Welcome everyone to the session of marketing
research and analysis.
Now we are coming towards the end of the session
where we are going to discuss on certain important
topics.
One being, one of being them, the role of
ethics in marketing research.
Till date, we have discussed about marketing
research as a whole, what is marketing research,
what is the application of marketing research?
How marketing research is useful for companies?
For researchers, and everybody, but today
we will discuss on certain, there have been
a lot of controversial issues relating to
the field of marketing.
Several companies, for example, have been
accused they have been accused of unethical
practices; several researches have been accused
of unethical practices so marketing because
of the intense competition, because of the
cutthroat you know competition around marketers
also have fallen prey to you know sometimes
utilizing or adopting unethical practices.
So what is this ethics all about and why are
marketers so vulnerable and how should one
researcher stay away from it?
So, today ethics has become a very, very important
discussion, in many management schools today
the people are being taught about ethics through
several even you know, important religious
books also been taken help of supported by
like Bhagwad Geeta being used to explain ethics
you know in day to day life and all.
So marketing research for example, you know
let me cite an example which you may must
of heard of.
For example, the case of Xerox, Enron were
very popular at one point of time because
these companies were involved in some kind
of you know mis-governance and unethical practices
so because of, as a result of it what has
happened is lot of stakeholders were unhappy
and the money of the stakeholders were also
at loss.
So and even in case is it has been seen that
the research has to find certain data to get
certain information and companies to get certain
information about their competitors and others,
they try to adopt certain practices which
cannot be considered good and they are considered
unethical.
So what is ethics?
Let us see, ethics in marketing research.
So the ethical dilemma in marketing research,
for example let us an example we have started
with.
Company A gets poor response rate in its mail
services so it uses fictitious letter head
labeled public opinion research industries.
Now suppose you do not get, that is the common
you know discussion, researchers say sir,
we are not getting information or we don't
get enough responses from people, that does
not mean that you are going to use something,
some practice which is not called for, which
is not expected from a researcher, a researcher
is expected to be honest all the time so this
is a case of misidentification one should
avoid.
Another case, 80% of physicians recommend
that consumers use no margarine, of the remaining
20%, that is our 80% gone 20 % remains, a
majority recommended brand A. Brand A now
adds say recommended by physicians, now this
is a case of misinterpretation, why?
Because 80% were of a different category,
only 20% recommended brand A, now this 20%
because of this 20% if you say that recommended
by physicians which many companies today are
say you must have seen advertisement where
it is being said 99.93, 67.46.
Now how did they come to such a conclusion?
It is very strange; it is very difficult so
there is somewhere a case of negligence or
a deliberate attempt to hamper ethics.
Similarly unethical practices have also been
seen in advertising, many advertising, companies
compete against each other and then they try
to put some other competitors in a very bad
light by misrepresenting the cases.
The very popular case of Bisleri in India,
Parle Bisleri versus the Eureka Forbes, where
the company had went to the court and finally
they have to settle down, right.
So there are several cases of this, you come
to listen because in my management and marketing
at least because of the serious, severe competition,
right, some more ethical dilemmas.
ABC marketing calls customers on the phone
to assess their satisfaction with their current
house, their current house, right.
After getting the opinions ABC tries to sell
the customers the new siding, now this is
a case which has generally been done by most
of the marketers, so as a result what they
have done in the guise of doing some research.
They have actually tried to push their sales
forward.
Similarly company X is required by its state
public service commission to assess the impact
of a rate increase on low income customers.
Company X research shows that low income consumers
would be adversely affected by the rate change,
when asked how the rate change would affect
such customers company X says they did not
reach to answer this question.
So, now this is something a misrepresentation
again, so in such kind of cases when a company
takes into account or tries to use these techniques
it is the case of un ethics or unethical behavior.
Should researchers concerned about ethics?
The question is this, why should researchers
be concerned about ethics?
What is the role of ethics?
How does the ethic help?
See I will give an example, the very famous
case of Johnson and Johnson.
Johnson and Johnson once had by mistake had
in one of its you know batch of products had
a, one of a wrong product got into the packaging.
You avoid any possible you know accident.
Johnson and Johnson pulled back all the products
from the market from the shelf.
Now as a result in a short term Johnson and
Johnson lost money in the market, it lost
precious money but what did it gain?
Johnson and Johnson gained an immense and
very high brand value, a good, nice public
image.
As a result of it Johnson and Johnson immediately
became a very, very large positive company,
or its opinion about Johnson and Johnson from
public was very, very positive which indirectly
or directly affected its sales again.
