Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior.

This involves employing a data-driven marketing approach to specify the data required to address these issues, then designing the method for collecting information and implementing the data collection process. After analyzing the collected data, these results and findings, including their implications, are forwarded to those empowered to act on them.

Market research, marketing research, and marketing are a sequence of business activities; sometimes these are handled informally.

The field of marketing research is much older than that of market research. Although both involve consumers, Marketing research is concerned specifically with marketing processes, such as advertising effectiveness and salesforce effectiveness, while market research is concerned specifically with markets and distribution. Two explanations given for confusing market research with marketing research are the similarity of the terms and the fact that market research is a subset of marketing research. Further confusion exists because of major companies with expertise and practices in both areas.

Marketing research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs, either by target market:

Or, alternatively, by methodological approach:

Consumer marketing research is a form of applied sociology that concentrates on understanding the preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of consumers in a market-based economy, and it aims to understand the effects and comparative success of marketing campaigns.

Thus, marketing research may also be described as the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis, and dissemination of information, for the purpose of assisting management in decision-making related to the identification and solution of problems and opportunities in marketing. The goal of market research is to obtain and provide management with viable information about the market (e.g., competitors), consumers, the product/service itself etc.