preferences, and motivations.
Market research informs strategic decisions by providing insights into market size and demand trends.
Consumer research contributes to product development by uncovering consumer pain points and preferences.
Both market research and consumer research can complement each other, providing a holistic view of the market landscape.

Table of Contents

By Definitions

What Is Market Research?

Market research is the process of gathering information about a particular market – the size, growth potential, and the current sales of a product or service. At its most basic level, market research involves conducting surveys to gain insights into consumer behavior and attitudes.

For example: Are people buying your product? How much do they pay? How often do they purchase it? What features do they like best? Do customers prefer one type of packaging over another (e.g., plastic versus glass)?

What Is Consumer Research?

Consumer research is a research method that is used to understand the consumer’s point of view. It’s used to understand customer needs and wants customer behavior and customer preferences.

The main purpose of this type of research is to identify or predict what consumers want in their product or service. You can also use it to find out what they don’t like about your brand so you can improve on it before launching new products into the market or improving upon existing ones

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Market Research Is About The Market And Competitors While Consumer Research Is About The Customers

Market research is done by companies to understand their markets, competitors, customers, and consumers. The primary objective of market research is to collect information that can be used by managers to adjust or improve a business strategy or plan.

The main difference between consumer and market research is that consumer research focuses on people while market research focuses on products and services sold in a particular geographic area.

While consumer research is about the Customers. It’s about their needs, wants, desires and expectations. It’s not just about products and services. Consumer research is conducted to learn more about consumers’ perceptions of your product or service to improve customer experience and loyalty.

Market Research Is Usually Concerned With Prioritizing Questions While Consumer Research Is Usually Concerned With Customer Experience

Marketing research is usually concerned with Prioritizing Questions. The goal is to determine what questions are most likely to help us make better decisions, make more money, or sell more products.

For example, if we’re trying to figure out how much soda costs in restaurants around the world and how often people purchase it on average as compared to other beverages, that’s market research. The market research also includes collecting data about customer demographics and psychographics (personality traits or attitudes).

It can include questions like “How many people do you know who own an Apple iPhone?”, since this may provide valuable insight into purchasing behavior for a new gadget release.

Also, Market research is about the product and its features, where it will be sold, who buys it, and how much they pay for it.

While consumer research is usually concerned with Customer Experience. It’s not really about “the customer” as such although they are a big part of it but rather what happens during that journey.

The experience that customers have when they first hear about your product or service; when they look at options; when they make a decision to buy; and even after their purchase has been made.

When you read consumer research reports from reputable companies like Nielsen or GFK you will invariably see words like “customer journey” or “customer experience” being used in the context of understanding what makes them tick (or not).

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Market Research Mostly Uses Quantitative Data While Consumer Research Mostly Uses Qualitative Data

What Is Quantitative Data?

Quantitative data is numerical. It can be measured or counted, and it’s not qualitative. It’s also objective—it’s factual and real, as opposed to subjective. For example, if you were surveying the market for pet insurance, you might ask respondents whether they have a dog or cat and what kind of animal food they feed their pets (dry or wet).

These questions would be considered quantitative in market research because they’re based on numbers: how many dogs vs. cats each respondent has; whether they buy dry food or wet food for their pets; etc.

If you’d like more information about this topic, check out our complete guide to understanding marketing research here: https://www.marketing-insider-blog/guide-to-marketing-research/.

While consumer Research mostly uses Qualitative Data. Consumer research is all about finding out how people think and feel about a particular product, brand, or service. The more information you can get from your customers, the better prepared you’ll be to launch a successful campaign.

Consumer research uses qualitative data rather than quantitative data because it focuses on the opinions and experiences of your target audience not just their purchasing habits. This means that consumer research focuses on things like what people say and do as well as what they think and feel about certain products or brands.

Qualitative data include:

Interviews with customers
Focus groups with consumers
Questionnaires filled out by participants

Market Research Involves Taking A Second-Hand Approach While Consumer Research Involves Taking The First-Hand Approach

Market research is an essential part of the business strategy. It’s a process that involves collecting data about your market, competitors, and customers. The secondhand approach is used to collect data about the market, competitors, and customers.

Market research involves taking a Second-Hand Approach to collect data about the market, competitors, and customers. The Second-Hand Approach is:

Collecting data from others (e.g., books, magazines)

Conduct focus groups with current or former members of your target audience (customers).

While consumer research involves taking a first-hand approach. This means that the researcher is not only in charge of collecting data, but also interacts directly with the subject. The researcher may ask questions or direct observations about the product being researched and how it affects the consumer’s life.

Consumer researchers will often be involved in focus groups or one-on-one interviews with consumers to gather information on what they like or dislike about certain brands, products, and services.

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Market Research Often Seeks To Find Out How Much, How Many, And How Often While Consumer Research Often Seeks To Find Out Why, When, And Where

Market research often seeks to find out How Much, How Many, and How Often. How much is the market worth? How many people are in the market? How often do people buy? Use? Use it?

While, consumer Research often seeks to find out Why, When, and Where. Consumer Research is used to uncover the “why” behind buying behaviors. Why do people buy things? Why do they like or dislike certain products, services, and companies? It also seeks to identify the when, where, and how of consumer behavior.

Consumer research is often conducted in search of consumer motivations, attitudes, and opinions on a topic or product.

Consumer research can be conducted in-person or online through surveys or focus groups. For example, if you’re selling sneakers then you may want to know why customers choose your sneakers over others’ brands or what features they like most about them (ease of use? comfort?).

You might also ask why they chose not to buy your brand instead of its competitors’ brands when making their decision.

