Unethical Marketing Research Practices

Unethical Marketing Research Practices Practices in relation to proposals constitute a breach of professionalism, courtesy and ethics, research managers should understand that, Examples of common faults: Added consulting services prior to winning the assignment, expecting the research company to provide value Developing research instruments and special exercises and providing customized local market information. These may include project design, However, it is wrong to make this an expectation., the research company may wish to supply some of these services to place themselves in a better competitive position; In order to place the second in a better competitive position, disclosing details of one Research Companys proposal to another Company information and pricing structure the research companys approach should be treated as proprietary and confidential. Research managers should not use another company as a lever or check on a regular supplier, seeking comparison bids without charge Evaluating Research The process of vendor selection can sometimes become derailed by individual egos and political dynamics which are harmful to successful study execution and should be avoided, the research manager typically must review them with senior research, brand and marketing management. The consultants personal qualities including their level of enthusiasm, poise and professionalism as well as the skills and professional capabilities offered by the research company, primary criteria that should be applied in the selection process are the fit between the projects substantive requirements and the research manager should be certain that the proposals offered are equivalent in all respects, particularly in terms of specifications and possible hidden costs not apparent in the quotation Unethical Practices in Marketing RESEARCH SUPPLIERS Low-ball pricing Underpaying field services Lack of objectivity Abuse of respondents Selling unnecessary research Violating client confidentiality Research Clients Issuing bid requests when a supplier has been predetermined Obtaining free advice and methodology via bid requests Making false promises Unauthorized requests for proposals Field Services Law-ball Pricing What Is Low Balling the Price When Buying Car? Car dealers are often stereotyped as tricky and dishonest, and the car buying experience is viewed as an adversarial contest between the customer and salesperson. While its not always that way, there are some dishonest dealerships and salespeople who will use unethical practices to sell their cars. One of these practices is known as lowball. Not every dealer will use it, but you should be aware of it in case someone tries it. If they do, you should know how to handle it. Lowball the price of a car means offering to sell it at an unrealistically low price. For example, a car dealer might offer you a vehicle for $27,000 even though it normally sells for a minimum of $30,000. Unfortunately, the dealer has no intention of actually selling the car at that price. Its an underhanded tactic to get you through the door. There are two purposes for giving you a lowball offer. If you are shopping around, Roosevelt Gist of Auto Network says a salesperson will give a lowball price to ensure that you will come back. He knows that no other dealer will be able to meet the offer, so he wants to guarantee your return. He wont give you anything in writing, and when you return he wont honor the price. Youll get an excuse like you misunderstood or the sales manager wouldnt approve it or the car has been sold. Instead, youll find yourself back in negotiations. The second purpose is to get you into the dealership if you have not been there yet. If you are shopping via email or over the phone, the dealer may call you with a price that sounds too good to be true. When you arrive, he wont honor the price. It may seem that lowball would turn off buyers, but some dealers get good results with this tactic. If youre shopping over the phone or via email and he can get you through the door, he hopes that you wont want to be bothered shopping around at other dealers. If he can get you to do a test drive and engage you in negotiations, he hopes to make a sale. If youre already at the dealership after shopping around, he is counting on the fact that you are tired and will give in to the higher price. The best reaction when you have been lowballs to simply walk out the door. Once you see the dealer has no intention of honoring the price, youll also see that he is not above using dishonest tactics. Its better to spending more time shopping around than to deal with an unethical business. You can prevent lowball by asking the salesperson to put his offer in writing if it sounds unusually low. If he makes the offer over the phone, ask him to send you an email or fax you a written confirmation before you visit the dealership. If he refuses to do this, dont bother going to the dealership. Youve probably gotten a lowball offer that will not be honored when you arrive. Lake of Objectivity How to Avoid Unethical Behaviors and Dirty Tricks of Realtors Since the commissions of the Real Estate Agent are being paid by the seller of the house a buyer cannot relay on his objectivity or impartial conduct, like in many professions and occupations there are honest and ethical people and there are some who arent exactly as since without a buyer there is no deal, the seller can expect the agent to exert pressure to lower the selling price. Therefore he would do anything in his power to make the buyer pay more than he wanted and on the other hand (the good hand :-), push the seller to settle for less than he hoped to be paid for his property. In short, the agents main interest is to make sure that there would be a sale, so he would be able to get his commission , what we would concentrate here though, is the unethical dirty tricks and manipulations some of the Real Estate agents are using in order to achieve it. In general it make sense to bring both sides to agree on realistic price that can cut a deal Misconduct of Agents to Seller The sellers are the biggest losers from the real estate agents tricks Home owners are often duped into paying money to agents before their homes are sold. If their home does not sell, or it sells for less than the consumer was led to believe, this money, which often amounts to thousands of dollars, is lost. Purpose