Reference
Market research & strategy glossary
45 terms used in market research, customer insights, competitive intelligence and strategy — defined in plain English.
Last reviewed by the Hoog research team
Research methods
- Primary research
- Research that collects new information directly from people or sources for a specific question — for example interviews, focus groups, surveys or observation.Related: Market Research →
- Secondary researchAlso: Desk research
- Research that analyses information that already exists, such as company filings, industry reports, government statistics, trade publications and databases. Also called desk research.Related: Market Research →
- Qualitative research
- Research that explores motivations, perceptions, language and context through open-ended methods such as in-depth interviews and focus groups, typically with smaller samples.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Quantitative research
- Research that measures attitudes and behaviours numerically, usually through structured surveys with larger samples, so results can be sized, compared and tested statistically.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- In-depth interview (IDI)Also: IDI
- A one-to-one, semi-structured conversation, usually 30–60 minutes, used to understand a person's experiences, decisions and reasoning in depth.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Focus group discussion (FGD)Also: FGD
- A moderated discussion with a small group of participants — commonly six to eight — used to explore perceptions, reactions to ideas and shared language.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Expert interviewAlso: Expert call
- A structured conversation with an industry specialist, former executive or practitioner, used to understand market structure and test assumptions that published data cannot confirm.Related: B2B Research →
- CATI
- Computer-assisted telephone interviewing: a survey method in which an interviewer reads questions from a script on screen and records answers directly, often used for B2B and hard-to-reach respondents.Related: B2B Research →
- Ethnography
- A research approach that observes people in their natural context — at home, at work or in store — to understand behaviour that people may not articulate in interviews.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Mystery shopping
- An evaluation in which trained researchers pose as customers to assess the experience a business delivers in store, online or by phone against defined standards.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Triangulation
- Using several independent sources or methods to answer the same question, such as comparing top-down and bottom-up market estimates with expert views, to increase confidence in a conclusion.Related: Market Research →
Market & strategy
- Market research
- The structured collection and analysis of information about a market — its size, growth, customers, competitors and dynamics — to reduce uncertainty in business decisions.Related: Market Research →
- Market intelligence
- The continuous gathering and interpretation of information about markets, customers, competitors and the wider environment so decision-makers stay informed over time, rather than through a single study.Related: Market Intelligence →
- Market sizing
- Estimating the value or volume of demand in a defined market, typically using top-down data, bottom-up unit models, or both, with documented assumptions.Related: Market Research →
- TAM, SAM and SOM
- Total addressable market (all potential demand), serviceable addressable market (the portion a company's offer and reach can serve) and serviceable obtainable market (the share realistically winnable in a given period).Related: Market Research →
- Top-down market sizing
- Estimating a market by starting from a broad published total and applying filters such as geography, segment and product category to reach the relevant market.Related: Market Research →
- Bottom-up market sizing
- Estimating a market by building it from its units — number of potential customers, adoption, frequency of purchase and price.Related: Market Research →
- Market entry strategy
- A plan for whether, where and how a company should enter a new geography, segment or category, covering market attractiveness, competition, regulation, entry mode, channels and investment.Related: Market Entry & GTM →
- Go-to-market (GTM) strategyAlso: GTM
- The plan for bringing a product to target customers: who to target, the value proposition, pricing, channels, sales motion and launch sequencing.Related: Market Entry & GTM →
- Entry mode
- The way a company enters a new market — for example direct sales, distributors or partners, licensing, joint venture or acquisition.Related: Market Entry & GTM →
Customer & product
- Product-market fit (PMF)Also: PMF
- The degree to which a product satisfies a strong need in a specific market, evidenced by customers who would be significantly disappointed to lose it, healthy retention and organic demand.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD)Also: JTBD
- A framework that describes customer needs as the progress a person is trying to make in a given situation — the 'job' they hire a product to do — rather than as product features or demographics.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Customer journey mapping
