In the research industry, both the words are often heard, market research and marketing research. Are they synonyms and can be used interchangeably or are they different. Various questions are often out up. Is anyone a subset of the other and which one is more common between the two if they are different from each other?
Though many experts state that there is a difference between the two terms, one may find many researchers who may not agree to this. Often it is witnessed that there is a whole lot of overlapping in the use of these two terms. Many people describe them as being the subsets of each other. The confusion does not seem to wither.
Market Research: It is the research that pertains to the markets and this is where the researcher goes deep into understanding the market trends which usually refers to the external environmental factors such as political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental. It has a broader spectrum as compared to Marketing research which is explained here under.
Marketing Research: This is what focuses on research that is related to marketing. It may confine to research of one of the four P’s of Marketing, Product, Price, Place, Promotion. Examples could be advertisement strategy, product testing , distribution channel research etc.
More Widely Used Term: Market research as a term which is used more widely than the other one as it has a more generalized perspective to it and the results of this research often can be of use to just not one particular company but can be of use as secondary data in many other areas as well.