So, should researchers be concerned about
ethics?
We are not only talking about marketers but
also researchers, yes, now what are the reasons?
Ethical practices enhance the public’s acceptance
of marketing research, so let us say if you
are using ethical practices, for example if
you have conducted some study, let us say
in our institution we have used some study
and this study is, people know that it is
only used for academic purpose and not for
any other purpose and the faith is there,
then automatically the people’s acceptance
or participation increases, okay,
Ethical practices can improve marketers sensitivity
to their customers, in the case of Johnson
and Johnson, Third, ethical practices can
help forestall government intervention and
regulation, if you are following ethical standards
or ethical practices even if government intervention
unnecessarily would not be required which
is highly maybe a positive for any marketer.
So consideration of ethics in research and
general business for that matter is of growing
importance as I said, with so many companies
you know falling prey to some other unethical
behavior, as I said Enron, Anderson, Xerox,
many, many, many companies so as a result
of it today ethics has become a very important
part in partial of marketing research.
Is therefore critical that you understand
the basics of ethical research and how this
might affect your research?
So marketing research has experienced a resurgence
with a widespread use of the internet and
the popularity of social marketing today,
if you see earlier to do a research it used
to be very difficult because it had to be,
people had to go physically and do it, but
today with internet and social networking
it has become very easy to reach somebody,
but the question is with the easiness or with
the simplicity it has also created some other
relational ship complexities.
Researchers are becoming closer in terms of
intimacy as well as physical proximity to
the respondents, true.
Ethical problems are relationship kinds of
problems thus that is ethical problems occur
only when an individual will interact with
other people.
So suppose you are a researcher and you are
conducting a research, the question is how
ethical are you in terms of the data, in terms
of the data collection, in terms of getting
the sample, in terms of the filling up the
data, so all these things are part of the
process.
In 1963, Dr. Dik Warren, a professor of marketing
and quantitative management science at the
University of Missouri in St. Louis first
time proposed a code of ethics, if you go
to the internet also and you type it out,
MRA code of conduct you will find a healthy
document which cites which tells you about
what are the code of conducts that a researcher
needs to follow when he is doing some kind
of a research, and he was also a member of
the American marketing association.
Now historical context of ethical issues and
marketing.
The code was prompted by three main issues,
so when the ethical code of conduct was made
mainly it depend on three things, the desire
to maintain public confidence in marketing
research procedures, otherwise what would
happened was in the guise of improving sales
people just they try to pretend that they
were doing research but actually they were
pushing the sales, so to avoid this the first
pillar was designed to maintain public confidence
in marketing research procedures.
The second was the need to self regulate the
discipline before outsiders decide marketing
research needed regulation, that means before
the government or any public organization
or body thought that, for example the very
famous case of Microsoft where the US federal
interfered in the process of working of Microsoft,
Now when the government interferes obviously
there is a smooth flow of functioning of the
companies would get affected.
So, before that happens marketers need to
self regulate themselves.
The third pillar is the concern to maintain
a public positive image of the marketing in
general.
Generally if you see, generally when you talk
about marketing or sales for example people
first of all they feel that there is something
mischief in it, there is something negative
in it.
So companies have to change their image, the
public they have to create a positive image
as Johnson and Johnson created, as companies
like Procter and Gamble have done, in the
years of their history they have tried to
maintain a positive image so that.
There is a saying, the service of packet good
that if you are at some other side of the
earth also they would provide you service.
Now such a word of mouth only gives you a
very positive feedback about the company.
So what are ethics, okay?
Simply ethics addresses whether a particular
action is right or wrong, good or bad, now
simply that means what, you asked your conscience
and say, whatever we have done is right or
wrong, whether it is bad or good for the public
at large.
Societal norms adopted by a group it some
other definition says if societal norms adopted
by a group, so a conception of conduct that
is right or wrong.
Now when you are what do you feel, whether
it is correct, it is good for the society
or not, that is what is ethics.
Deal with fundamental human relationships;
it is a universal human trait.
So, what are the ethical principles?
Guides to moral behavior, good, honesty, keeping
promises, helping others, respect right of
others.
Bad; lying, stealing, deceiving, harming others.
Now these are some of the ethical principles
which marketers today have understood that
if they do not use this ethical principles
then it will be very, very, very difficult
for them to sustain and grow in the market
because today's customer is very, very educated
and sensitive and he has, you know access
to information is very high so he can easily
compare.
Universality of ethical principles should
apply in same manner in all countries, cultures
and communities, it should be ethically, universality
should be there.
