Clients and non-user experience consultants often ask us, “What is the difference between market research and customer (user) research?” To the uninitiated, the two types of research can look very similar. The process, methodology and skill are usually very aligned. To the market research or user experience expert, however, the objective for each, the resulting data (i.e. market intelligence or design intelligence), and most importantly the insights we seek to gain and how they are used, are very different.
In this article, Head of Customer Experience Elisa del Galdo talks us through how the two types of research differ, and in which situations you would use one over the other.
Market Intelligence: Quantitative data about behaviour
The intelligence we collect from market research usually has a broad focus, collecting data that identifies customer behaviour in a market. It also identifies demographics, categorising customers into a distinct set of segments so we can more effectively sell to them.
Customer research, based on user experience principles, is more in-depth, collecting data on customers’ experiences and the ‘why’; motivations, triggers, drivers, barriers, and pain points that influence their behaviour. Market intelligence effectively identifies the symptoms that indicate there may be an underlying problem driving customers’ reported behaviour and resulting analytics.
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