An Inquiry Into the Misuse of the Survey Technique by Sales Solicitors

Abstract

Misuse of the approach as a blind for sales canvassing is increasing, if one notes the number of complaints made annually to such organizations as the American Marketing Association, the American Association for Public Opinion Research, and the Better Business Bureaus. To determine the present extent of this problem, and any trend indications, the 1962-1963 Public Relations Committee of the American Association for Public Opinion Research made two kinds of inquiries. The first was in the form of requesting certain research organizations to include questions relevant to the problem in surveys they were conducting for clients. The second was an informal mail survey among a small group of practitioners in the United States. Public Relations Committee members did not feel that deceptive use of the approach for sales purposes had reached an alarming level. However, they did note sufficiently flagrant cases of unethical activity to warrant calling the attention of professional researchers to the problem. There is genuine concern that an increase in the fraudulent use of the approach over a period of time would represent a severe problem to the legitimate market and opinion researcher. Indeed, it is probable that public confusion, annoyance, and distrust of field interviewers resulting from unfortunate experiences with deceptive survey practices can seriously impede legitimate research activity. The following two sections of this article report on the problem from two different perspectives. Part I is concerned with public awareness of the deceptive use of the approach, and with variations in incidence according to types of products and services involved, geographic region and size of community in which respondents live, and other factors. Part II reports on the problem from the perspective of researchers whose principal professional activity is the conduct of legitimate market and opinion research.