Case Study - Marketing Research Ethical or More Profitable

1. Marketing Research on
ETHICAL or MORE
PROFITABLE ?
Guided by : Mervin Felix Caleb
Submitted by : Jallipalli Sai Teja
Allu Ganesh
Koppu Bhanu Prakash
M . Karthik

2. CASE STUDY :
 A marketing research firm is hired by a major consumer
electronics company (e.g., Philips) to conduct a large
scale segmentation study with the objective of
improving market share .
 Researcher after following the processes came to a
conclusion that problem is not market segmentation but
it is distribution.
 Their main problem is lacking an effective distribution
system because of this their market share is limited .
 For resolving this distribution problem it requires a
simple approach and this will reduce the cost and
expenses of the project and research firm profits .

3. What should the researcher do ???
 Should the research firm conduct the research the
client wants rather than the research the client needs
??

4. Problem Identification :
 Here a situation of looking into Ethics or Profits
occurred .
 Ethical guidelines indicates that the research firm
has an obligation to disclose the actual problem
to the client .
 Researcher can address the distribution problem
to the client, if he is interested in carrying out
the segmentation research .
 The reason is that the researcher doesn’t know
the motivation underlying the client`s behavior .

5.  Several ethical issues occur during development of
an approach .
 Client also thinks in a way that he can gain
knowledge or expertise of research firms without
paying and subcontracting the research .
 Ethically he cannot use the approaches of research
firm without paying them .
 Research firm should also develop new and
innovative models for each client rather than using
the same old models for everyone .

6. Solution :
 This type of ethical problems should be solved satisfactorily if
both the client and researcher adheres to the 7C`s :
 Communication
 Cooperation
 Confidence
 Candor
 Closeness
 Continuity
 Creativity

7. Conclusion :
 In this case both client & researcher should
look for ethics rather than profits .
 Main thing matters in the business is
reputation and image .
 Once if the trust and reputation degrades its
hard to retain .
 Mutual understanding and trust between
client and researcher is a key to mutual
benefits .

8. Refernce :
 From Marketing Research an applied orientation by Naresh
K Malhotra , Prentice hall of India Private limited.