Focus groups have become part of the business and political landscape.
They have acquired what you might call 'cultural validity': since lots of people use them, and lots of people talk about them, and lots of people have even participated in them, they must be okay mustn't they?
Sometimes clients ask me whether or not they should use a focus group and what sort of consumer research this approach is best suited to.
I give one of two answers: the short answer, that it is safest never to use them, and the longer answer which I will share with you here.
There are six fundamental problems with focus groups:
1. The Nature of
Thought
It would be one thing to
explore consumers’ thoughts within the dynamic
of a group if one believed that our thoughts
are plucked from some preordained mental
pot.
When prompted, someone would go to their pot, pick out their thoughts on the subject, and express them.
On the other hand if our thoughts are a by-product of what's going on around us at the time, then putting a group around that consumer would shape the response they gave.
So, in your experience, do you find people are ruthlessly consistent on any given topic, or have you seen that people's responses can ebb and flow, depending on the situation?
It is interesting to note, I think, that groups are used in psychotherapy precisely because they can change what people think.
2. Groups
Influence
In 1935 the social
psychologist Mazava Sheriff invited people to
take part in an experiment where people were
asked to look at a point of light and state
whether it was static or moving (the
autokinetic effect).
When asked individually opinions varied as to the state of the light, but when people put into groups they tended to agree with whatever the prevailing view of the group was.
They would agree with this even when it contradicted what they had said earlier.
Turn the page to find out how focus groups can quickly produce extreme consumer responses... »
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