Professional Responsibility in Research

Due to the fact that participating in market research will always be voluntary, the business community must remain mindful of certain key factors.

The Business Dictionary defines professional responsibility as the “Legal and moral duty of a professional to apply his or her knowledge in ways that benefit his or her client, and the wider society, without causing any injury to either.

Research is about caring

Marketing research is governed by the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research and the very first article in the Society’s code of conduct refers to “Duty of Care”. As a marketing research agency, it is our duty to take care of (protect) the individual from whom we collect information, while adding value to our client.

At Vision Africa we recently discussed the topic of Corporate authenticity and at the core of this discussion was human care. Market or marketing research requires additional care since we want to understand how humans behave. We want to understand why consumers (a.k.a. humans) buy certain products, love certain brands and why they watch and listen to specific advertisements. As the voice of the consumer we are trusted to ensure that the public is not harmed (victimized) as a direct result of them sharing their opinions and for this reason participating in research will always be voluntary.

Research relies on public confidence

The business community must remain mindful that research relies on public confidence in the integrity of the research organization and the confidential treatment of information provided. In these modern times protecting personal information is an especially important component of marketing research and strict guidelines are applied. Whenever a truly professional marketing research agency collects data it will always separate any personal information from the data before submitting the information to their client.

Reputable research

In recent times it has become twice as important for Businesses to make use of reputed research agencies that instil confidence in the public and that consumers are able to verify the identity of the individual(s) they are letting into their living room. Vision Africa has for the past 21 years been conducting marketing and advertising research in Namibia and surrounding countries and has developed a sound reputation that ensures accurate information is gathered through its professional approach.

Talk to us about your next research project and let us help you conduct professionally responsible research.

Vision Africa…. Evolve with us

By Cornelius D’Alton