MR Summit: Clients and Providers Must Cooperate to Ensure Respondents Do

A total of 173 people gathered in Chicago last week for The Research Industry Summit: Improving Respondent Cooperation. Among the key messages emerging: the need for clients to play their part in promoting the benefits of research; and support for the idea that one MR organisation should take ownership of the problem.

Held over two days, September 28th and 29th, the event was presented by IIR (The Institute for International Research) and RFL Communications in partnership with CMOR (The Council for Marketing and Opinion Research).

A panel of thirty-three research leaders from providers and users of research shared their concerns about real and perceived declines in public cooperation with market research studies. There was agreement that barriers such as caller ID, answering machines, phone lines for home computers and confusion with telemarketing have contributed to the challenge of reaching potential phone study participants. The panel discussed whether the public image of market research factored into less cooperation and reduced accuracy in representing audiences of interest across phone, online, mail, mall intercepts and even the US Census.

Among the most compelling speakers was Kim Dedeker, Vice President, Consumer & Market Knowledge, Procter & Gamble, who shared feedback from some research on research conducted by the global giant. P&G fielded a survey with identical methodology twice with a gap of about a week in between, and found results were substantially different from the two waves, to the extent that the primary action step for one survey would have been the opposite of the other. The leading candidate to explain the discrepancy was low respondent cooperation, illustrating how vital the issue is - even if response rates remain sufficient to carry out surveys, low response can throw findings into jeopardy. Dedeker was adamant that client companies must be prepared to take responsibility for betting understanding and helping stem the decline in respondent cooperation – a view which met wide approval.

Another key theme was the need for one organization to 'assume respondent cooperation leadership', articulated on more than one occasion by Cambiar's Simon Chadwick. Chadwick suggested the Market Research Association (MRA) should do this, eventually winning agreement from its Executive Director Larry Brownell to investigate the possibility.

Following the large panel discussion, there were a number of presentations about ways to stimulate participation: these included survey invitations which are more motivating / communicate the importance of individual participation; appropriate incentives; and enhancing the enjoyment of the experience and ensuring quality responses among those that take part in research.

Those assembled felt clearly that the industry must respond to this genuine and far-reaching problem. Among the additional possibilities raised were regular reviews of cooperation rates and the image of marketing research; and the possible use of a major ongoing advertising / public relations campaign.

Overall, there is real enthusiasm for stemming the tide of reduced research participation and weakened perceptions of the industry. With so much to process for the Summit attendees and the industry, it is not likely that next steps will be instantaneous. DRNO will cover developments as they arise.

A summary of participants and program is still available at www.iirusa.com/respondentcooperation/index.xml .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.