Research is an activity. Intelligence is an asset.

...Not all research produces this asset.

The essential comparison between Market Research and Market Intelligence is this: marketing research is an activity; market intelligence is an asset.  Not all marketing research produces intelligence.

The value of intelligence assets is measured by the incremental profit resulting from their application.  No application, no value.  

Our clients always say they "do marketing research".  Often, they are happy to show the results of their research activities to us.  In many cases, however, we immediately find opportunities to significantly reduce costs and increase the value of the intelligence they are receiving.  

Here are two examples:

One client was investing $200,000 per year on an annual customer satisfaction tracking study.  The report included several thousand verbatim comments made by customers as well as some quantitative data.  Few managers read the findings.  Whyze Group redesigned the study to focus on the factors that influence customer satisfaction and loyalty.  We also adjusted the sampling and interview methods so that our client obtained results for each division every quarter.  This saved the client $90,000 per year and dramatically increased the use of the intelligence throughout the company.  Every quarter, managers in customer service, operations, and other areas of this firm request the enhanced report.

Another client did marketing research on their TV ads, but were disappointed with the "pull" these ads generated.  When we looked at their research, we found they had used dial testing.  Dial testing is when a room full of consumers are asked to move a dial indicating positive and negative moments in a TV ad they are being shown.  The limitation of this method is that it only shows high and low points relative to other points in the ad.  It doesn't sufficiently show how consumers perceive the offer relative to those of competitors.  In contrast, Whyze Group designed and managed a study to obtain consumers' perceptions of our client's offer versus competitors'.  Our client immediately saw ways to communicate their offer far more powerfully.