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October 19, 2008
Focus Groups and The Wisdom of Crowds
I was speaking with a client in the organic food space recently, and said "I really think the company needs to stand for something." I was rejoined with the not-unexpected, "Oh, it's difficult for the "company" to stand for something...the brands need to stand alone. Our focus groups always indicate...."
Suddenly, my brain went a little numb. Focus groups have rightly come under pressure in recent years, as agencies and clients alike come to realize that they are a potentially flawed concept. AdRants posted about these two videos from DraftFCB Hamburg back in January which poke fun at the medium as a sure way to kill good ideas.
They are a little lame, but they make the point.
Today, we have so many powerful ways to interact with consumers and empower them to evoke their true emotions about our brands -- social networking tools, blogs, discussion boards, etc -- media that allow consumers to sound off in a truly unfettered manner. And while Joseph Mann's post on FutureLab about the potential influence of "social pressure" may still have some impact even in the anonymity of Web 2.0 media, the effect is likely much lower.
In the particular discussion I mentioned at the outset, we began to discuss the fact that organic consumers consistently indicate (in focus groups) that they don't want to buy from "large" companies. In today's scary economy, I tend to believe that consumers would rather have their organic products in wide, accessible distribution, at a good price and with variety...and that corporate size is secondary. That is, of course, as long as the corporation is ethical, honest, transparent, accessible and socially-conscious. (Characteristics that social media can also help us to present.) Big isn't the enemy. The enemy is mysterious, greedy, slave-driving, polluting villains.
If we really want to find out, I suspect it wouldn't take too long if we opened the discussion online. Today, we have the potential to tap the "wisdom of crowds" like never before, and that wisdom rarely resides in controlled focus groups.
Posted by jcioban at October 19, 2008 7:15 PM
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