24 Ma r ch 20 08 VIEW on Advertising MARKET RESEARCH T hough they’re occasionally usurped by “sexier” tech niques such as ethnography or semiotics, the good ol’ focus group remains a mainstay of most market researchers’ tool kits. Given that the results from a few groups frequently play an important role in guiding significant marketing decisions (and investments), it seems useful to explore the key dynamics influencing the quality of this common qualitative technique. Successfully conducting a focus group requires considerable skill and train ing. One skill that differentiates the great from the mediocre moderator is their ability to use indirect questioning and projective techniques to better understand the true motivations of the respondents.Too often, it’s assumed that asking a direct question will always give us a response we can rely upon. Ask a doctor why he chooses to prescribe brand X, and 9 times out of 10 the word “efficacy” will be heard. Sometimes efficacy perceptions will indeed be the primary driver of brand choice, but often asking a direct question leads to socially acceptable, rational responses that disguise the real drivers of brand choice. It may sound like heresy, but given the time constraints of today’s doc tors, inertia and brand familiarity are often likely to be more important drivers; direct questioning will rarely uncover this. Uncovering Emotional Drivers A great moderator is capable of eliciting these less tangible, more emo tional drivers of perceptions or behavior. Indeed, recent developments in the field of neuroscience suggest that emotions guide our rational thoughts and perceptions, and not vice versa. Interestingly, the use of qualitative research to develop advertising and communications first came to prominence through “motivational research,” which focused more on emotions. Promulgated by Ernest Dichter in the 1950s, this research gained notoriety for its often quite outlandish Freudianlike theories of what influences a consumer’s decision making. While not advocating a return to Dichterlike theorizing, do think that more insightful learning comes from those researchers willing to give emotions as much weight as rational thoughts and perceptions. Breadth vs. Depth Another key dynamic that separates the great from the mediocre mod erator concerns the breadth vs. depth of questioning. Aside from the com mon problem of trying to cover way too much ground during a twohour dis cussion, less skilled moderators often seem to be seduced by the “dangerous magic” of numbers.There’s a tendency to ask each question of virtually each and every respondent, rather than focus on one or two respondents at a time and probe deeper into what’s really behind their initial response to the ques tion. Getting answers from more respondents may lead to the misguided notion that the findings are somehow more reliable and projectable, but it also tends to produce more superficial findings that lead to more superficial communications that inevitably fail to strongly connect with its audience. Similarly, when interpreting responses to, say, an advertising concept, there’s a disturbing tendency among lessskilled researchers to automatical ly conclude that the concept that gets the most “votes” is the one that will work best in the marketplace. Aside from the inappropriateness of this quasiquantitative “voting” or fivepoint scale ranking of a concept within a focus group, this kind of interpretation implicitly assumes that a concept that gets a moderate, but nonnegative reaction among the majority is always preferable to a concept that is more polarizing, with stronger positive and negative reactions. Effective advertising is often polarizing, whereas adver tising that gets a lukewarm reaction following forced exposure in a focus group setting will often never get noticed when it appears in print or onTV. The more skilled researchers understand this and will take the time to probe more deeply into what is influencing these positive or negative reac tions. Often respondents are reacting negatively to executional nuances rather than the core creative idea; if this artifact is not recognized, the baby ends up being thrown out with the bathwater, and a great campaign dies a quick death for the sake of an easily changeable executional element. Interpreting What’s Being Said Finally, great focus group research involves not only successful moderating of a group but a thorough and insightful interpretation of what was said (and not said) by respondents.This may sound screamingly obvious, but I’ve seen more than one research report that does little more than summarize the majority view on each of the topic areas outlined in the discussion guide, rely ing on the frequent use of verbatims and ratings on scales to justify the con clusions being made. Ernest Dichter would turn in his grave if he read them. # Palio PALIO is a fullspectrum global advertising firm that excels in brand creation and execution. We thrive on helping you build brands — brands destined to Never be forgotten SM Could your brand use a touch of immortality? Call our president, Mike Myers. An avid runner, he’s totally into life extension. Finding the Right Focus in Focus Groups Mark Thompson,VP/Senior Brand Planner It may sound like heresy, but given the time constraints of today’s doctors, inertia and brand familiarity are often likely to be more important drivers; direct questioning will rarely uncover this. 0308 PVV VIEW Layout FINAL 3/18/08 4:18 PM Page 24 PALIO COMMUNICATIONS Date: 10.3.07 . Client: Palio . File Name: 11679_ncpmar_hrdwrd_phvoice.indd Page: 1 . Trim: 9.5” x 11.5” . Bleed: 9.75” x 11.75” . Safety: .25” . To Pub by: 10.12.07 PharmaVOICE AD PAGE Here’s a fascinating factoid: Ad agencies like us (Hi, we’re Palio) spend 100% of their time thinking about problems on which you never spend more than 1% of your time. Roughly. But the point is this: All we do is think of you, the whole day through. Which is exactly what you’d hope to hear from your marketing partner. OK, now here’s your PALIO WAKEUP CALL OF THE DAY: Ad executives are genetically bred to be huntergatherers. But they’re lousy nurturers. They live for the hunt, the art of seduction. They’ll woo you with their colorful feathers and their elaborate mating dance. Then—as fast as you can say MetroNorth—they’ll be on to the next conquest. But, in your heart, you suspected as much. After awarding your account, the visits from those brilliant brand planners, MDs, account leads, and creative types are imperceptibly replaced by the bleating whine of errand boys sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill and waitresses offering you today’s specials. On the other hand, we at Palio are not exactly the hunter types. We’re more like nervous mommies. Which, in case you’ve forgotten, is just the kind of loving attention you need. A wise man (Jay Chiat) once asked how big his agency could get before it got bad. Get his drift? Sure, those hypertrophic shops are populated by smart people. So are we. And though we’ve grown since our first office was a bridge table in a rented space above Eddie Bauer, we still obsessively overcompensate by treating each account like it’s our only client on our very first day of business. Give us a call and see what can happen when gut instinct is powered by more than 2500 years of medical and marketing experience. You’d quickly discover what our elite group of savvy clients already know: In life as in advertising, 95% of success is showing up. Call 518.584.8924. Ask for Mike Myers. Who knows? He just might show up with coffee and a fresh babka. Photography by: Mark Laita 11679_ncpmar_hrdwrd_phvoice.indd1 1 10/3/07 1:36:47 PM
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