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CHAPTER 2
The Marketing Research Industry
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
To learn about the history and characteristics of the marketing research industry,
including the professional organizations in the industry
To learn the leading marketing research firms and their place in the industry structure
To know how to classify marketing research firms
To be aware of the challenges facing the industry and what has been suggested to
improve the industry, including the Professional Researcher Certification (PRC)
To understand how a researcher’s philosophy might dictate behavior in ethically sensitive
situations
To learn the ethical codes and standards developed by professional associations serving
the marketing research industry
To learn important ethical issues facing the marketing research industry today
CHAPTER OUTLINE
The Marketing Research Industry
Evolution of the Industry
The Early Days
Growth of the Need
A Maturing Industry
Honomichl Global Top 25
Worldwide Spending on Marketing Research
Honomichl Top 50
Revenues of U.S. Firms
Stronger Competition Through M&A and Strategic Alliances
Classifying Firms in the Marketing Research Industry
Internal Suppliers
How Do Internal Suppliers Organize the Research Function?
Organizing the Formal Department of Internal Suppliers
Organizing When There Is No Formal Department
External Suppliers
How Do External Suppliers Organize?
Classifying External Supplier Firms
Full-Service Supplier Firms
Syndicated Data Service Firms
Standardized Service Firms
Customized Service Firms
Online Research Services Firms
Limited-Service Supplier Firms
Challenges Facing the Marketing Research Industry
Issues with the Economy
The Lifeblood of the Industry—Consumer Cooperation
Marketing Research No Longer Represents “Voice of the Consumer”
Marketing Research is Parochial
Marketing Research Operates in a “Silo”
Marketing Research Is Tool Oriented
Using IT to Speed Up Marketing Research
Other Criticisms of Marketing Research
Certification and Education: Means to Improving the Industry
Certification
Education
Ethics and Marketing Research
Ethical Views Are Shaped by Philosophy: Deontology or Teleology
Ethical Behavior in Marketing Research is a Worldwide Issue
Codes of Ethics
Sugging and Frugging
Research Integrity
Treating Others Fairly
Buyers
Suppliers
Failure to Honor Time and Money Agreements
The Public
Respondents
Deception of Respondents
Confidentiality and Anonymity
Invasions of Privacy
KEY TERMS
Anonymity
Certification
Code of ethical behavior
Confidentiality
Online research
Online research services firms
Online survey research
Panel equity
Charles Coolidge Parlin
Phone banks
Professional Certified Marketer (PCM)
Customized service firms
Data analysis services
Deception
Deontology
Ethics
External suppliers
Field service firms
Frugging
Full-service supplier firms
Honomichl Global Top 25
Honomichl Top 50
Internal supplier
Limited-service supplier firms
Market segment specialists
Mystery shopping
Requests for proposals (RFP’s)
Research integrity
Research suppliers
Sample design and distribution
Spam
Specialized research technique firms
Standardized service firms
Strategic alliances
Sugging
Syndicated data service firms
Teleology
Web-based research
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
1. Ask students if they can detect the three main causes for the changes in marketing research
over its history. One is evolution of markets, which moved from local markets where buyers
and sellers were neighbors to global ones where buyers and sellers are from completely
different cultures. This drives the need for information about the marketing environment.
Another cause is changes in technology ranging from questionnaire design to
computerization, which has been adopted by marketing research. The third cause is the
combination of computer technology (namely the Internet) and globalization effected by
online research. Class discussion and examples of one or all three of these forces can be
fruitful. Select a company that has global marketing aspirations and have students identify
what research questions are relevant as it moves into different countries and cultures. It may
be enlightening to illustrate how marketing research companies are now on the Internet by
using companies identified in Chapter 2.
2. Some topics that you might want to point out to students to illustrate the impact of
technology on marketing research are the following: (1) single source data where purchases
of a family’s (such as grocery products) are captured across several weeks, (2) focus groups
that take place over the Internet using video cameras and chat software, or (3) handheld
computers that administer customer satisfaction questionnaires to existing customers at (for
example) automobile dealership service centers.
3. To delve into the “Honomichl Top 50” look at the Marketing News Marketing Research
Report. Unless there is a change in policy, the Marketing Research Report appears annually
in a June issue, and it can be used to update the figures. The Report also profiles each of the
50 top companies, and has an introduction to the industry. Have students select companies
and summarize the profiles in class presentations or discussion.
4. The Honomichl Top 50 and references to some marketing research companies in Chapter 2
include the website addresses of the top marketing research companies. If you have
multimedia capability with Internet capability in your classroom, use one or a number of
them to show students the number and variety of products and services that these companies
offer. Alternatively, have student volunteer to visit top company websites and “show and tell”
some interesting products and/or services that they find.
5. Students may not understand the distinctions between the three internal research suppliers:
(a) formal department, (b) single individual, and (c) no one responsible. If possible, have a
representative from each organizational type come to the class and discuss how marketing
research takes place in his/her company. Alternatively, describe the situations based on your
knowledge of representative companies.
6. Most students will think that all marketing research companies are full service. One way to
help them understand about the limited service companies is to say that they are practicing
niche marketing. They have found niches in the research industry, and they specialize in
performing their functions very well.
7. Save copies of Marketing News or Quirk’s Marketing Research Review and bring them to
class. After reviewing full-service and limited-service marketing research firms, hand out the
newspapers and have students look at the marketing research company ads. Let selected
students summarize the services of companies they have singled out. Alternatively, select the
ads yourself, make overhead transparencies, or PowerPoint slides, and use them when you
cover this topic in your class presentation. Another approach, if you have multimedia
classroom capability, is to find the Internet sites for various types of marketing research firms
and illustrate the products and services of these different firms during class.
8. The chapter indicates that formal marketing research departments are typically only found in
large companies, and often they are very small. Ask students what this implies about a career
in marketing research. You might tie this discussion in with the careers in the marketing
research appendix. Points to be made are: (1) it will probably take a master’s degree to break
into the management level; (2) you will probably have to locate in a major metropolitan area;
but (3) there will be opportunities for sharp managers who know something about marketing
research in medium- and small-sized companies because they don’t have marketing research
personnel.
9. It is important that students come to realize the ethical issues in marketing research early on,
and this is why this topic is introduced in Chapter 2. Additionally, they need to be made
aware that philosophical differences exist. Going over the various ethical issue areas is
worthwhile, but sugging and frugging invariably generate the most class interest and
story-telling.
10. The right to privacy issue is a major worry in the research industry. Ask students what they
believe are their personal privacy rights and how they enforce them when they are violated.
Then turn the tables by telling them that they have taken on a job as a telephone interviewer
where they will be compensated $5 for each completed interview. What would they do to
make money? Sometimes students do an about face on privacy when they are worried about
making enough money to pay their rent.
11. It is always fun to ask students if they have been “sugged” or “frugged” recently. Those who
have not read the chapter will be immediately obvious, as sugging and frugging invariably
stick in students’ minds. Those who have no clue obviously did not read the chapter before
class.
12. There is considerable information about the Professional Researcher Certification program
operated by the Marketing Research Association on its website (www.mra-net.org/prc/).
Either use it in class or assign it to a student or student team for presentation to the class.