At least whatever ethical principles are there
they should be applicable to everybody, every
place.
On the other hand there is the relativity
of principles also; sometimes this might vary
from country to country, community to community.
Now this is more connected with the habits
and tradition of the cultures, of the people.
In some culture for example hugging somebody
might be taken as very positive and in some
it might not be so, so that is where the relativity
comes in so, but one has to be very clear
in what they are doing or what they mean by
ethics.
If you look at the reasons for the ethical
business view why should anybody be ethical
in nature, how being ethical is useful to
a business enterprise or a researcher at large,
fulfill public expectations for business,
so the public expectations, if you do not
fulfill or do not stand by it then the public
might, the loyalty factor, you might lose
on loyalty.
Prevent harming others; improve business relations,
so ethical business helps in improving business
relationship.
If you look at the B2B side the B2B industry
most of the relationships, the business between
the B2B you know the one organization to the
other, most of the business is done on basis
of business relationship.
What is the personal relationship between
the clients, so that improves when you stand
with some ethical reasoning?
It helps in improving employee productivity,
it has been seen organizations which are highly
ethical there the people are happier and thus
the productivity of the people is much, much
higher than in comparison to organizations
where unethical practices are a part of the
process.
Reduce penalties, protect business from others,
protect employees from employers, promote
personal morality, so these are some of the
reasons for having an ethical business behavior,
so if you follow an ethical business behavior
these are the benefits that a marketer finds.
Why do we need to worry about ethics in marketing
research, again this question is coming back,
why we need to?
I have given several examples, if you do not
then what is happening your goodwill is lost
in the market, your hard earned brand value
which were going in the market for such a
long time you might lose on that.
So three things, integrity, truth, and commitment.
A researcher has the responsibility to treat
respondents fairly in a research study and
has a responsibility to the client to gather
accurate, reliable information.
Suppose there could be a researcher on a personal
level, for example a student conducting a
research or there are marketing research organizations,
for example MRB, Nelson, so which conduct
research studies for other companies like
syndicate research, and then they sell all
this data to other companies.
The primary job of a researcher is to treat
the respondents, the people from where they
are getting the data in a fair manner and
has a responsibility to look the client to
gather accurate, reliable information.
Now many a times accuracy of the information,
reliability of the information is always questionable,
what if the researcher has not taken enough
pain and was not honest to extract the right
information, and in just to finish his work
he has given a information which might not
be accurate or correct.
So, in such a condition if this happens then
there would be a problem that in the future
the outcome of the research output which would
be used by the marketers that would have a
very negative value in itself, and this information
would be highly untrustworthy and highly unreliable.
Potential for harm.
It is your responsibility to consider whether
any type of harm could occur as part of your
research and you need to ensure that mechanisms
are instituted to remove this potential harm.
Now what does it mean?
It is the researcher’s responsibility to
consider that if he or she conducts a particular
research and by this if any part of the research
work could impact or harm the respondent or
the client then such should be avoided, such
cases should be avoided.
For example, leaking the confidential information
for a short term gain might not be very wise,
might not be worthy enough to do because by
doing this not only the marketer loses its
own personal image but it harms the respondents
confidentiality and thus it affects negatively
more or less.
Some of the harm that can be done, so what
are harms?
So potentially psychological harm first.
For example use of nudity in advertising may
show participant images that offend them,
so this is going to create a psychological
harm, so psychologically the respondent might
get disturbed; he might not be interested
to further participate in such kind of research
you know, processes.
Financial harm, researching unethical behavior
within a given firm, an individual being fired
can get fired, share sensitive information
with the firms competitors, all these could
lead to financial harm to the organization.
If you fire somebody, if you pass on the sensitive
information to the competitors.
Third is social harm, researching how life
style affects consumption, disclose a person's
sexual orientation, when that person wanted
to keep that confidential.
Many a times, in most of the times rather,
while conducting a research we say that this
data would be used only and only for academic
purposes or maybe some other purpose and would
not be divulged or disclosed to others without
the permission of the respondent but, and
there are some certain information studies,
research can be done on several studies.
For example the sexuality of a person, the
income of a person, behavioral traits of a
person, so when you are doing this by ignoring
these things you are causing social harm,
so what should you do?
Ensure that you behave according to the appropriate
ethical standards.
The best thing is please go through the marketing
research associations code of conduct and
go through it.
Consider how your research might negatively
affect participants.
So, if you consider it thoroughly that while
conducting a research if I am going to use
this information how is it going to affect
my client, or how is it going to affect my
respondent?
