Standards

The Code of Marketing Research Standards

Download Expanded Code of Marketing Research Standards

The Marketing Research Association’s Code of Marketing Research Standards is established to ensure that MRA members conform to the following principles:

Conduct research in an honest and ethical manner
Instill confidence in research to encourage public cooperation
Instill confidence that research is done in a professional and fair manner
To provide members with guidelines that lead to research being conducted in accordance with scientific, statistical and proven practical methods.
Carry out every research project in accordance with the Code
Respect the general public and its rights

The principles of this Code must be adhered to and signed by each member of the Marketing Research Association, both corporate and individual, as a condition of membership in MRA.

Nonmembers of MRA are encouraged to familiarize themselves with this Code to facilitate their dealing with MRA members and to use as an educational tool.

Background of the Code of Marketing Research Standards

The Marketing Research Association is a recognized leader in the opinion and marketing research industry, advancing practical application, use and understanding of the opinion and marketing research profession.

A fundamental aim of the Association is to ensure that standards are maintained. It is important that opinion and marketing research knowledge and the value of research are communicated to both the business community and the public at large, while complying with applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances.

MRA expects members to follow principles of honesty, professionalism, fairness and confidentiality to guard the interests of the public and our clients in order to promote good business practices. MRA’s Code of Marketing Research Standards addresses the responsibilities of our members, not only to each other, but also to the general public and business community.

Researchers must not, whether knowingly or negligently, act in any way that could bring discredit to, or compromise public confidence in, the marketing research profession.

All MRA members must sign the Endorsement Agreement that accompanies the Code as a condition of membership. The agreement lays out the basic principles that members agree to abide by (honesty, integrity, respect for the public, professionalism and fairness, and commitment to the Code). Failure to sign the agreement will bar the company or individual from MRA membership.

Using This Document

The Code of Marketing Research Standards is structured to include those standards by which ethical researchers must abide. As MRA is an Association that serves all segments of the profession, its Code encompasses standards for End Users/Research Buyers, Research Providers/Suppliers/ Data Collectors and Related Service Providers. Certain Related Services are considered so specialized as to warrant their own set of standards. These segments are Sampling and Tabulation & Data Processing. MRA offers “Recommended Best Business Practices” as a separate document. MRA presents those recommended best business practices as ideals to guide Opinion and Marketing Researchers in providing professional, ethical and reliable products and services. Recommended Best Business Practices is to be used as a supplement to the enforceable Code of Marketing Research Standards. Note: refer to the downloadable "Expanded Code" for definition of terms as well as explanatory notes for each code item.

SECTION A:
All Marketing Research Association members agree that they:

1. Will ensure that each study is conducted according to the agreement with the client.

2. Will never falsify or omit data for any reason at any phase of a research study or project.

3. All marketing and opinion research released for public consumption (e.g. p-r release research) will comply with prevailing research standards specified in this Code and include statements disclosing (1) the method of data collection, (2) the date(s) of data collection, (3) the sampling frame, (4) the sampling method, (5) the sample size, and (6) the calculated margin of error for quantitative studies.

4. Will protect and preserve the confidentiality of all research techniques and/or methodologies and of information considered confidential or proprietary.

5. Information will not be revealed that could be used to identify respondents without proper authorization.

6. Will observe confidentiality with all research techniques or methodologies and with information considered confidential or proprietary. Information will not be revealed that could be used to identify clients or respondents without proper authorization, the exceptions being:

Customer Satisfaction Research where the express, expected result of all parties is that the client or client’s agent will receive the information for follow-up.
Compliance with a court order or other legal demand (e.g. discovery phase of a pending legal case).

7. Will report research results accurately and honestly.

8. Will protect the rights and privacy of respondents.

9. Will treat respondents in a professional manner.

10. Will take all reasonable precautions that respondents are in no way directly harmed or adversely affected as a result of their participation in a marketing research project.

11. Will not abuse public confidence in opinion and marketing research.

12. Will not misrepresent themselves as having qualifications, experience, skills, resources or other facility locations that they do not possess.

