{"id":301,"date":"2012-11-27T03:44:11","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T03:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/?p=301"},"modified":"2013-01-30T02:42:58","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T02:42:58","slug":"focus-groups-your-own-reality-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/2012\/11\/focus-groups-your-own-reality-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus Groups — Your Own Reality Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

Focus groups generally gather a groups of consumers–12 is a good number–to talk about a product or a company\u2019s marketing program.<\/p>\n

The group should, from invite to debrief, be as \u201cobjective\u201d as possible, so that it does not look like the focus group is a \u201cset up\u201d for the marketing of the product. The reason for this is not that you don\u2019t want to sell, but that you want \u201chonest reactions\u201d–or as honest as possible–from the consumers gathered.<\/p>\n

\"BrandMe<\/a>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 \u201csalt\u201d the group, but this too would be a mistake.<\/p>\n

Marketers generally need to provide some sort of \u201cgimme\u201d to attract participants–money is a sure fire winner in an honorarium of $75 or so–and you\u2019ll need to invite more than you need to ensure that enough consumers show up.<\/p>\n

Up Close and Personal<\/h3>\n

Despite these limitations, focus groups provide an in-person look at consumers that aren\u2019t available any other way. Online surveys? Sure, you might be able to more cheaply buy validation, if that\u2019s why you\u2019re doing it, but you\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The company should arrange to have the group in a room with a \u201cone way mirror,\u201d so that the company\u2019s 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 \u201cdebriefed\u201d at a later date.<\/p>\n

Normalcy Bias<\/h3>\n

Focus groups can be a great way to preview demand for new products, saving money and headaches down the line.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This is because each of us suffers from a certain degree of \u201cnormalcy bias,\u201d in which our own actions and ideas appear normal to us, while someone from \u201cthe outside\u201d might see the situation differently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s marketing program. The group should, from invite to debrief, be as \u201cobjective\u201d as possible, so that it does not look like the focus group is a \u201cset up\u201d for the marketing of the product. The reason for this is not that you don\u2019t want to sell, but that you want \u201chonest reactions\u201d–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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[108],"class_list":["post-301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marketing-advice","tag-focus-groups"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brandme.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}