Mixed purpose projects
(market research plus one other activity such as marketing or sales)
Some key points
- The purposes for which the data will be used must be explained to
the respondent.
- Respondents must not be misled as to how their data will be used.
Find out more
MRS Regulations for Using Research Techniques for Non-Research Purposes (PDF 1.8MB, PDF Help)
Published July 2007
Chart
Indicating the Data Protection Categories (PDF 117KB, PDF
Help)
(Word format, 97KB)
Published October 2002
See also:
Frequently Asked Questions
 My
client has asked that at the end of respondent interviews, specific information be captured so that they can update their databases. The client is only
asking for bland data such as occupation. Is this OK?
 Updating a
customer database is an important activity for any data controller to
do on a regular basis but this is not market research. In any case,
the client should be updating all of their database and not just the
small proportion of those sampled as research respondents. If the
client wishes to continue with this approach the project must be positioned
as a mixed purpose exercise ie market research and database building, making it clear
to the respondents how the data is to be used.
See: MRS Code of Conduct: Rule B48 and separate regulations Using Research Techniques for Non-research Purposes
A
shopping centre client has a popular website, which it wishes to use
to find out more about customers and non-customers, eventually going
on to build a marketing database, can my client do this?
In view of
the difficulty of obtaining a statistically valid sample and the eventual
desire to build a database, this should be positioned from the start
as a marketing rather than market research exercise - giving interesting
but not necessarily representative results.
See: MRS Code of Conduct: Rule B48 and separate regulations Using Research Techniques for Non-research Purposes
Is it acceptable to ask additional questions for non-research purposes (ie database building) at the end of a market research survey?
This would
be unacceptable under the MRS Code of Conduct. The whole project would
need to be undertaken as a mixed purpose project and not positioned as
'classic' market research. Respondents would also need to have consented
to this additional purpose and have the opportunity to opt-out.
See: MRS Code of Conduct: Rule B48 and separate regulations Using Research Techniques for Non-research Purposes
A
client has requested details of respondent's names and address details
to use for profiling purposes. Can this request be met?
If the information
is passed back (eg to an in-house market research department) for
use solely for research purposes, then this would be acceptable with the consent of the respondent. However, if used for non-research purposes, then this
would be unacceptable if positioned as a market research project. It would be acceptable
if the data were provided in a form that did not enable individuals
to be identified - eg by out-bound postcode level (ie the average
of fifteen households in the out bound section of the postcode, the
9RY in the following example - RG18 9RY). The data can only be used for the purposes for which it was collected and for which respondents have consented.
See: The Data Protection Act 1998 and Market
Research: Guidance for MRS Members: categories section
See: a detailed description of the postcode breakdown can be
found in the document Postcode
Format (PDF 9KB, PDF Help)
See also Frequently asked questions: Telephone Preference
Service
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