Welcome

This is the official TC 225 Market, Opinion, and Social Research website powered by the International Standards Association (ISO).

Our Mission

The overriding objective of ISO/TC 225 is to maintain, and keep up to date, a single, comprehensive quality standard that sets out guidance and requirements directly relating to the way in which market, opinion and social research (MOSR) projects are planned, carried out, supervised and reported to the clients commissioning such projects. These standards covers all stages of a research project from initial contact between client and service provider to presentation of results to the client.

TC 225 will continue to review and evaluate new research methodologies as they appear and gain acceptance in MOSR, including new methodologies relevant to MOSR that are being developed. Similarly, where new advancements in technology (e.g., automation, artificial intelligence) have or could have potential impacts on research methodologies, those advancements will be evaluated with respect to current and developing methodologies.

Where a new methodology is significantly dependent on services provided by other industries and professions not part of the traditional MOSR community, consideration will be given to whether the new methodology should be initially developed as a separate stand-alone standard, or incorporated directly as a new annex in the main standard.

TC 225 will initiate and maintain communications programs to increase the awareness of and interest in ISO standards among MOSR communities worldwide, and to encourage wider membership and active involvement in the work of the TC.

Why are these standards important?

The business environment for organizations and professionals conducting market, opinion and social research includes:

Economic: market, opinion and/or social research (MOSR) is a global sector with a significant proportion of research projects involving multi-country studies. Clients marketing and developing their products, services and policies in multiple countries must adapt their strategies to the unique economic and cultural factors existing in each country. They therefore require that the MOSR conducted in each country, and by different suppliers, meets the same minimum standards of quality.

Technical: Methodologies for collecting and analyzing MOSR information continue to evolve at a rapid rate, requiring ongoing review and updating of quality standards. Digital research has grown to become a mature methodology over the past two decades. More recently, new information sources, including social media and “big data” have expanded rapidly and are used by the industry and profession, as well as other organizations and practitioners peripheral to the traditional MOSR industry.

Regulatory: Regulation of this sector is subjected to national particularities on topics such as labour legislation, privacy/data protection, procedures of work, restrictions in the use of some tools (telephone, digital), etc.

Societal: When seeking professional help to conduct market, opinion or social research, the client or user needs a uniform standard to judge the competency and ethics of the provider. Consumers and citizens benefit indirectly from market, opinion and social research, since manufacturers and service providers can produce better products and services and policy makers make better decisions; all of which are more suitable to business and people’s needs, with producers and policy makers communicating the benefits more effectively.

International: Social and cultural differences in behavior and attitudes to products and services are a genuine reflection of the real differences that exist between countries. A comprehensive international quality standard enables clients to commission large scale studies across multiple countries with confidence that the working procedures will be more consistent yielding more accurate comparisons.

Key benefits of adopting these standards

ISO standards unify the criteria for the procedure of work and establish level of requirements for the provision of the service. Consequences of this work will be to remove possible trade barriers between regions or countries of the world; and to enable research users to conduct research across many countries with increased confidence that the work will be conducted consistently and on a comparable basis from country to country.

Benefits Include

International Recognition

ISO is recognized worldwide as the authority on quality management. The ISO Research Standards are accepted and in some cases required globally.

Global Management
ISO provides a tool for managing global offices, multiple project teams, and outsourced suppliers to a level of quality consistent with company protocol.

Risk Mitigation
A documented ISO quality system manages variables and delivers “proof” of adequate controls including data protection and security addressing EU-US Privacy Shield, and other requirements and client concerns.

Increased Revenue
Studies have shown that companies implementing ISO 20252 and ISO 26362 experience increased productivity and improved financial performance, compared to those that don't. This is due to less re-work, improved employee production and greater client satisfaction.

Increased Efficiency
Companies that go through implementation create a Research Process (Quality) Management System which maximizes quality and efficiency. Once implemented, the processes are established and guidelines in place for anyone to follow easily, making training, transitions, and trouble-shooting easier.

Employee Morale and Training
Defined roles and responsibilities, accountability of management, established training systems and a clear picture of how their roles affect quality and the overall success of the company, all contribute to more satisfied and motivated staff and ease of training new recruits.

Supplier Relationships and Control
As more processes are outsourced for efficiency and to access data in global markets, supplier relationships and quality control are increasingly critical to producing accurate and actionable data. Implementing ISO quality standards requires a company to have procedures in place to ensure that a supplier understands the requirements of the ISO research standards.