OPEN UNIVERSITY FOR ADULTS

UAPA

BUSINESS SCHOOL
MARKETING LICENCE

ISSUE:

Ethics in Market Research

PRESENTED BY:

Yarilis Vanesa Guzmán López

TUITION:

12-2438

SUBJECT:

Market Research I

FACILITATOR:

Jose M. Valdez Manon

Santo Domingo, Dom Rep.

Dominican Republic
 Introduction

It is very important that ethics exist in any area of the organization (financial
area, production, management, marketing and others) in order to carry out more
transparent and effective operations.

In market research, the development of ethics by all its interest groups is

especially important: public, interviewees, clients and researchers; in order to obtain
better results from said investigations, obtain useful information for decision making
and that none of the interest groups are affected by the unethical practices of the
members of the other groups.
 Ethics in Market Research
Ethics in market research are guidelines that govern the behavior of those
involved in the study (the users of the information, the provider of the information and
the chosen interviewees) so that they act responsibly and honestly among themselves
and do not intend to abuse of their position to commit acts that undermine the integrity
of the research, obtain financial advantages, use the knowledge of the other without
proper authorization or not fulfill the promises made between them (interviewer-
interviewee, decision-maker interviewer, etc.).

Currently, companies that have a market research group or investigative

agencies within their organization have adopted a code of ethics, so that researchers,
general management or any member of the research group can detect any unethical act.
have the support of the code to report the offender in order to minimize immoral
behavior and maintain the credibility of the research group.

Now the ethical dilemmas are highlighted in the relationships of the three
groups: the users of the information, the providers of the information and the chosen
interviewees.

Immoral activities of the investigator or investigative agency

Immoral pricing policy. After citing a general price established for the proposed
research project, the researcher can tell the decider that the elements of variable costs,
travel expenses, monetary incentives for respondents are additional and independent of
the agreed price.

Some agencies are guilty of not keeping promises made to respondents and certain field
workers. Very often these agencies do not provide the advertised incentive to the
interviewees in exchange for them answering the interview or questionnaire. Likewise,
many agencies indefinitely delay pay owed to field workers.

Sale of unnecessary or unjustified research services.

  Falsification of data incurred by researchers and field workers. It occurs when
the researcher's interviewers or observers, instead of conducting the interview or
observing the subjects' activities as required by the study, complete the
interviews themselves or compose the observed behaviors. Another variation of
data falsification is duplicating responses or creating ghost surveys. Here the
researcher or field staff takes data from a real interviewer and duplicates it to
represent another set of responses.

 Deliberate manipulation of the structures of data analysis procedures with the

aim of offering a biased image to the decision maker or not reporting certain
results.

Immoral activities of the client

 when you request a detailed marketing research proposal from several agencies
without the intention of choosing one to conduct the study. In this situation,
companies request proposals in order to learn how to carry out the research
themselves.

 promising an agency a long-term relationship or new projects in order to obtain

a very low price. So when the researcher finishes the project, the decision maker
forgets about the promises of lasting contact.

Immoral activities of the interviewee

 The main immoral act of the interviewees is giving dishonest answers or

falsifying behavior.

CODES OF ETHICS FOR MARKET RESEARCH

Many research agencies have established internal codes derived from the codes of ethics
formulated by the large institutions that currently govern the sector; such as the code
prepared by the American Marketing Association (AMA). This code offers a framework
for identifying ethical issues and reaching ethical decisions in situations that researchers
suddenly and without warning face in their work. The objective of this code is to define
the ethical standards required in research. markets to honor those obligations.
 For research users, researchers and interviewers
o No individual or organization will undertake any activity that directly or indirectly
represents marketing research, but whose actual objective is to attempt the sale of
merchandise or services to any or all of those interviewed in the course of the research.

For research professionals

The research organization will not undertake studies of competing clients when
such studies would jeopardize the confidentiality of the firm's and client's relationships.

For market research users

The research user will not disseminate the conclusions of a project or
information service if he or she knows that they are inconsistent or not justified by the
data.

For field interviewers

The research tasks and the material received, as well as the information
obtained from the interviewees, will be kept with absolute discretion and will not be
revealed to anyone except the research organization that carries out the market study.

The existing codes have the following points in common:

Respondents have the following basic rights:

 The right to choose whether or not to participate in a study; Included in this is

the right to be informed about its existence, to be given sufficient information
about the study, and to be explicitly granted the opportunity to choose.
 The right to security; This includes the protection of the anonymity of the
respondent, not having to face situations of anxiety and disappointment
generated by the nature and objectives of the study.
 The right to be informed; This includes a presentation by the respondent
regarding what was done and why, along with disclosure of the respondents' data
if they wish.

The researchers:
 They must not intentionally or deliberately misrepresent the methods or results of the
research;

The identity of the survey sponsor must remain secret, unless this identity must be
revealed as part of the research design;

They should not carry out market studies for competing clients, when such studies
compromise the confidential nature of supplier-client relationships.

Users of market research (management):

They should not disclose project findings when they are inconsistent or insufficiently
supported.

Do not provide project designs to other market research agencies.

The existing codes have the following points in common:

Respondents have the following basic rights:

 The right to choose whether or not to participate in a study; Included in this is the right
to be informed about its existence, to be given sufficient information about the study,
and to be explicitly granted the opportunity to choose.
 The right to security; This includes the protection of the anonymity of the respondent,
not having to face situations of anxiety and disappointment generated by the nature and
objectives of the study.
 The right to be informed; This includes a presentation by the respondent regarding what
was done and why, along with disclosure of the respondents' data if they wish.

The researchers:

 They must not intentionally or deliberately misrepresent the methods or results of the
research;
 The identity of the survey sponsor must remain secret, unless this identity must be
revealed as part of the research design;
 They should not carry out market studies for competing clients, when such studies
compromise the confidential nature of supplier-client relationships.

Users of market research (management):

 They should not disclose project findings when they are inconsistent or insufficiently
supported.
 Do not provide project designs to other market research agencies.
 Do not use and develop the proposals presented in a determined attempt to appropriate
and take advantage of ideas from research companies.

Example:
Ethical or more Profit,
A major electronics company hires a marketing research firm to conduct a large-
scale segmentation study with the goal of improving market share. After following the
research process as such, the researcher determines that the problem is not market
segmentation but distribution.
The company appears to lack an effective distribution system, limiting its market
share. However, the distribution problem requires a much simpler approach that
considerably reduces the cost of the project and the profits of the research company.

What should the researcher do?

Should you perform the study the client wants instead of the one they need?
 Ethical guidelines indicate that the research company has the obligation to reveal
the true problem to the client. If after having reviewed the distribution problem the
client still wants segmentation research, the research firm may feel free to conduct the
study. The reason is that the researcher knows with certainty the motivations behind the
client's behavior.
 Conclusion

It is important to highlight all these positive behaviors because it can be said that
it improves interpersonal relationships within society and also a fact that seemed
important to me is that there are entities in different territories that establish standards,
receive complaints, investigate and can sanction, some of them are :

 ESOMAR (4500 members, 100 countries, code since 1948)

 MRS (Marketing Research Society, Great Britain)
 ICC
 Market Research Council (USA)
 American Marketing Association (USA)
 SAIMO (Argentina, 1996)
 ISO standards in market research
 Bibliography

http://oscarcaceresrincon.blogspot.com/2006/05/el-papel-de-la-
etica-en-la.html

http://carolinaplazascaballero.blogspot.mx/2006/02/la-etica-en-
la-investigacion-de.html

http://gentemilagrosa.blogspot.com/2006/02/etica-en-la-
investigacin-de-mercados.html