Remove the plural from tools and...

It’s six months old now but I’ve only just got around to reading this eulogy for the focus group.

In it, some recent marketing errors are highlighted. Namely:

• Tropicana’s new logo
• Motrin advertising
• Facebook’s Terms of Service
• Sci-Fi/Syfy rebranding

The author chasistes the companies for not listening. Rather bizarrely, she then squarely places the blame for this on the use of focus groups (of which its role in each of these decisions is unclear).

It is clear that there was an epic fail in each of these decisions. But it is only bad workers that blame their tools. Instead, it is the processes where errors can lie within research

• Objectives – Is the research about validating a decided-upon strategy, or critiquing it?
• Sample – There can be a tension between current and desired customers/users, due to aspirations on both sides. Both coalitions need to be adequately represented. Groups can be accused of being filled with professional respondents, but recruiters (at least the ones we use) are taking much greater care in ensuring a broad mix of participants
• Questioning – Groups are based in the present, with gut reactions to new concepts and post-rationalisation of past actions typical (as with most other forms of research). These effects can be mitigated through careful structuring of the discussion and careful wording of specific questions
• Moderation – With a group of personalities, some will eventually dominate more than others. To ensure that the overall mood is representative of all participants, and not just the most vocal, skilled moderation is necessary
• Interpretation – Unlike quantitative surveys, qualitative analysis isn’t limited to what the respondent is answering. Even without going into deep semiotics, there is plenty of “data” that can be used to interpret the answers that are given
• Context – Most important is the context that the research is placed in. Groups are limited in their scope and effectiveness, but then so are all methodologies. If this weren’t the case, there would be no debate on how to meet a specific objective. To overcome the limitations, multiple methods and their relative strengths can and should be combined. When big decisions need to be made, groups should only be one aspect of a larger research programme

All of these challenges can be overcome by using reliable research partners, whose expertise and opinion you can intrinsically trust.

Listening is a necessary component of formulating a strategy, and online conversation monitoring can be valuable in facilitating this. But it is one research option among many – no better and no worse than alternatives depending on the situation.

If someone is basing their entire marketing strategy around one tool (or one question), they are what they eat. Fortunately, few do so.

sk

PS While not an intentional attempt to display my plurality, I have published an accompanying post on my personal blog.

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pmtorrone/