NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH : GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR A GLOBAL INDUSTRY

NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH
NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH

GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR A GLOBAL INDUSTRY


By Adam Phillips, chairman of the ESOMAR Professional Standards Committee







Published by ESOMAR:
in Research World,
November 2005.
Copyright  ESOMAR 2005. All rights reserved.


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NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH
NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH

GLOBAL STANDARDS FOR A GLOBAL INDUSTRY


By Adam Phillips, chairman of the ESOMAR Professional Standards Committee






Representatives from 30 countries have worked together to develop an
International Standard (ISO) for market research. Voting takes place in February
next year and if all goes to plan, the new standard will be launched in May.

At a meeting in Berlin in July this year agreement was reached on the final draft
of an international standard which will hopefully be approved by a majority vote of
ISO member standards organisations in the next few months.

The final draft will now be checked by ISO and translated into French, before
being sent out to all national standards bodies in November and a final vote by the
participating nations by February. Assumingtwo thirds vote in favour the standard
will be adopted and launched on May 1 2006, the quickest standard development
in ISO history.

Common standards are essential to the continuing success of any industry. This
international standard will enable research clients and providers to work with one
consistent international standard, rather than a mass of slightly different national
ones. Given the global nature of the market research business, this will be a huge
step forward.

This all started in 2001 when EFAMRO, the association representing European
trade associations in Europe, made the proposal to ISO to create a worldwide

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NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH
standard specifically for market research. The first plenary meeting convened by
the Technical Committee was held in Madrid in July 2003 and EFAMRO covered
the funding of the project.
LIFECYCLE

An ISO standard consists of a document which describes how to do something in
a consistent way which can be checked by an auditor. In the case of market
research, the ISO standard follows the standard project lifecycle. It goes from
design and proposal to data collection, coding, editing, reporting and presentation
but in a way which can be generalised to also apply to projects that do not follow
this standard route, like omnibus surveys, qualitative research or media
measurement panels, for example.

At present there are a number of different independently audited market research
standards - there are national standards in some countries, a European standard
for market research, the EMRQS, as well as the well-known ISO 9001.

A problem with ISO 9001 is that this standard can be applied to any business and
does not set specific standards for market research. Organisations carrying out
market research under ISO 9001 are free to set their own standards within an
overall framework. These self-chosen standards are then independently audited.
This weakness in ISO 9001 led to the development of national standards specific
to market research, in order to reassure clients that agencies meeting this
standard were operating in a professional way which guaranteed at least a
minimum level of quality.

Of course, the philosophical concept is straightforward, but the practical difficulty
of developing a single international standard which will be effective in cultural and
economic environments as diverse as the USA, Germany and Argentina is
enormous.
30 NATIONS

The standard was developed by a technical committee consisting of
representatives from 30 nations, split into two types – full participants and
observer (see box below). Observers could comment but not vote. There were
also three international professional bodies represented as observers – EFAMRO,
ESOMAR and WAPOR. Each participating nation organised a “mirror committee”

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NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH
whose job it was to develop a consensus among their local industry and standards
body over what improvements or modifications needed to be made to the working
drafts.


COUNTRIES INVOLVED



Participating
Observing
Liaison

Algeria
Austria
EFAMRO

Argentina
Egypt
ESOMAR

Australia
Iran
WAPOR

Bulgaria
Israel

Canada
Morocco

France
Romania

Germany
Switzerland

India
Thailand

Italy
Turkey

Japan
Uruguay

Korea

Mexico

Netherlands

Russian Federation

Serbia & Montenegro

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom



The drafting committee met several times during 2003 and 2004 to develop a
draft standard. Initially the task was divided up with each chapter being written by
a different national committee. The chapters were than assembled into a single
document and the drafting committee went through it several times removing
duplication and resolving disagreements, based on the comments from the mirror
committees. This took four meetings at which most participants were present,
with the draft international standard being agreed in Mexico in July last year.

The draft was submitted to the ISO organisation in Geneva, for final checking and
translation into French. The national standards organisations participating then
voted on this first formal draft and submitted comments for final resolution at the

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NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH
meeting in Berlin. The draft was approved with 17 votes in favour and 2 against.
However, the comments on this draft ran to 62 closely typed pages and over 600
suggestions, so most of us attending the meeting in Berlin did not expect to get
through it in the three days allowed. It is a testament to the skilled chairmanship of
Enrique Domingo that the task was completed - with minutes to spare – and a
final draft international standard was approved by the meeting.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

Providing two thirds of the participating nations vote in favour, the standard will
be launched next May and in the meantime the Technical Committee will review
the acceptance of the norm and adoption as input for future revisions. It will be
possible for local market research organisations to get their national standards
body to adopt this new ISO and set up a process to implement the standard and
audit companies who wish to follow it. Implementation is a vital element, since this
is where the standard is translated to fit into local business practice and auditors
who will initially be new to the task are guided in what (and how) to check the
standard is being met.

This initiative has been achieved through the cooperation of the industry
specialists, the national standards organisations which hosted the meetings and, in
particular, the Spanish national standards organisation AENOR who were
responsible for coordinating the whole process on behalf of ISO. This
development of this standard is a major step forward
for the market research industry.



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NEW ISO FOR MARKET RESEARCH
ABOUT ESOMAR
ESOMAR is the world organisation for enabling better research into markets, consumers and societies
all abiding by the ICC/ESOMAR International code. It draws upon the services of several working
groups and committees for the development of standards, disciplinary procedures, programming and its
unique network of representatives. Close cooperation with other industry associations at regional and
national levels ensures alignment in ways of working to the benefit of the market research profession.

With over 4500 members in 100 countries all abiding by the ICC/ESOMAR International code,
ESOMAR’s aim is to promote the value of market and opinion research in illuminating real issues and
bringing about effective decision-making.

To facilitate this ongoing dialogue, ESOMAR creates and manages a comprehensive programme of
industry-specific and thematic conferences, publications and communications as well as actively
advocating self-regulation and the worldwide code of practice.

ESOMAR was founded in 1948.

ESOMAR member benefits include:
•
Listing in the Directory of Members
•
Opportunity to list your company in the Directory of Research Organisations
•
Complimentary subscription to Research World
•
Preferential rates for the ESOMAR Annual Congress, conferences, workshops and publications
•
Professional standards advisory service
•
Opportunity to represent the industry and promote professional standards and development
through the activities and governance of the organisation
•
Opportunity to protect your rights and lobby for your professional interest with legislators and
other research industry stakeholders on an international level
•
Exclusive rights to use the ESOMAR logo on your corporate communications to show your
commitment to the ICC/ESOMAR Code
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Email: customerservice@esomar.org

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