I live near a nature preserve with lots of lovely forest trails. My neighbors and I enjoy walking our dogs in this beautiful scenery. But there’s an ongoing controversy: people don’t want to keep their dogs on leashes. People say, “but my dog is friendly,” or “my dog doesn’t bite,” but you never know how two specific dogs will interact. Our town has a leash law, and while not everybody adheres to it, it mitigates the risk of dog fights.

The leash law is a policy that prompts a lot of grumbling from neighbors, but ever since the time my dog was bitten by an off-leash dog, I’m an advocate.

Similarly, the idea of market research policies may instigate some grumbling, but we all know that it is “safer” to keep our market research practices on a leash.

It doesn’t have to be a short leash, but some boundaries are needed.

Market Research Policies

In the case of market research, clear policies will minimize the risk of data quality headaches, customer over-surveying, brand damage, ethical breaches, and more.
Here are some essential policy components to help keep your market research “on leash.” Use this list to start a conversation with your market research team and reach an agreement on your core set of policies:

1. Research requests. A simple research request policy should be in place so that colleagues know how to submit a market research project request (perhaps using a standard form) and what information they need to include. This will then trigger an assessment and approval process. Should all requests include a statement about how the research will be used? Or perhaps what specific population needs to be researched? Should all requests specify details about geographic scope, methodology preferences, or other scoping parameters? What else does your team want to know in order to approve and prioritize requests?
2. Professionalism. Professionalism is vital for both the market research profession and for your company’s reputation.
   – Profession-wide success for market research requires that our work is perceived as professional. Shabby work deters people from participating in market research as respondents (for surveys, in-depth interviews (IDIs), focus groups, etc.).
   – All direct communication from your company indicates your brand’s quality, and surveys are no exception. We want to ensure that nothing low-quality gets released.  This includes poor grammar, confusing question wording, careless invitation emails, and misleading incentive offers.Some teams have a policy that all surveys must be pre-tested to ensure data quality and professionalism. A pre-test is typically done with a small number of respondents from the sample source to ensure that the questions and responses are straightforward and to verify that there are no errors.
3. Customer lists. Do you use customer lists for recruiting research participants? Company policy should state any relevant parameters. For example, “all online customer surveys must be fewer than 20 minutes in duration.”
   – The policy should state if any approvals are needed and if so, by whom. Example: “Recruiting customers for focus groups must be approved by the Sales Vice President at least three weeks ahead of time.”
   – The policy should also cover how often your organization can invite a single customer to participate in research. Two times a year? Ten times? There is no universally correct answer, but a rule should exist to avoid inundating customers with research requests. Of course, this also requires a mechanism to track this. Over-surveying can lead to customer annoyance and, ultimately, poor response rates.
4. Anonymity. In professional market research, we advise participants that responses are only used in aggregate with those of other qualified participants and do not include personally identifiable information. In the case of videos, such as recorded focus groups or in-depth interviews (IDIs), the policy might state that video content is studied for internal research purposes only and not used for marketing or advertising. For more information on anonymity, see the market research ethical codes published by professional organizations (here’s the one from the Insights Association).
5. Incentives. Does your company use incentives for research participants? Monetary or non-monetary gifts (or “honorariums”) are often used to boost response rates. However, for some companies incentives may be perceived as posing a conflict of interest and may be prohibited. And some researchers have expressed concerns about the ethics of offering incentives. You may need a policy if your company prohibits or restricts cash incentives or any type of “gifts” to customers or prospects who may be participating in non-blind research. This is particularly relevant for researchers who work in regulated industries.
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   If you use an outside panel company, they handle the incentives, so this may or may not be an issue for you.

6. Selling. Selling “under the guise of research” (“sugging”) is unethical and must be avoided. Even the appearance of solicitation can lead to a negative brand halo for a company. Ensure the policy states that market research results must not be used for lead generation. No exceptions!
7. Proprietary Information. Consider what information the company may share in the research study. Product ideas? Ad concepts? For example, a policy may be that the VP of Product Development must approve any research related to new product concepts, or that prototypes should be limited to in-person studies to avoid unwanted screenshots from leaking.
8. Statement of Limitations. Should your team have a policy that all research reports include a “statement of limitations” to help readers use the data appropriately?
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   This common inclusion in market research reports documents limitations that may impact the research’s data quality or comprehensiveness. It usually relates to sampling (for example, if non-probability sampling was used) or methodology (for example, to state that a given methodology may result in data that is “directional” or “exploratory” versus appropriate for other uses).

Great Policies Boost Market Research Success: Share Them!

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Once the policies are documented, it is essential to share them with any research-related colleagues. Include these policies in new employee onboarding materials and provide reference materials for all employees who may be requesting or using research results.
In market research, it is everyone’s job to be professional to avoid doing things that may hurt your brand or the industry’s overall response rates. Nobody wants to keep their research on a “leash,” but a core set of policies will prevent painful bites.