So if it is going to negatively affect my
participants, my respondents that is, then
researchers should avoid this case, protect
yourself, your supervisor, teachers, your
institution from being placed in situations
in which individuals could make claims of
inappropriate behavior resulting in public
criticism or even you being sued.
So, suppose ,suppose the researcher is taken
very positively, very highly, suppose you
are getting into a situation where the individual
is making a claim, for example in research
papers many a times researchers claim something
without proper you know research backing,
and when they claim then what happens?
Generally we say it nothing would affect because
nobody is going to the research papers to
see you but there have been cases where the
researchers have been sued and have been questioned
even if you have seen the end of the research
your mail_ id's are given, your contact details
are given so that any researcher can contact
you and ask for clarity.
So, if you have done some, given some claims
which are not proper then not only you but
your institution might get criticized.
So we should avoid situations of these kind.
Is this ethical?
There are few issues we will see I will ask
you few questions and we will see whether
these are ethical or not according to you.
The first case.
A research company decides to leave a message
on prospective respondents, what is he doing?
A research company decides to leave a message
on prospective respondents answering machine
telling them that if they call back in the
next 24 hours they will receive a valuable
prize if they take part in a survey, so is
it ethical or not ethical?
Please take your time and think about it for
a second, now let me show you.
It is ethical as long as it is true, if that
means if the firm is following its promise
that means it is trying to maintain its promise
what it has said then it is ethical, there
is no problem with it.
Next case, upon completion of an interview
the respondent is asked to provide the names
and telephone numbers of others he or she
thinks should take part in the survey, is
this ethical or not ethical?
Again take your time, think, before you jump
to a conclusion, think, please it is a better
issue write your answers on a sheet of paper
where you are reading or listening to me,
okay, it is ethical, in fact there is nothing
wrong in it.
Because one type of sampling if you have not
forgotten and you remember it then was called
the referral or the snowball sampling where
we ask the respondents to give the, some more
details about more respondent numbers or details
so that we could contact them through their
behalf.
A door to door salesman finds that by telling
people that he is conducting a survey they
are more likely to listen to his sales speech,
what is happening here?
A door to door salesman finds that by telling
people that he is conducting a survey they
are more likely to listen to his sales speech,
is this ethical or unethical?
Again you please think and write down, okay,
let me go to the answer.
It is un ethical, it is called sugging, now
there are two types of frugging and sugging,
sugging is a process where the researcher
tries to prove that he is conducting a research
but in the guise he is actually trying to
improve his sales.
So, he is doing nothing but he is doing a
sales but in the guise of a research, so this
is an unethical practice so researchers should
avoid such situations, so this called sugging.
What is frugging?
I just said, frugging is another case where
you must have seen now a day's very popularly
the people, organizations are trying to raise
funds by showing that they are conducting
some kind of research maybe on certain diseases,
certain kinds of social groups or certain
neglected people in the society.
So, when they are doing such kind of practice
that means they are trying to use fund raising,
they are using fund raising on behalf of the
name of the research it is called frugging.
The fourth one, the cover letter of a mail
questionnaire says that it will only take
few minutes to fill out, but pretests have
shown that at least fifteen minutes are needed
to fill it out, is this a case of ethical
behavior or not?
Again the question comes, so I think it is
very clear, unethical, as few is vague.
So, when you say few you are not making it
clear but if it is taking 15 minutes sometimes
it could be large for somebody.
Telephone interviewers are instructed to assure
that the respondent of confidentiality only
if the respondent asks about it, now what
is it saying, if you listen to it carefully.
Telephone interviewers are instructed to assure
the respondent of confidentiality only if
the respondent asks.
Suppose you are following it that means you
are not divulging the information to others
then it is ethical.
A client insists on inspecting the completed
questionnaires to assess their validity but
the researcher suspects that the client is
really interested in finding out what specific
respondents said about the client, he is not
interested in all, he is only interested to
find out specific clients respondents said
about the client, so is this ethical, no,
it is not ethical, it is unethical if the
survey is confidential or anonymous, okay.
I think this is the last, in the appendix
of the final report the researcher lists the
names of all respondents who took part in
the survey and places an asterisk besides
the name of those who indicated agreement
to be contacted by the client sale personal,
so is this ethical or not, let's see, ethical,
why?
Because the client has agreed to do this so
these are things, this is some of points that
the researchers needs to keep in mind when
you talk about ethical issues, so what we
will do is we will continue with the ethical
part of marketing research in the next session,
and thanks for this session.
