iPerceptions : web analytics, attitudinal predictive customer feedback
Turn Up The Silence
Aug 10

You can’t only focus on the focus group

When it comes to making solid marketing and product decisions, I am not a believer of the focus group as a stand alone research tool. There are several reasons why I feel this way, but for the most part, it comes down to this:

Many companies make the mistake of trying to use focus groups as a definitive and predictive tool. I was speaking to a prospect recently that passed on our solution and explained that he could obtain really good research through his focus group on what people wanted to see from their new online initiative.

Aiiiiiiiiinnnnnnn (the sound of a buzzer).

The focus group in nature scares me as a sole means for decision support. We know for certain that people become substantially more conservative when put in a group context, more so when being asked about wants or needs. I am always skeptical of the existence of peer pressure and conformity in a group environment.

My feeling is that you get much better results talking to customers on an individual basis, in the comfort of their own brain.

A focus group can give you an indication of the perceptions of an existing brand, or known product. They also may help you indicate glaring problems in usability or the customer experience, but in no way can a focus group provide definitive quantitative statistically sound research.

Agree? Not? Feel free to share your thoughts and opinions.

Jonathan Levitt
August 10, 2006
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Comments

Well, agree!!
I think focus groups are a thing of the mass media world: you needed to gather a few people and ask them questions because you couldn't be in each of their living rooms. The context in itself was a bias, as you rightly explain.
Guess what? With the Web (THE interactive media, in case one forgot), we ARE in their living room (well, ok, home office, office, bedroom, train, wherever they happen to be... nice!), so we can get their response within the context of their actual use, without the need for them to play the group pressure game.
How can an approach such as iPerceptions be of less value than a so "passé" focus group??

Jacques Warren
August 10, 2006