- A structured visualisation of every stage a customer goes through with a product or organisation — from awareness and evaluation to purchase, use, support and renewal — showing actions, thoughts, emotions and pain points.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Buyer journey
- The path a buyer follows from recognising a need to making a purchase decision, including triggers, information sources, evaluation criteria and the people involved.Related: B2B Research →
- Buying committee (decision-making unit)Also: DMU, Decision-making unit
- The group of people involved in an organisational purchase — for example users, influencers, technical evaluators, budget holders and procurement — each with different criteria.Related: B2B Research →
- Customer pain point
- A specific, recurring problem or frustration customers experience in a task or with a product, which they would value solving.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Customer segmentation
- Dividing a market into distinct groups with similar needs, behaviours or characteristics so products, messages and channels can be tailored to each.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Persona
- A research-based profile representing a customer segment's goals, needs, behaviours and context, used to align teams around who they are designing and selling for.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Ideal customer profile (ICP)Also: ICP
- A description of the type of organisation that gets the most value from a product and is most valuable to the seller, defined by attributes such as industry, size, technology and needs.Related: B2B Research →
- Concept testing
- Evaluating an idea for a product, service, proposition or message with the target audience before it is fully developed, to gauge appeal and identify improvements.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Willingness to pay (WTP)Also: WTP
- The maximum price a customer would accept for a product or feature, estimated with methods such as Van Westendorp, Gabor-Granger or conjoint analysis.Related: Pricing Research →
- Churn
- The loss of customers or revenue over a period — customers cancelling, not renewing or reducing spend.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
Competition & deals
- Competitive intelligenceAlso: CI
- The ethical and legal collection and analysis of information about competitors and the competitive environment to inform strategy and commercial decisions.Related: Competitive Intelligence →
- Win/loss analysis
- Research — usually interviews with recent buyers — that identifies why a company wins or loses deals against specific competitors or against doing nothing.Related: Competitive Intelligence →
- Competitive benchmarking
- A structured comparison of a company's offering, pricing, capabilities or performance against competitors using consistent criteria.Related: Competitive Intelligence →
- Commercial due diligence (CDD)Also: CDD
- An independent assessment of a target company's market, customers, competitive position and business plan assumptions, used by investors to validate the commercial case for a transaction.Related: Commercial Due Diligence →
- Customer referencing
- Independent interviews with a company's current and former customers, typically during due diligence, to test satisfaction, loyalty, pricing power and future spend.Related: Commercial Due Diligence →
Analysis & measurement
- Net Promoter Score (NPS)Also: NPS
- A loyalty measure based on how likely customers are to recommend a company on a 0–10 scale: the percentage of promoters (9–10) minus the percentage of detractors (0–6).Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Customer satisfaction (CSAT)Also: CSAT
- A measure of how satisfied customers are with a product, service or interaction, usually captured on a rating scale and analysed by touchpoint and driver.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Brand health tracking
- Repeated measurement of a brand's performance across the funnel — awareness, consideration, preference, usage and advocacy — and its image attributes, compared with competitors over time.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Driver analysis
- Statistical analysis that identifies which factors most influence an outcome such as satisfaction, recommendation or purchase intent, so improvement can be prioritised.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Conjoint analysis
- A survey technique that asks respondents to choose between product profiles with varying features and prices, revealing the relative value of each attribute and price sensitivity.Related: Pricing Research →
- MaxDiff
- Maximum difference scaling: a survey method in which respondents repeatedly pick the most and least important items from small sets, producing a reliable ranking of features, needs or messages.Related: Customer & Consumer Insights →
- Van Westendorp price sensitivity meter
- A pricing survey method that asks at what prices a product would be too cheap, a bargain, getting expensive and too expensive, to identify an acceptable price range.Related: Pricing Research →
- Margin of error
- The range within which a survey result is expected to fall relative to the true population value at a given confidence level; it narrows as sample size increases.Related: Market Research →
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