Blog 4: Marketing Vs. Marketing Research

For the following blog post, I will again be looking at the AMA’s website and analyzing a certain part of it. For this section, I will be touching on the AMA’s definitions of both Marketing and Marketing research. Although the two are seemingly similar, they do have their distinct differences which put one apart from the other. First, what I figured I would do, was to show you, the reader, the AMA’s definition of Marketing. The definition can be found below:

Marketing, as it may seem, is a relatively broad word; it encompasses a multitude of methods, terms, values, and practices, so it is pretty hard to construct a clear definition. The AMA does a proper job in defining Marketing by taking key aspects of the term and putting it in a clear, understandable definition. To simplify this definition even further, the AMA is essentially saying that Marketing is a series of practices that all lead to the exchanging of a product from company to consumer. This is an important term for the AMA and any marketer in general. Now that you have gotten a grasp on the definition of Marketing, I can now show you the definition of Marketing Research and we can begin to draw contrasts between the two.

The definition of Marketing Research can be found below:

As you can see, this definition is a bit lengthier than Marketing, as it is more definable and there is less to it than Marketing. What Marketing Research is, essentially, is it is all of the information which a company extracts from consumers through a variety of tests and surveys, along with a plethora of other methods. The research then allows companies to get a better feel of their customers and the demographics of their consumers, allowing them to target specific areas of people with much more ease than if they did not have the information.

What is the difference between the two? Are they related?

They absolutely are related; marketing research is an essential part to marketing. The reason for this being described earlier- companies and marketers are easily able to access certain demographics because they have all of this information which comes from Marketing Research. The research is what comes before the marketing process begins. Researchers take the information which they generate about their products from these surveys and other tests and then they begin to come up with methods in which they could reach their consumers.

Marketing, the term, used to come before marketing research, but once marketing research was tangible and became something of use, it came before any sort of marketing.

Even though I say that Marketing Research comes before Marketing, Marketing Research is actually a part of marketing-it is an element of the marketing process. It is just a method in which companies can begin to do research for a product which they are looking to advertise.