How Can You Keep Your Marketing Research Ethical?

For those who are not familiar with the business world, you might not know that there are many standards and ethics in place for research and marketing. Research standards and ethics are designed to protect a company’s workers, its customers, and helps to ensure the validity of the information gathered. But the risks and rewards for meeting certain guidelines are not always clear. How can your small business get the effective marketing research you need while still upholding multiple codes of ethics?

Defining Ethics

Ethics, in a broad sense of the word, is difficult to define. Personal ethics tend to vary greatly from person to person, however, each industry has a generally accepted, if not published, code of ethics. Infusing ethics throughout your business matters because it reflects both the beliefs your organization holds and on you personally.

Marketing research is such a ubiquitous function that it applies to the business, philanthropy, and academic worlds. For this reason, there are different codes of ethics for different types of marketing and research, such as social media marketing, marketing towards children, and public opinion polling.

The Importance of Marketing Research

Marketing research is a large part of a successful marketing strategy. To market effectively, you need to know your target audience, understand their wants and needs, and the most effective way to reach them with your message. All of these require thoughtful, informed, and ethical research.

Unfortunately, there have been instances where research has been manipulated or falsified to show certain results because it holds so much power to influence. We’ve all seen the stories on the news of faux market research (Crystal Pepsi, New Coke, the Ford Edsel, etc.). Falsified research can result in product recalls, misleading claims for investors, and threats to the safety of users.

The damage that can be done through improper research, not only in the results, but to customers, investors, public perception can be detrimental to your business. This is why there are a variety of different ethical marketing research rules and practices in place that any reputable marketing research company should uphold. More specifically, marketing research is chock-full of ethical “dos” and “don’ts.”

Ethical Dos and Don’ts

There are important “dos” in ethical research, many of which are outlined by the Insights Associations Code of Standards, including:

• DO respect the rights of all research participants: confidentiality, transparency, and privacy. Ensure that all participants are voluntary, and that they have the right to withdraw their consent at any point during the research process. Respondents must also be informed if they are being filmed or recorded.
• DO establish with the firm you have hired to conduct the research that they are conducting it in your best interest, not theirs—that is, that the research being run is of no benefit to their personal or firm interests. It is best to come to an agreement about the means of research and the cost of the research before anything is begun. 
• DO be sure to cite the name of the firm that conducted the research, the purpose, and the dates of the study in any reports. Through transparency, you’ll show your viewers that your research is trustworthy, and that the strategies you used were effective.

On the other hand, there are the “don’ts”:

• DON’T cite any research in which the responses have been influenced or coerced. This is junk research and use of it is ultimately ineffective for promoting your organization or product.
• DON’T ask the researchers for confidential information about the respondents or their responses.
• DON’T dictate the methods used by the firm you’ve hired to conduct the research — leave it to the research professionals — but they should explain the 'why' of their recommendation.
• DON’T ask for quantitative analytics from a qualitative study, and vice versa. If you need a certain kind of data, make sure the study is done in a way whereas the results are useful for your organization and purposes.

What Do Marketing Research Ethics Mean for Your Business?

Without a clear code of ethics when conducting marketing research, you put your business and your customers at risk and pulls into question the validity of the research results. As a mission-driven business, working with a firm, or doing your own research, using unethical standards can end up can end up seriously harming their reputation and could even be harming their customers. Unfortunately, it’s not an uncommon story: the public catches wind of a suspicious business, said business is immediately denounced by many previous clients or customers, and the business loses credibility and can even irreparably harm their reputation.

Upholding ethical practices in marketing research will not only create effective answers for your organization’s questions but will also build trust and credibility with your employees, clients, and stakeholders. A mission-driven, win-win approach!

Resources and related posts:

Definition of Target Audience

Buyer Personas (Can your website audience hear you now?)

5 Good Ways to Research and Find Your Potential Customers

The Story of Crystal Pepsi (Thrillist)

The Story of New Coke (Coca Cola)

The Story of the Ford Edsel (LinkedIn)

Insights Association Code of Standards & Ethics

American Marketing Association Code of Ethics

Editor’s Note: This post was originally written in August 2018 by Katie Sheets who was a rising senior and English major at the University of Vermont. Originally from Connecticut, she hopes to use her love for language and writing to help other mission-driven businesses in the future.

It has been updated by for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.