Focus Groups — Your Own Reality Show

Focus groups can provide us marketers with an up close and personal view of consumers that is second only to being with them in their homes.

Focus groups generally gather a groups of consumers–12 is a good number–to talk about a product or a company’s marketing program.

The group should, from invite to debrief, be as “objective” as possible, so that it does not look like the focus group is a “set up” for the marketing of the product. The reason for this is not that you don’t want to sell, but that you want “honest reactions”–or as honest as possible–from the consumers gathered.

Focus groups can be risky. Marketers might gather a focus group only to hear their product being slammed in the meeting they called. Sometimes marketers, fearing this, will be tempted to “salt” the group, but this too would be a mistake.

Marketers generally need to provide some sort of “gimme” to attract participants–money is a sure fire winner in an honorarium of $75 or so–and you’ll need to invite more than you need to ensure that enough consumers show up.

Up Close and Personal

Despite these limitations, focus groups provide an in-person look at consumers that aren’t available any other way. Online surveys? Sure, you might be able to more cheaply buy validation, if that’s why you’re doing it, but you’ll miss the more honest reactions that can only come from interpersonal action. The moderator of the focus group can be an employee of the company, but it’s better to have a professional moderator if you can. Company employees are more likely to show their bias in conducting the group, which is understandable.

The company should arrange to have the group in a room with a “one way mirror,” so that the company’s executives can watch the focus group as it unfolds. Naturally, the group should be recorded–or at least the executives should take notes–so that the group can be “debriefed” at a later date.

Normalcy Bias

Focus groups can be a great way to preview demand for new products, saving money and headaches down the line.

The concept of the focus group can also be used for personal decisions. Executives sometimes have trouble making decisions, and hearing the reactions of others, gives them a more realistic sounding board through which to filter their own preferences and biases.

This is because each of us suffers from a certain degree of “normalcy bias,” in which our own actions and ideas appear normal to us, while someone from “the outside” might see the situation differently.