PRESS RELEASE

Efamro succeeds on its initiative to create an ISO for the market opinion and social research sector.

The new ISO 20252 for Market, Opinion and Social Research has been recently published with 100% support of the participating countries. After more than two and a half years of constructive discussion and cooperation in the technical committee TC-225 of ISO that included 22 participating countries and 10 observer countries plus ESOMAR and WAPOR as well as the initiator EFAMRO, a global consensus was reached and a new sectorial standard for quality assurance and assessment worldwide was issued. The participating members account for more than 90% of total expenditure in the sector.

Self-regulation and Quality Standards

Self-regulation has been a tradition in the sector. As a profession it has been taking care of its reputation by producing guidelines on operational good practice, from marketing research to opinion polling and internet research. The first edition of the ICC/ESOMAR (International Chamber of Commerce and European Society for Opinion andMarket Research) Code of Conduct is dated back in 1948. On the other hand, a significant number of countries have developed their own national quality standards. The process started in the UK in the early 90’s and expanded into the rest of Europe, Japan, Australia, Mexico and other countries. This process was driven by the internationalization of client’s needs and the impact of technology on the operations in the sector.

EMRQS, the first multi-country initiative

With globalization, there is a strong drive towards business standardization. The European Federation of Associations of Market Research Organizations (EFAMRO) launched in 1999 the first multi-country initiative on quality standards: the EMRQS (Efamro Market Research Quality Standard); this has served for some time as an international professional reference. At the same time, has also served as an evidence of the need for a universal standard available wherever the profession wants to standardize its presence and activities. That’s why it was proposed as the base for discussion at the Technical Committee 225.

The EFAMRO standard was adopted as the official national standard in France and Spain and as an industry standard by the MR associations in several other European countries. Elsewhere, as in Germany, the UK and Japan, official national standards were also adopted which showed high levels of congruence with the EFAMRO EMRQS. It was therefore an easy step to decide that the best way forward lay through the establishment of an official ISO specifically designed for MR.

The basic model proposed for the new ISO was the EMRQS, but all existing national standards were also considered during the process.

The normalization process

The procedures for establishing a new ISO norm are slow and complex. As a first stage, a national standards authority willing to act as sponsor was found, important because the sponsor should take the lead, provide the back-up secretariat staff and bear much of the costs. AENOR, the Spanish Standards Authority has taken on this key role. The next step was to consult all ISO members worldwide to check if there were any objections and to invite each national authority to participate. Meanwhile, AENOR and EFAMRO produced a plan setting out exactly why this new ISO was required and what value it would bring to the MR industry.

A Technical Committee was formed with representatives from every interested national authority to produce the text of the proposed new standard. This committee met for the first time in July 2003 in Madrid, and formed a number of working groups each with responsibility for drafting a specific section. Subsequent meetings were held in France and Germany and the results came together at the next full meeting of the Working Group in June 2004 in Buenos Aires.

After another round of intensive production of comments and modifications at country level, a last revision of the work was then made in Berlin in July 2005, to produce the FDIS (Final Draft International Standard) that was submitted for vote to reach full support by all participating countries.

The whole industry will benefit worldwide

In spite of the very different cultural and market conditions of the countries involved in TC 225, it was finally possible to producie a sectorial ISO standard of a truly global character, which will help our profession and industry standards to further develop in performance and recognition worldwide.

Beyond the cultural, social and behavioural differences between countries concerning products and services, an International Standard will enable clients to obtain globally compatible feedback and make better informed choices of service providers. An ISO International Standard can perform a vital role by helping the MR industry build a reputation for global compatibility, traceability and continuous improvement. And undoubtedly, it can heighten awareness of the value of professional MR activities in helping organizations not only make well informed decisions, but increase their profitability as a result.

ISO 20252 will underline the commitment of MR professionals and companies to fully meet customer expectations for quality.