13. Will not refer to membership in the Marketing Research Association as proof of competence.

14. Will not ask our members who subcontract research to engage in any activity that is not acceptable as defined in the Code or that is prohibited under any applicable federal, state or local laws, regulations and/or ordinances.

15. Will protect the confidentiality of anything learned about a client’s business as a result of access to proprietary information

16. Will, when conducting secondary research, make the End User aware of the source of the secondary research. At no time will secondary research be presented to the End User as primary data.

17. Will inform the client if:

their work is to be combined or syndicated with other clients’ work
all or part of their work will be subcontracted outside the researcher’s organization

18. Will avoid all conflicts of interest in the carrying out of work for multiple clients, particularly those in the same or similar businesses.

19. When having responsibility for creating products and services for respondent use, will be responsible for providing products and services that:

are safe and fit for their intended use
are labeled in accordance with all laws and regulations
will provide means to make the respondent whole should problems arise
will provide emergency contact information

20. Will provide detailed written or verbal study instructions to those engaged in the data collection process.

21. Will not represent a non-research activity to be opinion and marketing research, such as, but not limited to:

questions whose sole objective is to obtain personal information about
respondents whether for legal, political, commercial, private or other purposes
the compilation of lists, registers or databanks of names and addresses for any
non-research purposes (e.g. canvassing or fund raising)
industrial, commercial or any other form of espionage that could cause harm to an individual or organization
the acquisition of information for use by credit rating services or similar
organizations
sales or promotional approaches to the respondent
the collection of debts

22. Will identify surveys and other methods of data collection as such and not attempt to collect data through casual or conversational means other than for bona fide mystery shopping assignments.

23. Will not use research information to identify respondents without the permission of the respondent. The following are exceptions:

Respondent identification information may be used in processing the data and
merging data files.
Respondent identification information may be used to append client or third-party data to a survey-based data file.
Respondent identification information may be revealed in compliance with a court order or other legal demand from a competent and recognized legal authority (e.g. discovery phase of a pending legal case).
If such permission is given, the interviewer must record it, or a respondent must do so during all surveys not involving an interviewer, at the time the permission is secured. If such permission is given, the data may only be used for the purpose to which the respondent agreed.

Additionally, members will ensure that all respondent identification information is safeguarded against unauthorized access.

24. Will respect the respondent’s right to withdraw or to refuse to cooperate at any stage of the study and will not use any procedure or technique to coerce or imply that cooperation is obligatory.

25. Will ensure that respondents are informed at the outset if the interview/discussion is being audio or video recorded by any means and will, if required, obtain written consent if the recorded

interview/discussion will be
viewed by a third party
reproduced for outside use

26. Will give respondents the opportunity to refuse to participate in the research when there
is a possibility they may be identifiable even without the use of their name or address (e.g. because of the size of the population being sampled).

27. Will adhere to the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act and will obtain permission and document consent of a parent, legal guardian or responsible guardian before interviewing children under 13 years of age. Prior to obtaining permission, the interviewer should divulge the subject matter, length of the interview and other special tasks that may be required of the respondent.

28. Will ensure that the results of the research are the sole property of the End User(s). At no time will results be shared with other clients.

29. Will treat the respondent with respect and not influence a respondent’s opinion or attitude on any issue through direct or indirect attempts, including the framing of questions.

30. Will ensure that all formulas used during bidding and reporting during the data collection process conform with the MRA Incidence Guidelines or with an incidence calculation formula agreed upon between the client and research provider(s).

31. Will make factually correct statements, whether verbal or written, to secure cooperation and will honor promises made during the interview to respondents.

32. Will ensure that all interviewers comply with any laws or regulations that may be applicable when contacting or communicating to any minor (under 18 years of age) regardless
of the technology or methodology utilized.

33. Will not reveal any information that could be used to identify clients without their written authorization.

34. Will ensure that companies, their employees and subcontractors involved in the data collection process adhere to reasonable precautions so that multiple surveys are not conducted at the same time with a specific respondent without explicit permission from the sponsoring company or companies.