of advertising is NOT to sell homes, but to raise the profile of agents; this is at the direct expense of home sellers. Home sellers are being convinced by a rational that the price goes up at auctions but the reason the price goes up at auction is because it starts at a very low price. The truth is that auctions get lower prices more often than they get higher prices. Among agents, an auction is considered the fastest and best conditioning method. Home Owners lose millions through having their homes undersold at auctions.. It is a common deceit. At other times, home sellers are given totally fictitious offers in order to convince them to lower prices, many agents submit offers to sellers which are lower than the offer actually made by the buyers. This reckless disregard for the personal safety of home-owners is a serious ethical concern. Open Inspections, Almost anyone can walk through a family home without identification. Agents will say that there has been lots of activity and, if no one has bought, the price must be lowered. But agents do not say that the people who looked were not qualified Also, the more lookers who can be attracted to an open inspection the easier it is to persuade the owner to reduce the price. Abuse of Respondents Often, an association and its members will have already heard rumors or seen patterns of wrongdoing before a crisis becomes public. By choosing to do nothing then-or even after a scandal breaks-associations have failed their professions and industries. Leadership and quick action to shore up public trust is needed. I am convinced that many associations have failed their professions and industries in times of scandal and crisis. But what should an association do when one or more of its members is waist-deep in a public scandal? Here are a few suggestions: Condemn the sin, not the sinner. Public confidence in a profession or industry demands that the profession always be ready to draw clear lines between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. It is possible to make a strong and timely statement on the ethics of a specific behavior without judging whether the particular behavior has occurred in this case or whether a specific executive is guilty. The first response of an association must be to label the unethical behavior for what it is Ask the accused to step aside. It should be an unwritten law of associations and professional societies that accused individuals step aside temporarily until charges are resolved. The credibility of any association depends on the integrity of its leaders. This does not admit guilt, but simply respects the special role of the association. Pull the trigger if guilt is established. If the guilt of an individual or member firm is established, then the association must act to force the resignation or withdraw the membership of the guilty. Cases where guilt is never proven, but the stench of scandal is strong, present harder choices. Associations must be in the business of building public trust. Quiet action to force the resignation of an association board member may be called for. If an association today does not have a process for throwing out a member, it had better create one. Define and advocate best ethical practices, not just minimum behaviors. Association codes designed to define and advocate exemplary rather than minimal behaviors. In todays ethical climate, restoring trust will require a focus on best practices and exemplary behavior If only the lower boundary is established, those inclined to wrongdoing will always be probing how low is low, most association and industry codes of ethical conduct are least common denominators, a list of provisions that virtually every member can agree to because the standards are so low Keep your ethics current with the changing nature of your profession or industry. Ethical norms codified by the firms and their associations in the past addressed problems of a simpler time. Only through visionary action and timely debate on new ethical issues facing the profession or industry will public credibility and trust be sustained The ethical failures in the accounting, financial services, health care, and telecommunications industries can in part be attributed to the rapidly changing structure and altered characteristics of those industries Selling unnecessary Research Admittedly, people assume different approaches to managing their visibility. On the contrary, years of BSRP research finds that in our culture, if you want to get paid what youre worth, its essential. Doing whatever you can to direct attention to the competencies you have, and contributions you make, is not inherently wrong or evil. Some are narcissistic and vain but not necessarily unethical. However, there are some people who plainly do not subscribe to conventional rule of conduct. To them, for example, the rhetoric of principles, values and integrity only serves as an additional device which can be used to scam others. Their unrestrained behavior taints ethical self-projection for everyone. They may be tedious and boring, but they are not necessarily unethical. The result is a catalog of twenty-two behavioral tools unethical self-promoters tend to use. How many have you experienced? Well intended people are content to practice appropriate self-presentation, when they can, moderated by a sense of honor, respect for the truth and prudent regard for the feelings of others For 30 years we have been observing those devices in use, especially as they are used by salespeople, managers, executives, ex-clergy, consultants, psychologists, and others. Violating Client Confidentiality Temptation grows stronger when were tired, afraid, under pressure, or in conflict all of us face the human temptation to duck important ethical responsibilities. By making what we know or suspect is unethical seem perfectly ethical. Common cognitive strategies can fool us They can spin the most questionable behaviors into ethical ideals. The most common ethical fallacies rely on twisted judgment, appealing fallacies, and juggled language. To restate a major theme of this book: We believe that the overwhelming majority of psychologists are conscientious, caring individuals, committed to ethical behavior. We also believe that all of us are fallible, no one is perfect in all areas at all times, and we all share vulnerabilities at one time or another to at least a few of these ethical justifications. What