MRG Meeting 18/05/99 – Making Sure That We Get It Right
‘Making sure that we do market research right’ was the theme of last week’s evening MRG meeting at Leo Burnett – what market research standards are and why we need them.
First up was Jennie Beck from the Beck Consultancy, who commented that the notion of transparency was increasingly replacing the idea of confidentiality – that respondents tend to be more inclined to co-operate when they know how their input is going to be used. Therefore, Beck emphasised the necessity of market research standards in order to promote both public and business trust in market reports. Trust and understanding in these areas has a knock on effect of greater willingness and co-operation from respondents, which is vital when declining response rates pose such a threat to market research.
Existing means of imposing the regulation of standards in this field include the 1998 Data Protection Act, and the Telecoms Directive which gives customers the chance to opt out of certain unsolicited calls. Regulations on surveillance also provide guidelines for observational research. The Market Research Society (MRS) has had its own Code of Conduct since 1954, which also aims to impose some standard regulation in the market research field. The Code, which is based on the principles of objectivity, honesty, transparency and confidentiality, can be viewed at www.mrs.org.uk.
Beck mentioned that the rights of respondents, researchers and clients often conflict with each other, but that ultimately respondent’s rights are paramount.
Catherine Blizzard from Carlton Communications voiced concern over the issues of interpretation and the presentation of findings, as well as whose job it is to be aware of the standards regulating the field. Blizzard spoke of a skill gap which is being created as those competent specialists in the research fields approach retirement, and members of the next generation – perhaps without such skill and attention to detail – move up to take their place.
Blizzard also stressed how important it is that agencies understand what it is their clients are trying to find out: “Do they understand what we’re trying to measure?”, she asks – especially in the current climate where clients leave the nitty gritty of the research in the hands of their agencies.
To bring the evening to a close, Richard Bedwell outlined his Seven Point Plan for media researchers. This paper was originally delivered at last year’s annual conference in Nice.
Bedwell argues that it is essentially the goodwill and trust of the general public which allow the media research industry to continue to operate successfully. However, these virtues are clearly being tested by researchers as response rates are in decline. This is partly because the public is becoming more wary of answering researchers’ questions and now desire to know exactly how the information they give will be used. Also, it is often the same groups of people that are prime targets for researchers and they have wised-up, demanding greater and greater incentives for taking part, says Bedwell.
In addition to this, research buyers increasingly distrust the techniques of research agencies and are starting to judge agencies’ services on cost rather than quality. In an attempt to help research buyers and agencies overcome this problem, Bedwell proposes his Seven Point Plan:
- Personnel Expertise – ensure the people conducting the research have experience and credentials.
- Checking & Piloting – easy to side-step, but very important if final results are to be useable.
- Sampling – who chooses the sampling areas (geographically)? Is it the agency’s head office – as it should be – or the interviewer’s preference based on his/her own location.
- Training & Monitoring – for the interviewers.
- Data cleaning – how is it performed?
- Verification – it is necessary to establish policies for acceptable field returns.
- Presentation & Report – is the report given to the agency’s senior staff – for potential ‘smartening up’ – before it is given to you?
Bedwell says that good research is getting more difficult and more expensive to do. Quality of research, however, must be maintained and this Seven Point Plan should aid researchers in maintaining those standards.