{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.020448877805486283, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0, 'mean_word_length': 4.988059701492538, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Reply to Comments on “Ethics in Marketing Research: Their Practical Relevance”

We were delighted to find that our article, "Ethics in Marketing Research: Their Practical Relevance," had provoked a response. In fact, one of the goals in writing the article was to stimulate discussion of the issue in the marketing literature and to prompt marketing research on the topic. Unfortunately, Day's comments suggest we take a step backward rather than forward. He questions the need for an article such as ours by protesting that the issues raised are of minor importance in commercial marketing practice. Furthermore, he contends that our consideration of the impact of subject treatment on the quality of data would bring "financial ruin to every research supplier in North America." Day's critique suffers from some questionable assumptions about the field and a lack of understanding of the main thrust of the article. Day appears to have misunderstood the entire thrust of the article, even to the point of misquoting the title, omitting the key phrase "Their Practical Relevance." The article is not intended to moralize and detail a list of subjects' rights which marketing researchers should adhere to. As stated at the outset, the primary purpose of the article is to investigate how the treatment of subjects or respondents in research may affect the quality of the data obtained, an issue of concern to both researchers and their clients. The rights, as is clearly stated, merely provide a convenient framework for structuring the issues. What is morally right or ethical is left to the individual researcher. Instead, we attempt to focus marketers' attention on ethical issues for the sake of their practical implications. Substantial evidence is presented to demonstrate that many aspects of the researchers' behavior affect the quality of their data. A number of Day's remarks are based on the assumption that the marketing researcher is simply a survey researcher and further that he is solely