Ethical Dilemmas

In my marketing capstone class today we talked about ethical dilemmas people and companies may face everyday. The debate came down to are ethics relative or situational? Or is their a standard of ethics that should be used in any situation? 


The market research industry has ethical dilemmas they face all the time. From how to conduct a research study to issues with clients and respondents. A major problem that market researchers face is when a client wants to get the name of the respondents and their answers to the survey or interview questions. Market researchers have an obligation to keep confidentiality with the respondents, however they also have been hired by the client. In the client's eyes they own the results as well as the individual answers to the survey questions. The researcher must make tough decisions knowing they could potentially "harm" someone. 


Personally, I would not give the names of the respondents to the client explaining to them that you have promised those respondents confidentiality. Additionally I would explain how if this confidentiality wasn't promised to the respondents the client would not get the true information/ data they were able to receive


What would you do if you were the market researcher? What if there was no promise of confidentiality given to the respondents? Would that change your answer to this question?

Online Surveys = Best Way to Start Market Research

   Online surveys are easy to make, distribute, and collect data from. On top of all that they are the cheapest form of market research. I believe using online surveys is the best way to start off a research project because you can ask a wide variety of questions. In this exploratory phase they can identify points of interest and focus the rest of their research on those points. So, instead of focusing on economic factors in decision making, they focus in on a social influencer on decision making (ie friends, parents, celebrities influencing a purchase decision). It can also cut down on the amount of research done. It might just take an online survey to determine why everyone has stopped going to a specific store. If everyone said the same thing, then there is no reason to go any further into research than the survey. Which saves money for the company! 

   Greg Timpany of Cvent Survey agrees that online surveys has allowed even the smallest of companies to jump into market research, because it is easy to use and inexpensive. Cvent Survey is a great place to learn about online marketing and how to do it properly (through their blog) as well as they offer a service to companies to do their web surveys for them. Great thing to check out if you are a beginner surveyor!