Market Research companies across Europe welcome a new European Parliament regulation that hopes to cut ‘sugging’ – when sales people approach consumers under the guise of research. This is particularly important for companies that use market research extensively, such as building products and home improvement.

‘Sales promotions in the Internal Market’ rules on what information should be given to consumers at the beginning of a sales pitch, and could remove the grey area in the law that some salesmen exploit. The regulation is set to come into force across Europe in January 2005, but may not become UK law until 2007.

Lucia Di Stazio, Market Research Manager of Michael Rigby Associates, which specialises in fact-based marketing in the home improvement and building materials markets in UK and Europe, welcomes this new regulation: “Sugging has been on the rise for many years, and these cowboy salesmen make our job much more difficult than it needs to be. While the new regulation will primarily affect consumer research there have been several instances in building products where companies have been hoodwinked into giving their time under false pretences.

Sugging is a problem for companies that use research, too. Response rates can drop because people are reluctant to be interviewed if they think it’s selling in disguise. Lower response rates raise costs and the lack of trust affects the quality of information obtained.

Trust and confidence in market research is paramount. We need to keep the reputation of market research clean to convince business and the general public of its economic importance.”