Ethical Issues in Marketing Research

Now, that we have acquainted ourselves with the scope and utility of Marketing Research. The field of Marketing Research has expanded manifold during the recent times, so has the impact of the results of Marketing Research. We all know that the results of Marketing Research affect the decision making by the consumers and producers. As a consumer, you can use the Marketing Research data for making wise decision so that you buy the product which satisfy your needs at the lowest possible prices. In the very same way, if you are a producer, Marketing Research may help you in deciphering the consumers’ requirements and modify your products accordingly. Thus Marketing Research allows consumers to express their needs and interests, which are then converted into marketing action.

However, such phenomenal surge in the importance of marketing research has forced the researchers to examine and scrutinize the ethical aspects of their activities. Word ‘Ethics’ denotes Morality and it concerns matters of right and wrong When we speak of ethics in context of Marketing research activities, we are dealing with the judgment that certain types of research activities are inappropriate. Such questionable activities of individuals for testing a new product, attempting to secure information from individuals who are unwilling to respond, and delving into the privacy of an individuals who are unwilling to respond, or delving into the privacy of an individual. So, Now you can understand the importance of ethics in the marketing research activities.

But, unfortunately we do not have any list of ethical and unethical research practices that would cover all the situations that one would encounter when conducting marketing research. Several issues are controversial even within the profession, largely because opinions associated with certain practices are heavily interwoven with fundamental values and beliefs about how a society does and should operate.

Now, we can conclude that the first and most basic is the responsibility the researcher has to respondents or subjects. The second basic concern is the researchers’ treatment of buyers or clients and the third involves the clients’ treatment of researchers. Thus you are required to be sensitive about the ethical component in research process.

Code of Ethics: The American Marketing Association (AMA) adopted a Marketing research Code of Ethics in 1962.These codes were later revised. The code addresses the user-doer and the doer-provider relationships. This code is an excellent starting point, for it represents minimum standards. However, some crucial issues have not been addressed. This is partly due to the reason that many research experts cannot agree on what is ‘proper’ or ‘right’.

Nature and Content of Ethical Issues

Ethical guidelines may be divided into three separate categories. We will pursue these categories one by one.