sorts of cognitive maneuvers can transform unethical behavior into the ethical ideal? Many of the justifications below appeared in previous editions of this book, and some were added when the list appeared in Here are a few. We encourage readers to expand the list. Unethical not as long as a managed care administrator or insurance case reviewer required or suggested it. Unethical not what sorts of cognitive maneuvers can transform unethical behavior into the ethical ideal? if the American Psychological Association or similar organization allows it. Unethical not if an ethics code never mentions the concept, term, or act Unethical not as long as any law was broken. If someone discovers that our c.v. is full of degrees we never earned, positions we never held, and awards we never received, all we need do is non defensively acknowledge that mistakes were made and its time to move on Its not unethical as long as we can name others who do the same thing. unethical not if we can use the passive voice and look ahead. Its not unethical as long as we didnt mean to hurt anyone. unethical not even if our acts have caused harm as long as the person we harmed had it coming, provoked us, deserved it, was really asking for it, or practically forced us to do it or, failing that, has not behaved perfectly, is in some way unlikable, or is acting unreasonably. without any doubt whatsoever that exactly what we did was the necessary and sufficient proximate cause of harm to the client and that the client would otherwise be free of all physical and psychological problems. Its not unethical as long as there is no body of universally accepted, methodologically perfect (i.e., without any flaws, weaknesses, or limitations) studies showing -, difficulties, or challenges. Its not unethical if we could not (or did not) anticipate the unintended consequences of our acts. For example, it may seem as if a therapist who has submitted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bogus insurance claims for patients he never saw might have behaved unethically. Its not unethical if we acknowledge the importance of judgment, consistency, and context. : It was simply an error in judgment, completely inconsistent with the high ethics manifest in every other part of the persons life, and insignificant in the context of the unbelievable good that this person does. However, as attorneys and others representing such professionals often point out Use of professional Respondents Unethical Behavior Its Impact on Todays Workplace Such unethical behaviors include a wide variety of different activities. Among the most common unethical business behaviors of employees are making long-distance calls on business lines, duplicating software for use at home, falsifying the number of hours worked, or much more serious and illegal practices, such as embezzling money from the business, or falsifying business records. Though there is sometimes a difference between behaviors that are unethical and activities that are actually illegal, it is up to the business itself to decide how it deals with unethical behavior legal or not. It is a sad truth that the employees of just about every business, in every business, will occasionally encounter team members who are taking part in unethical behaviors. After all, unethical behavior that is not illegal frequently falls in a grey area between right and wrong that make it difficult to decide what to do when it is encountered. Many employees find that discovering unethical behavior among co-workers actually tests their own values and ethical behaviors. For example, some people feel that it is alright to tell a little white lie, or to make one long distance call on the companys nickel, as long as they can justify it in their mind. Furthermore, different people have different views regarding what is ethical and what is unethical. Employee needs to consider how s/he feels about that particular activity, as well as informing about that activity, or turning a blind eye. When employees discover other employees doing something that they know is wrong by the companys standards, their own sense of what is right and what is wrong instantly comes into question The first step is to create a company policy, in writing, that is read and signed by each employee. This erases most feelings of ambiguity when it comes to deciding what to do after witnessing an unethical behavior Should the employee speak to the individual directly, or should the employee head directly to a company supervisor? Even by deciding to do something about it, the employee who has discovered the unethical behavior is presented with a number of difficult choices. To make this decision a bit easier, many companies have adopted several techniques that allow for the management of unethical activities. With clear instructions, there will be less hesitation in reporting unethical activities, and then they can be dealt with quickly and relatively easily, before they develop into overwhelming issues the second is to give a clear outline of what is expected of the person who has discovered the unethical behavior. It should include the person who should be contacted, and how to go about doing it. Furthermore, the repercussions of unethical behaviors should be clearly stated. both the person doing the activity, and the witness to the activity will be well aware of the way that things will be dealt with, and there wont be any risk of someone not reporting unethical behavior because theyre afraid that the culprit will be unfairly treated. Communication is key in the proper management of unethical behavior in todays workplace. RESOURCES Hagan, F. (2000). Research Methods in Criminal Justice and Criminology. Boston: Allyn Bacon. Lasley, J. (1999). Essentials of Criminal Justice and Criminological Research. NJ: Prentice Hall Neuman, L. B. Wiegand. (2000). Criminal Justice Research Methods. Boston: Allyn Bacon. Reynolds, P. (1982). Ethics and Social Science Research. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Senese, J. (1997). Applied Research Methods in Criminal Justice. Chicago: Nelson Hall. Not an official webpage of APSU, copyright restrictions apply, see Megalinks in Criminal Justice OConnor, T. (Date of Last Update at bottom of page). In Part of web cited (Windows name for file at top of browser), MegaLinks in Criminal Justice. Retrieved from http://www.apsu.edu/oconnort/rest of URL accessed on todays date.