VIDEO9 May 2013

When focus groups go bad

Video

@RESEARCH LIVE

3 Comments

11 years ago

What the is this? Why is it here? It is American. It is actors. It is very poorly acted. It does nothing to support or promote the industry. and... It isn't funny. Does Jane Frost know you're out on your own, sonny?

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11 years ago

It does plenty to promote the industry depending on how you look at it. It shows your research is only going to be as good as the people administering it. You give Brad from marketing a dictaphone and a flip chart and tell him he's a qualitative researcher you might end up with a warehouse full of cinnamon flavour Mountain Dew that nobody will buy. You get a proper researcher in they're going to spot and deal with the 'jokers' in a group in the first five minutes and they are certainly going to recommend PepsiCo triangulate that data with some other evidence before making an investment. New Coke would never have launched if they had proper market researchers.

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11 years ago

I think that the discourse of 'market research' and particularly the use of focus groups in communications campaigns is a lazy concept. There are lots of examples of it (more and more every month) I've written about it before here: http://www.facegroup.com/since-when-did-focus-groups-become-a-creative-idea.html But I think this satire from The Onion is a nice piece that should remind us that as an industry we are not immune to a social perception - that people are more and more savvy on marketing practices, and particularly the role that research plays in decision making at a brand level. And this piece is a satire on a popular internet meme so it is kind of funny. hah.

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