The Marketing Research
Industry
The Marketing Research Industry:
Evolution of the Industry
• Charles Coolidge Parlin
is known as the “father
of marketing research.”
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The Marketing Research Industry:
Evolution of the Industry
• Parlin conducted the first continuous
marketing research in the early 1900s
for the Curtis Publishing Company.
• The purpose of Parlin’s research was
to increase advertising for The
Saturday Evening Post magazine.
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Growth of the Need for
Marketing Research
• The Industrial Revolution led to
manufacturers producing goods for
distant markets.
• Manufacturers needed to know about
faraway consumers.
• This led to the growing need for
marketing research.
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The Marketing Research
Industry Today
• World Revenues
– The marketing research industry
today accounts for about $21.5
billion spent annually.
– The top 25 firms can be found in
the report Honomichl Global Top 25
(See page 44.)
– The top 50 U.S. firms can be found
in the Honomichl Top 50. (See
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page 46.)
Honomichl Top 25
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Honomichl Top 50
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Classifying Firms in the
Marketing Research Industry
• Research Suppliers
– Internal Suppliers
– External Suppliers
• Limited Service Suppliers
• Full Service Suppliers
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The Marketing Research Industry
Outside
May
Can or
perform
may
firmnot
all
be
hired
marketing
only
a formal
limited
to
department
perform
researchsome
marketing
sort
functions
research
of
for
marketing
the client for
functions
research
the client
Classification of Marketing Research
Suppliers
Online research
Standardized
Syndicated
Customized
data
services
firms
service
firms
service
service
firms
firms
specialize
in offer
provide
syndicated
collect
a variety ofservices
providing
marketing
information
researchservices,
services
that is
online.
research
made
available
are tailored
asthat
opposed
to to to
multiple
meet the client’s
syndicated
data, to
subscribers.
specific
needs.
clients.
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Industry Structure:
Internal Suppliers
• Internal suppliers: an entity within the
firm supplies marketing research
• Methods of Organization
– Own formal departments: organized
around:
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• Marketing function: ad research, product
research, pricing research, channel…
• Research process: data analysis, data
collection…
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• Area of application: brands, customers...
Industry Structure:
Internal Suppliers
• Methods of Organization…
– Single individual or committee
– No responsibility assigned
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Industry Structure:
External Suppliers
• External suppliers: outside firms hired to
fulfill a firm’s marketing research needs
• Methods of Organization:
– Function: data analysis & collection…
– Type of research application: ad
research…
– Geography: domestic, international…
– Types of customers, finance, health
Ch 3 – Combination of the above
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Industry Structure:
External Suppliers
• Classification:
– Full service
– Limited service
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Where to Find External
Research Suppliers
• www.greenbook.org
• www.quirks.com
• www.bluebook.org
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Challenges to the Marketing
Research Industry
• Marketing researchers should focus
on diagnosing problems in the
market…need for portability led to
Walkman, Watchman.
• Marketing researchers should speed
up marketing research by using IT.
• Marketing researchers should take an
integrative approach…avoid being
“silos” of isolated information.
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Challenges to the Marketing
Research Industry
• Marketing researchers should expand
their strategic impact...get away from
standard reports & get involved in
strategic issues.
• Other criticisms – lack of creativity,
too survey oriented, lack of
understanding of real problems, lack
of concern for respondents.
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Suggested Improvement:
Certification
• For several years certification has
been debated.
• The MRA started a certification
program in February 2005.
• Professional Researcher Certification
– go to www.mra-net.org, and see
menu item “Certification.”
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Other Suggestions for Industry
Improvements
• Auditing…being used in other areas,
i.e. Advertising…audits websites via
Audit Bureau of Circulations.
• Education…MR industry has made
much progress here. Examples
include AMA’s Notre Dame School of
Marketing Research, Burke Institute,
Advertising Research Foundation
seminars, etc.
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Some Ethical Marketing Research
Situations: Class Exercises
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Is this Ethical?
1. A research company decides to
leave a message on prospective
respondents’ answering machines
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.
Ethical as long as true
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Is this Ethical?
2. 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.
Ethical - snowball sampling,
referral sampling
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Is this Ethical?
3. 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 pitch.
Unethical – sugging
What is frugging?
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Is this Ethical?
4. The cover letter of a mail
questionnaire says that it will "only
take a few minutes to fill out." But
pretests have shown that at least
fifteen minutes are needed to fill it
out.
Unethical as “few” is vague
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Is this Ethical?
5. Telephone interviewers are
instructed to assure the respondent
of confidentiality only if the
respondent asks about it.
Ethical as long as confidentiality is
true
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Is this Ethical?
6. 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.
Unethical if the survey is confidential
or anonymous
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Is this Ethical?
7. 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
beside the names of those who
indicated agreement to be
contacted by the client's sales
personnel.
Ethical…They agreed to this.
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Ethical Issues with Online
Surveys
• Spam surveys… Illegal!
• Opt-In vs. Opt-Out
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Why are Ethical Issues
Problematic?
• Two competing ethical philosophies:
– Deontology holds that if an (any)
individual's rights are violated, then
the behavior is not ethical.
– Teleology says to judge a given
behavior in terms of its benefits and
costs to society: if there are individual
costs but group benefits, then there
are net gains (versus net losses) and
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the behavior is judged to be ethical. 28
Why are Ethical Issues
Problematic?
Marketing Research
Situation or Practice
Deontologist
says…
Teleologist
says…
Unethical
No problem
Wrong!
Okay if it
helps folks
Unethical
Okay if it gets
to the truth
Mystery shopper
Frugging
Disguised survey
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Marketing Research Code of
Ethics
•
•
•
•
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CASRO:
MRA:
ESOMAR:
PMRS:
www.casro.org
www.mra-net.org
www.esomar.nl
www.pmrs-aprm.com
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Ethical Issues
• Sugging
• Frugging
• Misrepresentation and omission of
pertinent research data
• Treating clients, suppliers & the
public unfairly
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Ethical Issues with
Respondents
• Respondent cooperation has been
going down
• Marketing researchers should:
– Eliminate or keep deception to a
minimum
– If promised, guarantee anonymity
or confidentiality
– Fight invasions of privacy such as
telemarketing and SPAM
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Panels
• Marketing research companies are
making greater use of panels
• Recruiting respondents who agree to
participate in future studies
• Panel Equity, the value of having
access to a large number of
consumers willing to cooperate in
studies, will increase in the future
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Some Internet Sites About
Careers in Marketing Research
• Quirk’s
• www.burke.com
• Occupational Outlook Handbook
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