In the current business landscape, market research and UX research are both vital to success. While each method is essential for business growth, they both focus on different areas of marketing.
Market research can tell who an audience is, while UX research can show more of how users interact with a product directly.
In our experience, companies can confuse the two since they are so similar, but knowing when to use each can make a difference in your strategy/research.
If you’re interested in better knowing your customers and what they want, digging into the methods and benefits of both market and UX research will provide valuable insights to use. After all, a data-driven choice can lead to more engaging and user-friendly products for your business.
What Is UX?
User Experience (UX) refers to a person or customer's feelings when they use or buy a product.
This product can be digital like a website, an app, or even a physical item. The main goal is to make the product easy to buy and enjoyable to use.
Enjoying the Experience
Take this example of “bad” UX: you’re shopping at an online store with a full cart. You find the checkout experience frustrating and clunky. You buy the items, but never return to that specific retailer because of the annoying process you just endured.
This is why it is critical for businesses to prioritize their UX, as one bad experience can permanently turn off shoppers!
Moral of the story: with UX work, the focus is on understanding users’ behaviors, needs, and motivations. It’s possible to use a variety of methods and tools like interviews, data tracking, and usability testing.
Overall Web Design
But UX isn’t just about design, it’s also about the entire experience. This details like how quickly a page loads, how easy it is to browse, and even how the product makes the user feel.
Interesting fact: Did you know that companies can boost their revenue significantly by improving their UX? For instance, a study found that every $1 invested in UX can yield $100 in return.
It’s Never “One and Done”
UX is also an ongoing process. Many companies may not realize it, but the process doesn’t stop after the product is launched.
Ongoing feedback from users is vital. It’s necessary to continue refining and improving based on feedback from your customers, users, and more to ensure the product continually meets your target audience’s needs.
UX vs. Market Research
Now, we’ll dive into the key differences between UX and market research (and how both methods help drive business).
The short answer: market research focuses on attitudes while UX focuses more on behavior. Keep reading for the long answer!
Measuring Consumer Attitudes with Market Research
Market research traditionally examines consumer attitudes and purchasing decisions.
In market research, we gather data about what people think of a product and why they might buy it. This includes online surveys and focus groups to understand preferences and motivations.
While these qualitative market research methods are very popular, there’s a place for quantitative projects as well. Quantitative research can be used to gather information at scale and analyze the data to be able to understand what users generally feel about the product and what their purchasing decisions are based on (or not on).
For example, when launching a new snack, knowing that 70% of consumers prefer less sugar can shape marketing campaigns.
PS: It’s not uncommon for market researchers to combine both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Measuring Consumer Behavior With Attitudes
In contrast, UX research emphasizes user behavior over attitudes—how users actually use or buy a product.
It's hands-on, involving tasks like usability and user interviews. Let's say a mobile app has confusing navigation. UX research identifies these pain points and informs design fixes.
UX might examine how a user came to buy the product, whether direct on the website or from in-store. While on the other hand, market research aims to examine how a user feels about purchasing from a brand.
Both focus on the end goal: the purchases from the customer, but from different perspectives.
High-Overview Trend Data
Market research often deals with broad trends.
We analyze patterns and predict present and future conditions with samples. For example, a brand might notice a rising interest in eco-friendly products among 60% of survey respondents, can help guide product development strategies.
This overview helps companies plan long-term goals and make better business decisions.
Specific Behavioral Data
UX research is precise in gathering behavioral data.
One example might be to watch users in real-time as they navigate through a product. Eye-tracking studies and heatmaps show where attention is focused. This reveals insights like 80% of users missing a key feature because it's poorly placed in the design.
Such data is crucial for making small, detailed design improvements.
When Should You Use UX or Market Research?
In our experience, choosing between UX research and market research depends on what you need to learn about your audience and product.
Each method provides unique insights, helping you make better decisions for different areas of your business.
For example, market research might uncover that teenagers love a certain brand based on their responses, words, and actions on a survey. UX research, on the other hand, would reveal why they're frustrated with the app's interface or spending a ton of time on the website’s blog section.
Let’s dive deeper!
Know Your Goals
Before starting any research, it's most important to know what you want to achieve.
If you need to understand buying habits, market trends, or your target demographics, market research is usually the way to go.
For example, if you’re launching a new product, you’d want to know how big the market is and who might buy it. This is a perfect example of a project where market research can help best.
UX research, on the other hand, is best for understanding user behavior and experiences with a product. If your goal is to improve the design or functionality of an existing product, UX research will provide the detailed insights you need.
A good example might be if purchases have been down for the last few months, you might use software to find out where you’re losing users on the website and find out why they aren’t purchasing on the site or where they are getting lost.
Find a Good Method
Once you know your goals, choose the right method to gather data. Market research often uses online surveys, focus groups, and/or competitive analysis to get broader insights (which can be specific for certain projects).
UX research uses different methods like usability testing, user interviews, and A/B testing to gather detailed and actionable data.
Choosing the method that matches your goals will lead to more useful and accurate results. Although sometimes it’s possible to combine them or to use methods that allow for both to be researched.
Use Both
Both types of research offer valuable insights, and using them together can provide a more detailed view and potentially get you closer to your goals.
In our work, we’ve seen that combining both can lead to more successful products. This approach helps in discovering both broad market needs and specific user preferences. Think of it as two pieces of a puzzle that fit together perfectly.
Understand the End Data
After gathering all your data, one of the most important parts is to understand it correctly. Market research data is often quantitative - meaning it’s about numbers and statistics.
UX research data is usually qualitative, offering deep insights into user behavior, needs, and experiences.
It makes sense with both types of data to put it into an organized report and have a market research or marketing expert look over it to find trends, insights, and more to use it for data-driven decisions.
The insights you’ll get from your research are the important part of your project. While the data can be useful, it’s necessary to be able to pull insights. That’s why it’s recommended to have an expert look it over, since incorrect insights might even hurt more than nothing at all.
How UX and Market Research Work Together
And last but certainly not least, it’s important to note that market research and UX research often go hand in hand in our work.
Most of our projects often combine both market research and UX data for us to be able to help clients get the full picture and have a better understanding with more unique insights.
For projects like competitive analysis, both UX and market research are often deployed to be able to show the client what their capabilities look like, as well as what competitors are up to.
We often start with market research to identify larger trends in data. Next, UX research fine-tunes the details of how certain users interact with a product. This dual approach is like a one-two punch for effective product development and even things like pricing research.
By using both research types, companies can make data-driven decisions. This ensures that products not only reach the right audience but also provide a user-friendly experience.
Contact Our UX & Market Research Company
Contact us at Drive Research for market research help today. We’re both a market research company and a UX company that helps focus on getting clients unique data and insights that help give them an advantage in their marketing and business strategy.
Get a quote with us today, or email us at [email protected] with any questions.
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Austin Parker
Austin has an extensive background in SEO as he's been blogging since 16 years old back when the internet was in its infancy. As fitting, he holds a Bachelor's degree in English with a concentration in creative writing.
Learn more about Austin, here.
