Why Focus Groups are Broken

Why Focus Groups are Broken (And How To Fix Them) Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Focus groups are notorious for rejecting things like the mini-van, Seinfeld, answering machines, and the Aeron Chair—just to name a few. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku4Ugw0lQ4Q Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Indexed. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

“We are so busy measuring public opinion that we forget we can mold it. We are so busy listening to statistics that we forget that we can create them.” -Bill Bernbach Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

“Have you noticed what happens when five agencies are competing for an account? They all come up with completely different strategies and ideas—and yet, miraculously, each of them is able to prove, through „objective‟ research, that their solution is the right one. If nothing else does, this alone should devalue the currency of focus groups.” Tim Delaney British Copywriter Extraordinaire Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Today, roughly 70% of all consumer research dollars are earmarked for qualitative research, and it is nearly impossible to find a Fortune 500 company that does not use focus groups to develop its corporate image and/or marketing strategy. Frank Luntz Political consultant and pollster, Author of “Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say, It’s What People Hear” Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

The Agenda 1. The Many are Smarter than the Few 2. Answering the Tough Questions – Diversity – Psychology – Use 3. Solutions – Madeline Lewis – Rahul Sabnis – You Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

The Wisdom of Crowds Why the Many are Smarter than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations By: James Surowiecki 2004 The hypothesis: A diverse collection of independently-deciding individuals is likely to make certain types of decisions and predictions better than individuals or even experts. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Criteria for a Wise Group Diversity of Opinion Each person should have private information even if it‟s just an eccentric interpretation of the known facts. Independence People‟s opinions aren‟t determined by the opinions of those around them. Decentralization People are able to specialize and draw from local knowledge. Aggregation Some mechanism exists for turning private judgments into a collective decision. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Teams typically possess an informational advantage over individuals, enabling diverse personal experiences, cultural viewpoints, areas of specialization, and educational backgrounds to bring forth a rich pool of information on which to base decision alternatives and relevant criteria…. Garold Stasser Department of Psychology Miami University, Oxford, Ohio Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

One problem: groups rarely work efficiently. Garold Stasser Department of Psychology Miami University, Oxford, Ohio Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

So while the many are indeed smarter than the few in ideal conditions, it is also proven that those ideal conditions are extremely rare. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

A diverse collection of independently- deciding individuals is likely to make certain types of decisions and predictions better than individuals or even experts. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Groups can make successful judgments But only if the group is: 1- diverse, 2- not unconsciously psychologically affected, 3- only being used for certain types of decisions Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Questions- • Are focus groups diverse? • Are the members of focus groups unconsciously psychologically affected? • Are focus groups being used correctly? Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Diversity in Focus Groups? “Six to ten people, usually demographically homogenous and similar in usage and attitudes.” From Greenfield Consulting Group Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo 2009 (Now Firefly Millward Brown)

The problem: GROUP EXTREMITY Similarly-minded groups usually come to conclusions that are more extreme than the average view of the individuals in the group. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

“Decades of research has proved that groups usually come to conclusions that are more extreme than the average view of the individuals who make up the group. When opponents of a hazardous waste site gather to talk about it, they will become convinced the site is more dangerous than originally believed. When a woman who believes breast implants are a threat gets together with women who feel the same way, she and all the women in the meeting are likely to leave believing they had previously underestimated the danger.” Dan Gardner Author of Risk Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Questions- • Are focus groups diverse? • Are the members of focus groups unconsciously psychologically affected? • Are focus groups being used correctly? Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Crowd Psychology and Small Group Dynamics • Carl Jung‟s Collective Unconscious • Sigmund Freud‟s Crowd Behavior Theory • Friedrich Nietzsche‟s Herd Mentality Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

The problem: GROUP INEFFICIENCY Groups tend to spend most of their time discussing information shared by members rather than discussing information known only by a minority. Groups that DO share unique information will make better decisions. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Group members often fail to effectively pool their information because discussion tends to be dominated by (a) information that members hold in common before discussion and (b) information that supports members' existent preferences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Focus Groups are Broken. The Proof: A focus group of 6-10 similar people is likely to come to extreme decisions not actually agreed upon by the average individual Members are not likely to share new information that will challenge those „majority‟ decisions The information gathered in a focus group may not accurately represent real- life consumers. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Fixing it. • GOOD CASTING Extremity • GOOD Inefficiency MODERATING Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Madeline Lewis on Avoiding Extremity  “Demographically homogenous” does not mean there is no diversity Work with the best recruiters Have a good screening process  Try other forms of qualitative research Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Rahul Sabnis on Avoiding Inefficiency People just want to be right. A moderator is like a good reporter, and the focus group members are his/her sources. Looking for the truth Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Questions- • Are focus groups diverse? • Are the members of focus groups unconsciously psychologically affected? • Are focus groups being used for the right things? Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Misuse Qualitative research is not Quantitative research. “. . . focus groups are centrally concerned with understanding attitudes rather than measuring them.” -Frank Luntz Political consultant and pollster, author of “Words that Work: It‟s Not What You Say, It‟s What People Hear” Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

The small size of focus groups makes any estimates of quantitative proportions unreliable, even if the members of the focus group are representative of the target population. Assuming that because only 3 out of 10 (or even 6 out of 20 people) people in a focus group liked the storyboards is NOT a legitimate scientific or statistically sound indicator that the commercial will not be successful. Yet, many marketers continue to misuse the focus group in this way. Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

“There are things you can learn from research but it shouldn‟t be a crutch. If you talk to consumers, you can often hear something useful, but if you‟re asking them to make a decision for you, then you‟re in trouble.” James Murphy, co-founder, Adam & Eve Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

“For clients, research can be a useful way of helping to sell ideas internally and giving reassurance. But as people become fearful of making big decisions in the current climate, the danger is that research becomes the lawyer, the judge and the jury. The best clients I‟ve worked with are those who use research to inform decisions rather than replace them.” Russ Lidstone Chief Executive, Euro RSCG London Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Madeline Lewis on Misuse  The temptation for clients is to use storyboard assessment to “pick a winner”  Disaster check: Yes, look at the patterns  Should be using focus groups for insight mining before the brief, not on a “Critical Need Basis” for creative testing Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Rahul Sabnis on Misuse Leading the witness Artificial construct Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

Fixing it. Planners: this is where you come in. Be an advocate: 1. Casting 2. Moderating 3. Using Focus Groups the right way Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

1984 Focus Group Thought Piece: Karina Portuondo

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Why Focus Groups are Broken

by karinaelise8 on Oct 22, 2010

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Why Focus Groups are Broken — Presentation Transcript