Download Peter Cooper and Simon Patterson

IN DEFENCE
OF
FOCUS GROUPS
Peter Cooper & Simon Patterson
CRAM International
THE CASE AGAINST
PROSECUTOR
OPENING ARGUMENT
• Unreliable, untrustworthy, misleading
• Outdated, dangerous
• Conservative and uncreative
SEDUCTION
• Artificial
• Invasive
• Parody
• So-called ‘moderators’:
– Misguided
– Their reports often flights of fancy
– Or merely naïve reportage
STAR WITNESSES
•
•
•
•
•
Marketing Directors
Creatives
Sociologists
Statisticians
Journalists/Authors:
– Malcolm Gladwell – ‘Blink’
– Mark Earls – ‘Herd’
• Renegade Quals
POLITICAL DIMENSION
‘The most important
people in the US today
are those in our focus
groups!’
‘The best argument against
democracy is a five minute
conversation with the average
voter!’
LAMPOONED
• Dumbs down all those who have contact with
its practices
– Like an addictive drug
– Behind the mirror there is mockery
– In front consumers play games
• Focus Groups are:
– Tricksters of the truth
– Pity it and its Practitioners
– But we cannot forgive it
THE CASE FOR
THE DEFENCE
Robert K Merton (1910 -2003)
MERTON’S GROUP
M
THE NEW GENERATION
Born out of other sources –
Psychology, Social Anthropology, and
demands of New Marketing.
Sigmund
Freud
Freud
Dichter
Jung
Maslow
NEW AGENDAS & ANALYSES
RATIONAL
EMOTIONAL
SOCIAL
CULTURAL
Awareness
Knowledge
Experience
Relationships
Sensory Images
Feelings
Display
User Imagery
OK/Not OK
Language
Values
Archetypes
MIRROR
M
THE MAGIC
M
CURRENT SITUATION
1. Most popular qualitative method:
– More than half a million focus groups are conducted each
year globally, worth c.US$ 2.6b, i.e.10% or more of all
market research spend
2. Use increasing worldwide
3. Adaptive and Evolving
– On the internet and Web 2.0 and beyond
– Versatile and adaptable
NAÏVE TO SUPER CONSUMERS
6. Ethical
Marketing
5. Post-Modern
Marketing
4. CustomerDriven Marketing
3. Classic Branding
2. Conventional
Marketing
1. Commodity Selling
EXAMPLE: MODERN WOMEN
Perceived
status of
women
‘MODERN PRO-ACTIVE
WOMAN’
‘EMPOWERED WOMAN’
‘TRADITIONAL
WOMAN’
Looking to the past
to define the future
Values
To Preserve/Nurture
To Succeed/Control
To Regain Femininity
Maintain Empowerment
WE ARE FAMILY
• Other Qualitative Methods are not
Competitors
• But Kin of the Modern Focus Group
• We are a united body each with our own
roles and skills
• We respect one another, work together, for
the common good
QUAL vs QUANT
VERDICT
THE PLOT
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Our Hero lies deep in Human Needs
First born to protect a kingdom from evil
But then became jaded and out of touch
And sought union to invigorate itself
New Hero born as modern Focus Groups
Gathering allies from kith and kin
To fight off new enemies of the empire
Using the Group to Rescue the Client
LIFE WITHOUT FOCUS GROUPS
• No consultation or free-flowing feedback
– No-one caring or listening to what consumers say or feel
– No exploration of how consumers needs may be changing
• Life would be less:
– Rigid, narrow and autocratic
– Based either on sheer superficial percentages
– Or decisions made by soulless decision-makers, or off the
wall Creatives
JUSTIFIABLE CRITICISMS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Naïve reportage
Counting heads
Poor probing and interpretation
Badly recruited and unrepresentative
Weak dealings with group dynamics
Failing to engage with consumer life and values
Dumbing down consumer and client alike
FOCUS GROUP RATIONALE
• Groups and their variants are fundamental to the
human condition
• They share, build, persuade, and reveal
• They arouse the senses, touch the heart and
stimulate the mind
• Modern Focus Groups are not a panacea, but are
intrinsic to the Consumer Experience and Marketing
OUR CREDO
• Participate and Observe
• Enter the worlds of participants and become part of
who they are, their psychology, lifestyles, dreams and
fantasies:
– An empathic encounter that can often change who we are
• But be sufficiently objective to run the group and
keep its purpose firmly in mind
– Sometimes active, sometimes passive
– Managing respondents with active empathy for them
MISSION
• Above all, meeting the needs of clients
• Never forgetting that we are looking for
means of persuasion:
– At rational, emotional, social and cultural levels
– Through detailed content analysis, sniffing the data,
and sudden insights
– Seeking meaning, out of which comes the answer
to ‘Why?’ and ‘How?’
NEW DEMOCRACY
• Consultation through Focus Groups sends powerful
messages to Board Rooms and Governments.
• We all know that modern Consumers want to
participate in matters that affect their everyday lives
• Modern Focus Groups listen to people in active and
empathic ways
• Their future positive role as a unique source of
insight and search for excellence therefore is
guaranteed