Continuing my thoughts on the downsides of focus groups. I'm not saying they are inherently wrong, but that there's a lot that's not good about the way they are often used.

Leapfrog Research had a good article in the MR industry magazine recently. Here's a copy (word format). I love the descriptions of what goes on in the client side room (the room where the clients sit, watching the group take place)

The viewing facility as business centre

Mobile phones recharged, laptops plugged in ‘the battery’s a bit flat and I need to check my emails’, ‘can I go somewhere quiet and work?’, ‘ring America’, ‘call the old man’, ‘send a fax’ oops forgot to watch the group.

Friends reunited

A great chance for everyone to catch up with office gossip, crack open a few bottles of wine, send out for pizza instead of the hot buffet for eight that was ordered last week, by someone who isn’t there… group?... oh well there’s always the video for later.

The empty room mystery

It’s a dark and stormy Thursday night and there’s football on the telly. Only one person turns instead of the six catered for and feeling a bit Nobby-no-mates, quietly tiptoes away halfway through the first group. ‘Anything else I can get for you………oh’.

The private reality TV show

Here, safe behind a glass partition you can laugh at the real people, mock their dress sense, be amazed at the lack of sophistication and grip on global strategies.

This chimes in with my own experience. I fear that if we're not careful, focus groups simply become another half-experienced bit of stimulus to entertain. Instead of creating a connection with customers, they become part of a culture in which customers are seen as objects to be operated on, rather than people to be engaged with.