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Are You There FCC? It's Market Research Calling.

Jennifer Dennard, E-Media Marketing Specialist
August 4, 2010

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As more and more people drop their land lines in favor of cell phones, the market research industry is keeping a close eye on a proposed Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rule that would require prior express written consent to be obtained from call recipients before survey calls can be made. This builds on current FCC rules that ban the use of automatic phone dialing systems to contact any phone number assigned to cell phone services, or any services for which the recipient is charged for the call without express written consenta.

The implications of the proposed rule for market researchers are clear. "[R]esearchers need to be able to include cell phone users in their studies in order to have viable coverage in their samples," explained the Marketing Research Association (MRA) in comments it filed with the FCC in May. "The FCC's proposal will hurt research, research users and the public."

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Howard Fienberg, Director of Government Affairs for the MRA, outlined several specific detrimental effects the proposed rule will have on market research in a recent article entitled " By the Numbers: Calling Cell Phones - the FCC Makes a Bad Regulation Worse." They include:
  • decreased response rates;
  • increased cost of research;
  • increased time required to complete studies;
  • increased risks to information security and confidentiality due to additional recordkeeping requirements; and
  • greater difficulty in reaching prepaid cell phone users.
With 40 percent of the US population being "cell phone only" and "cell phone mostly," Fienberg said in MRA's comments on the proposed rule that "researchers need to be able to include cell phone users in their studies in order to have viable samples."

Steve Povlo, Senior Research Analyst at Porter Research, feels that the opportunity to conduct an important interview could pass a market researcher by if this ruling takes effect. "As a market research professional who interviews high-level executives on a daily basis, it will be more than a little challenging to obtain a written consent versus verbal consent due to the time constraints of the interviewee, who often switches from land line to cell phone as they dash out the door to an appointment or to catch a flight. I can't even imagine how many e-mails that a high-level executive has in their inbox. To sift through all of those for a documented interview consent form could decrease your chances of getting that golden conversation."

Fienberg explains in the article above that research is not the focus of the proposed rule, or of the current Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA): "The FCC speaks almost exclusively of sales and telemarketing calls throughout the proposed rule, neglecting to mention or even consider the negative impact of the rule's changes on non-commercial calls. Given that this change is buried in a rule focused on telemarketing and robocalls, it is unlikely that the FCC gave consideration to the negative impact the change would have on non-commercial calls."

What impact do you foresee this potential legislation having on your market research efforts? Join the discussion today at the Healthcare Intelligence Hub group on LinkedIn.







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