Looking for a Survey/Marketing Glossary

[schludermann]

I've been completing surveys for several years now, have witnessed and experienced many of the industry's abuse visited upon panelists by these unseemly and often unethical survey panels. I believe what panelists experience is because there is no real self-regulation and the organizations that do promote a "fair review" have been captured by the industry and panels on that they profess to reporting about.  I would like to now explore how effective these self-regulating organizations really are.  To do this effectively, I must use the vernacular of the industry and I'm woefully inadequate in that aspect. I've made some effort trying to find a glossary or document summarizing ethical and unethical practice and have not made much progress. Does anyone know of a document that has concentrated the vocabulary of survey, Panels and marketing research?

[Administrator]

Hi schludermann,

It's a noble cause you're taking up. Although we believe that most survey panels engage in the market research process fairly, there are some unethical panels out there who treat their members unfairly and exploit them in order to pad their bottom lines.

One of the biggest problems in calling attention to a specific panel/website is gathering enough hard evidence to prove that they really are engaging in such practices. Although frustrating, things like survey disqualifications are normal and terminating account memberships due to suspected bot activity, inconsistent answers, etc. is not uncommon either. Many of these problems stem from clients wanting survey data from very specific and hard to reach demographics which end up boxing out the vast majority of respondents, and from new 21st century problems such as not being sure whether a user is indeed human, lives where they say they do, and is answering questions genuinely. It's certainly been a bumpy road for survey takers and market research companies alike but we remain optimistic, and see good (albeit slow) progress within the industry.

In any case, we have a couple blog posts that might be useful to you:

https://www.surveypolice.com/blog/a-z-of-market-research-terms/ - provides a breakdown of some common words used in market research

https://www.surveypolice.com/blog/two-major-marketing-research-associations-merge-forming-one-united-voice/ - provides information on the Insights Association, which many market research companies have a membership with

[Heysel]

It is unlikely that you will find any good glossary on marketing right now, because it is developing day by day.