"Marketing [sic] Research"

Some people say "market research". Some people say "marketing research". Which term is correct?

Well, maybe both terms are correct in some sense, but they mean different things. Common sense dictates:

market research - research into a market
marketing research - research into marketing

Webster's formal definitions agree with common sense:

market research - research into the size, location, and makeup of a product market
marketing research - research into the means of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service

I suspect that most people mean "market research" when they say "marketing research".

Comments

Unknown said…

I have the same challenge with the phrase "MarketING requirements." Development hears it as "ideas from the marketing department." That's why I advocate the phrase "Market Requirements" -- that is, requirements from the market.

Market research is how we determine what the market will buy. And thus what we should build. But the trick is to learn what the market needs, not just what it is asking for.

Wed Jul 06, 11:18:00 AM 2005

Unknown said…

Forget the word research. The issue is that people are misusing the terms Market and Marketing. They are two completely different things. When you understand the definition of each, it becomes quite clear what Market Research and Marketing Research are.

Another example would be the words analysis and analytics. People accidentally treat them as synonymous.

Thu Apr 14, 03:39:00 PM 2011

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