1. ‘Applied Marketing Research:
From Insight to Action’ 5th Edition, TopHat 2020
Professor Steven Litt
@StrategySteven ©2020 Steven Litt . All rights reserved. May not be scanned, copied, duplicated or posted publicly to a website in a whole or in part.
Are you ready to share a Brief to an agency or agencies?
CONSIDER THIS:
1. Protect your firm! Prohibit any agency & its workers from sharing your proprietary info! Even if your
Brief doesn’t include any historical, internal or Secondary data, the question the business poses to an
Agency (eg a ‘Research Problem’) is proprietary; it ‘tips your hand’ to competitors about your
intentions, or alerts them to a potentially valuable area of inquiry they might not have thought of.
2. Move beyond preliminary (starter) advice for an NDA. In order to draft an NDA, hire a lawyer in your
jurisdiction specializing in corporate contract law & proprietary info. Find one with plenty of
experience in YOUR sector (software, machinery, personal care items, etc).
3. Issue the NDA as an ‘noneditable’ jpg or pdf, not in an edit-friendly format (eg .doc, .docs)
4. Before issuing a Brief or mentioning the Research Problem, WAIT to receive the NDA returned &
signed by their signing officer – NOT signed by their front desk clerk, admin assistant, etc.
5. Review the returned NDA fully- it must not show any sign of editing, additions or changes.
6. Store a signed NDA securely; such vital documents typically belong in a fire resistant, locked safe.
7. Periodically, book time with your lawyer to update your NDA eg in the ‘Gig economy’, agencies
increasingly delegate work tasks to freelancers & outside vendors; does your NDA state specifically
and thoroughly enough, that the Agency is fully accountable to ensure proper handling of all
Confidential material, samples, etc by all the people, sub-agencies, etc whom they hire?