35. Will consider all research materials provided by the client or generated as a result of materials provided by the client to be the property of the client. These materials will be retained or disposed of as agreed upon with the client at the time of the study.

36. Will, as time and availability permit, give their client the opportunity to monitor studies in progress to ensure research quality.

37. Will ensure that information collected during any study will not be used for any sales, solicitations or Push Polling.

38. Will respect that all information contained in a facility database or held by an independent recruiter is the sole property of these entities.

39. Will follow all use restrictions imposed by the facility in order to ensure confidentiality for all parties.

40. Will not permit use of respondent contact information for re-contacting a respondent unless the respondent has been informed of this possibility at the time of the original research, and given their consent to be contacted.

41. For Internet research, will follow all federal, state and local laws regarding internet/online communications. This takes into account all opt-in/opt-out requests.

42. For Internet research, will be familiar with the already established guidelines from MRA, IMRO and ESOMAR, which include the definition of unsolicited e-mails.

43. For internet research, will ensure that the Researcher’s identity is disclosed to respondents.

44. For internet research, will post privacy policy statements online.

45. For internet research, will not use any data in any way contrary to the provider’s published privacy statement without permission from the respondent.

46. For internet research, will not send unsolicited email to those who have opted out.

SECTION B: Sampling
Those who provide sample must adhere to all prior standards and in addition:

47. Must be prepared to comply with requirements and limitations placed on data usage by data owners, including list brokers and database compilers. These requirements and limitations include but are not limited to:

required submission of questionnaire documents when requested
limitations on use of sensitive material including data on children, medical conditions, financial
information and other areas deemed as sensitive by the list provider or owner
not using samples or lists for any purpose other than legitimate research purposes
holding household and personal data contained in sample information in the same strict confidence as collected survey data and using it only for the purposes of stratification, selection or control of survey samples or in tabulation of aggregate results
ensuring that information derived from the sample will not be used for individual marketing efforts. It is understood that no marketing action can be taken toward an individual respondent as a result of his/her survey information and/or participation as a survey respondent

48. Will not misrepresent the impact of sample methodology and its impact on survey data.

49. Will, upon request, disclose practices and methods used for generating, stratifying and selecting specific samples.

50. Will, upon request, identify the appropriateness of the sample methodology itself and its ability to accomplish research objectives.

51. Will protect the identity and confidentiality of research organizations and will not disclose information without consent except in compliance with a court order or other legal demand (e.g. discovery phase of a pending legal case).

52. Will compile, maintain and utilize Internet samples of only those individuals who have provided their permission to be contacted (opt-in) and who have a reasonable expectation that they will receive Internet invitations for opinion and marketing research purposes.

53. Will not employ any deceptive methods in obtaining sample. Sample Providers will not employ any techniques or technologies, actively or passively, to collect e-mail addresses without a respondent’s awareness or permission.

54. Will provide access to their privacy policy, which will be prominently displayed, for public review on each survey administered online.

55. Will offer respondents the choice with each survey to be removed (opt-out) from future Internet invitations.

Those Using Sample….

56. Will, to the fullest extent possible on each project, counsel End Users as to the appropriateness of the sample methodology being employed. Ultimately, communication of critical information resides with the Research Provider working with the End User.

57. Will be prepared to disclose to the Sample Provider the research objectives including the nature of such decision making and data uses, and will not knowingly misrepresent or mislead intent to any entity involved in the research process.

58. Will adhere to policies and/or contracts set forth by sample providers governing the use of purchased and/or licensed sample resources or files.

59. Will offer respondents the choice with each survey to be removed (opt-out) from future Internet invitations.

SECTION C: Tabulation and Data Processing
Those who are engaged in Tabulation and Data Processing must adhere to all prior standards and in addition:

60. Will inform Clients, at their request, of the quality control procedures the Data Processing Company has in place.

61. Will provide Client, at their request, with a clear statement in writing of the work involved with regard to the scope of the project, timing, and associated costs.

62. Will inform Clients, at their request, of the archiving and storage procedures the Data Processing Company has in place.

63. Will inform clients, at their request, of the software (name, producer and version) that is being utilized for their work.