Is there a difference between market research and product research? If so, what is it?
Market research is gathering and analyzing information about your target market. A target market is a group of people who share similar characteristics and needs. Market research helps you understand your customers to create products and services that will appeal to them.
Product research is the process of identifying the needs and wants of consumers, which can help guide product development and marketing efforts. For example, suppose an ice cream company knows the number of times consumers eat ice cream per week. In that case, this information can be used to identify trends in consumer behavior and predict new growth opportunities.
Market research and product research are two essential parts of the business process. Marketing professionals do market research to determine what customers want and need from a product or service. The engineering and development teams do product research to ensure that what they build meets those needs.
The difference between market research and product research is simple:
Market research answers questions about markets, like “What are people looking for?”, “Which features do they want?”, “What price should we charge?” Product research answers questions about products, like “How can we build this feature?”, “How will this change affect our supply chain?”, “How can we implement this new technology without disrupting other systems?”
Both types of research are to help companies make better decisions about what they should do next. When you don’t have enough information about your customers’ needs or how they will react to your product, it’s easy to make bad choices that hurt your company’s bottom line. The solution? Get out there and talk to people!
Market research is information about customers and their needs. It’s discovering what people want, need, or are buying from your competitors.
Product research is information about your product or service. It’s the process of learning everything you can about your product, from its features and benefits to the price point that will make it successful in the marketplace.
Product and market research are both essential steps in the design phase of creating a new product or service. But you can’t just do one or the other — you need to do both together!
