Guest Blogger Kathleen Kusek of Firehouse Marketing Services predicts a new focus and form for focus groups.
For those of us who saw The Brady Bunch when it ran in prime time, today’s focus groups are shockingly familiar to those at the beginning of our careers. Same one-way glass. Same semi-retired, ex-brand manager/mother of 1.5 children “moderating” the same group of target consumers gathered using more or less the same screening technique. Sure–now we can watch the action on webcam and we can check our emails and Facebook pages while our people are being interviewed…but I might suggest those advances don’t really improve our ability to glean insight. Did anyone think we’d have evolved to a better way of understand our precious target audiences' needs and motivations by now?
The focus groups of the future should look different in the following ways:
–We won’t spend 10 to 20% of our precious time with moderators and respondents introducing themselves to each other so they can feel “comfortable” answering questions honestly. Come on–in this era of “consumers in charge,” focus group respondents are not the least bit hesitant to tell us what they think and will be even less so in the future. Painful as it can be, the people we pay to talk about our products or ideas aren’t generally looking to tell us what we want to hear. Cocktail party pleasantries are a thing of the past–these people are telling us what they think. In fact, just as an experiment, have the moderator introduce his/herself (the “his” is just a PC throwaway–focus group moderators are mostly from the pink ghetto) as the CEO of the company you represent. I’d bet my ranch that the respondents will answer as honestly, or perhaps even more honestly, than when they hear the same “I’m a completely objective observer” spiel delivered by 90% of focus group moderators across the country for the last 20 years. Just for fun, check out the respondents during that familiar 5-minute monologue and watch their lips move along to each word from the moderator’s mouth. Save yourself time by skipping this step. Instead, start by asking respondents a specific question to which you’d like an answer. Promise that they’ll be able to play along.
See full post at: What Will the Focus Group of the Future Look Like – Marketing News Blog.
