The Seven Best Marketing Research Blogs

I’ve been blogging since 2001. It’ll be 20 years this June. (Can you believe it? Here’s my first ever blog post.) I can even remember Evan giving me a Blogger T-shirt out of the trunk of his car while parked on the streets of San Francisco. More recently, much of my online activity has migrated to social media and my email newsletter—you can learn more about my emerging personal media model here—but I’ve been trying to blog more actively lately. And I’ve been trying to blog with more professional intent and purpose.

Regardless, I am woefully unaware of the state of blogging or social media in terms of marketing research and marketing researchers. I’ve kept both practices (my professional work and my online activity) relatively separate over the years somehow. And I’d like to learn more about who’s worth following and reading. We’ll start with marketing research bloggers.

Here are what I currently consider the seven best marketing research blogs:

The Difference Between Market Research and Marketing Research

 

I recently came across this interesting infographic, a Venn diagram considering the differences and similarities between market research and marketing research. It accompanies a July 2020 post titled "Market Research vs Marketing Research: What’s the Difference?" on the site My Market Research Methods, which might not have been updated since last October. 

Regardless of the site's currency, this diagram interested me. People often use "market research" and "marketing research" interchangeably. If you read "Market Research Guy"'s post—which I won't summarize here—he makes a compelling case: They're distinct but related practices.

What's missing here, however, is a circle for Product Development Research, perhaps. (That could also include User Experience Research as a subset.) And I'm thinking about the placement of market segmentation. If you also think about it in terms of audience research, that could inform marketing, as well as product development. And if you also think about it in terms of audience segmentation, that might even more squarely—or roundly?—overlap with marketing research.

Or is market the same as audience? I would say not. Let's discuss!

What do you think about this representation? Anything you'd change? Anything you'd add? 

If we were to add Product Development Research, what might that encompass?