Dear all:

It may just be here in New York City, but I wanted to give everyone a heads up about a deceptive scheme to get at least two lactation consultants in New York City to recruit participants for an industry-based market survey yesterday.  It was pitched to me as "I need some help with a study I'm doing on newborn feeding patterns".  When I called the number I did not reach the person who initially called, I reached her colleague.  He claimed that they were a research institute.  Those of you who are in marketing, please forgive me, but I do not categorize marketing surveys as "research on infant feeding patterns".  He could not respond to my simple question of what was the hypothesis for the research.  He kept trying to describe the survey technique --- interview -- as a survey "method".  When I insisted on knowing the purpose of the "research" (since he couldn't give me a hypothesis) it came out that it was for marketing purposes for artificial substitutes for breast milk.  They merely wanted me to distribute flyers to women who would be paid for participating in a survey. 

To me, this is akin to someone who is marketing fast food approaching a health food chain to distribute flyers to recruit survey participants for a marketing survey to woo the health food buyers into buying fast food.

So, I would highly advise anyone contacted by a "research firm" to really check out what the hypothesis for the research is and if you can't get a response to that question -- insist on knowing the purpose of the research. 

Best, Susan Burger

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