Focus Groups: Reality TV for Marketers
I am a big advocate of research when it comes to better understanding your audience. I often recommend beginning with secondary research. You can gain valuable insights on consumption changes, demographics shifts, and trends using reports from McKinsey & Company, the US Census, and studies from the NPD Group. But when you need to learn more about your specific users, there’s no better way than conducting your own research.
This may sound daunting at first, but services such as Survey Monkey and Ask Your Target Market are pretty straightforward and user friendly. The key is knowing what questions to ask and how to structure or order them. Ideally, you’ll want a data set of 1,000 respondents, to have confidence in your findings. Otherwise, you can use the output as directional. Customer/client interviews and UI studies are also critical to get detailed feedback and can help uncover specific issues. Accessing user advisory/community panels are another great way to get thoughts on marketing initiatives and product changes.
But there is nothing – nothing at all – like a lively well-moderated focus group with momentum. For marketers, this is the best reality TV out there. Whenever I had the opportunity to watch one – whether or not it was my own research project – I’d jump at the chance to attend, get there early for a good seat, and grab a bowl of M&M’s and favorite drink ready for the magic to unfold.
There are so many gems that can come out of a well-run focus group. You get a real sense of how people relate to your brand or product. From body language, to engagement level, to the words they choose, the pauses they take, the parallels they draw...you get a deep feel for their true point of view that you just can’t get in other forms of research. You hear firsthand how they talk about your brand and get a deeper understanding of how you can speak to them more directly and in a way that resonates with them. Moreover, the group can build on ideas and feedback that shed even more light on an idea they’re trying to express.
Here are a few examples from my experience where moments of enlightening wisdom were reaped.
CAPTURE THE FEEDBACK
While I was at YouTube, I directed and led the first YouTube global brand study that was so insightful that Google ran the same study the following year. The goal was to understand how users viewed the YouTube brand, how we viewed the brand, and assess the gap between the two on a global scale. We conducted research in the US, Europe, Japan, and Brazil.
It’s easy to assume that everyone sees your brand the way you do, but until you speak with your audience, you really don’t understand the distinct nuances. For example, one user said that with YouTube, you are “surprised” with what you find. That sounds like a positive attribute, but if you scratch beneath the surface, you’ll discover whether she meant “delighted” or “shocked”.
One of my favorite memories was from a late night focus group in Paris, France. While I’m fluent in French, we had a translator for my colleague. The translator had been doing this work for years. He must have been in his early 70s and came ready to work in his grey wool pants and tweed jacket. In the focus group, there was an energetic young man in his early 20s, who actively participated in the conversation. When responding to the question of how you’d describe YouTube as a person, he animatedly shared that “YouTube is the fun charismatic guy at the party. He’s the life of the party, who’s up for anything. He may even ‘swing both ways.’ But let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be standing behind him when the lights turn off... if you… ahem... know what I mean” as he scooted himself forward into his seat. The translator was trying to keep up with translating but was working through his laughter as he attempted to find the right words to convey the young man’s idea. Humor aside, these colorful and borderline risqué details reveal so much more than what can be gleaned from survey data. The data would have captured “fun” and maybe “unexpected,” but not all the shades in between.
FIND THE MEANING
Garnering rich feedback is one thing, but translating it into something meaningful is another. The research I ran on the Visa Debit card was a great example of that.
We’d often hear analogies describing how Visa Debit has your back or its convenience when you need it most. Then we heard how some consumers thought cash was dirty, clumsy to handle, and slows you down when you’re on the move. It was this insight that inspired the genius creative of the Visa commercial. We internally referred to it as the “dance video”, because a famous choreographer designed the orchestrated moves that illustrate so well the flow of a busy life until cash brings that flow to a complete halt. In my opinion, this is one of the best examples I’ve seen of consumer feedback woven into creative.
LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN
Sometimes you just don’t have the resources to conduct focus groups. Listening to your users, even in one-on-one conversations, can still be enlightening.
When I was at PowerBar, a friend of mine confessed that she felt guilty eating the energy bars. She’d have them for breakfast or as a snack but didn’t feel that she merited them, since the most exercise she’d do was climbing up the stairs. At the time, PowerBar energy bars were synonymous with fuel for elite athletes and not approachable to mainstream consumers, even if they were being eaten throughout the day.
By the mid 1990s, a slew of alternative bars hit the market. We didn’t take these newcomers seriously and viewed one of them in particular as a “healthy cookie.” However, these bars were providing a consumer need that was not yet being met. You can probably guess how that story ends. The lesson I learned from is you have to value all your consumers and appreciate their value feedback when they give it to you.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
We can’t all be marketing masters like Don Draper, who uncovered “It’s Toasted” for Lucky Strike cigarettes from talking to a waiter, or Peggy Olson who gleaned a “basket of kisses” comment from a focus group to the revolutionary feminist claim of “Mark You Man” for Belle Jolie lipsticks. But if you take the time to listen to your users and audience, you can gain a deeper understanding of their needs, bring relevance to them and earn loyalty in return.
Understanding your audiences is paramount to your company’s success. From brand naming, to marketing strategy and execution, let First Leaf help your company establish healthy growth and thrive.