Market research-Industrial Market Research

There are a number of differences between industrial market research and consumer market research. 

• Consumer markets are more numerous
• Industrial markets are bigger in euro terms
• The demand for industrial goods is derived from the demand from consumer goods
• Within industrial markets there is a case that 80% of business comes from 20% of industrial clients
• There may be multiple buyers in industrial firms
• There are different buying motives for industrial firms
• Many of the  goods manufactured are customised
• It is much harder to get access to decision makers in industrial firms
• In industrial market research there is less focus on the marketing concept
• Industrial research is future orientation
• Limited test marketing

Differences in research applications

• For industrial research different types of secondary data is used.  For example a lot of industry reports are used
• Trade association data is very important
• Surveys are used more than depth interviews
• Probability sampling is not used
• Industrial market research doesn't tend to use sophisticated analysis tools