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Market Research Is Done By Companies To Understand Their Customers’ Needs And Wants So That They Can Better Meet Them While Consumer Research Is Done By Consumers Themselves To Inform Future Purchases

Market research often involves surveys and focus groups to get feedback from potential audiences about products or services. Market research companies can also conduct secondary research, which involves gathering data from other sources such as government agencies or other companies within the same industry.

While consumer research is done by consumers themselves to inform future purchases. Consumer research usually takes the form of product reviews and ratings on sites like Amazon or Yelp, but it can also involve personal blogs, vlogs, or even Instagram posts!

While market research is more focused on what people want right now (like this new product line), consumer research is more concerned with what people want in the future (like a new car).

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Market research is more broad while Consumer research is more specific

Market research is broader; it’s an overview of the market as a whole, including things like demographics, trends, and buying patterns while consumer research is more specific; it focuses on one particular group of consumers, like people who are interested in buying a new car.

It’s important to understand the difference between these two types of research because each has different goals. For example: if you’re a company that makes video game consoles, you might want to conduct market research that looks at the industry as a whole.

This means you’d be looking at how many consoles have been sold so far this year, how much money people spend on them each year (and how much they’re willing to spend), and how long people keep their consoles before upgrading or replacing them with newer models… everything about the console market as a whole.

If you want to learn more about consumers’ buying habits for your product specifically (like which features they care about most), then consumer research would be your best bet. You’ll be able to find out things like how many consumers are willing to pay extra money for some specific feature (like 4K resolution support or virtual reality

Final Thoughts

Research is a fundamental part of any business endeavor. It involves the study and analysis of both current trends and historical data to uncover new growth opportunities.

At its most basic level, research can be divided into two categories: consumer research and market research. Consumer research generally revolves around understanding the behavior of consumers regarding their purchasing habits and product preferences.

Market research, on the other hand, is geared more towards analyzing consumer behavior in terms of broad macroeconomic factors such as GDP, unemployment rates, purchasing power, etc.

Both consumer and market research are integral components of any business venture, but it’s important to understand what sets them apart so you can choose the right one for your specific needs.

People Also Ask

What Is Consumer Research?

Consumer research is the process of gathering information about consumers to help inform business decisions. This can be done through surveys, interviews, focus groups, and more.

Why Do We Need Consumer Research?

The reason for doing consumer research is twofold: one, to get an understanding of who your audience is and what their needs are; and two, to see how well your product or service meets those needs. This will allow you to make informed decisions about how you proceed with your business.

What Should I Expect From My Consumer Research?

You should expect a detailed report on the findings from each survey or interview conducted during the project. This will help you identify opportunities that exist within the market based on what your customers are saying and help you determine where best to place your focus to grow your business.

How Do I Choose Between Using Market Research Or Consumer Research?

The first step to deciding between these two options is identifying your goal. If you want to understand how a competitor’s product is doing relative to yours, then the competitive analysis may work best. If, however, you want to know more about who your customers are so that you can improve their experience with your company, then consumer research may be more suitable for your needs.

What Information Does Market Research Provide?

Market Research provides insight into the competitive landscape and how it has changed over time; this includes information about pricing trends and new products being introduced by competitors as well as any changes in demographics (age range). Corporate demographic changes (e.g., number of employees).

What Are The Different Types Of Market Research?

There are two types of market research: primary and secondary. Primary research involves collecting data from the consumers themselves while secondary research involves collecting data from sources other than those who have directly interacted with consumers.

How Many People Participate In Consumer Research?

The number of people who participate in consumer research depends on the size of your company and the product you’re developing.

In general, though, you will need about 30-50 participants for each focus group session and you will need to schedule multiple sessions if you want to get a good sense of how different types of people respond to your product.

In addition to this, you will need at least 10 participants for each one-on-one interview with a researcher.

How Do I Know What Kind Of Consumer Research I Need?

The kind of consumer research you need depends on your project. If you’re creating a new product from scratch, then you’ll need to do extensive market research to find out who might buy it and why, and what features are most important to them.

If you’re redesigning an existing product, then you’ll probably only need to do some basic market research for people to get familiar with what your new version looks like and if there are any major changes from the original version.

Then it’s good practice to do more extensive market research so that people aren’t surprised by anything unexpected when they try out your new design.

How Do I Know If I Need To Conduct Market Research?

If you have any questions about your industry, competitors, or customers, then you probably need to conduct market research. You may also want to conduct market research if your company has been losing sales for some time, but no one seems to know why.

This could indicate a problem with marketing strategy or branding that needs resolving through research into consumer preferences and attitudes.

Why Do I Need Market Research?

You need market research because without it you’re making decisions in the dark. You don’t know if what you’re doing will be successful or not until after the fact that you’ve spent money on developing an idea or starting a business and then find out that no one wants what you’re selling.

That’s why it’s important to take the time to do some serious digging into what people want/need before investing any more money into your idea!

What Is The Purpose Of Market Research?

Market research is the process of gathering information on consumers’ needs and wants so that you can make better-informed decisions about how to reach out to them. Market research allows companies to understand the most effective ways to get in front of customers, and maximize their return on investment (ROI).

Why Should I Do Market Research?

Because it helps you make more informed decisions about how best to reach your target audience! It also helps you avoid wasting time and money by creating products that don’t resonate with your target audience, or by marketing in ways that aren’t effective enough.

What Does It Mean To Conduct Consumer Research?

Consumer research is the act of collecting information from consumers about their opinions, attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and behaviors. This information can be used to develop marketing plans and strategies for new products.

Costantine Edward

Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.

What’s The Difference Between Market Research And Consumer Research?