Sets out to collect data in a variety of ways (surveys, interviews, etc) to test hypotheses about the market. These are typically used to forecast long range and new product sales.
Market research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets.
Market research is a key factor to get advantage over competitors. Market research provides important information to identify and analyze the market need, market size and competition.