Don’t get me wrong, I like a vol au vent and glass of wine as much as the next person. And I probably enjoy covertly watching people’s behaviour more than most (but not in a dodgy way). But I would never recommend using focus groups to understand your consumers.
A few years ago, rather than accept the tacit validation of focus groups as a research tool, I decided to investigate the topic. Specifically, what evidence is there that getting a group of strangers to talk about something for an hour or two uncovers genuine insights?
The short answer is that I couldn’t find any evidence. However, I did find a number of aspects of human psychology that convinced me to never use them again.
1. The priming problem
People taking part in a focus group often don’t have strong beliefs about the topic. This means that the easiest thing for them to do is to go with the flow. As a result, they are highly susceptible to priming, be that from the facilitator’s introduction, warm-up conversation or the first comment someone makes in response to a question.
2. The ‘people can’t help copying others’ problem
Studies show that how we act isn’t just influenced by what we’ve heard others say, we also unconsciously copy what we see other people do. A significant proportion of what people say and do in a focus group is simply a consequence of having put them in that environment. Evidently, when they’re acting individually as consumers, they won’t have the same influences and they will behave differently.
3. Another context problem
Psychology makes it clear that context really matters. Our unconscious mind is constantly processing the environment, and our behaviour is influenced by what it encounters. But a focus group not only strips away the context in which consumer behaviour occurs, it replaces it with a bunch of strangers, an obsequious facilitator and a strange room.
4. The social dynamic problem
Psychologists have had a lot of fun creating experiments where they use group influence to get people to say things that they otherwise would not. We are social creatures, and we are wired to fit in. This doesn’t just produce false consensus. People often go further. They build on a point to make it appear more and more extreme; the results will appear more compelling, not because they’re true, but because they were harvested from a group of people.
The good news is that there is a better way.
Other than for creative brainstorming (which should be kept very separate from insight gathering) the only benefit focus groups offer is a lower cost per respondent. And if you’re buying qualitative research on a cost per respondent basis you should wait for football supporters to get back into stadiums and ask your questions over the PA system at half time.
If you’re considering using focus groups in the future, we’d be happy to explain what we would recommend instead. And, because we understand the power of loss aversion, we’re also happy to include some vol au vents and a bottle of wine with our final report, so that you don’t miss out on the only good thing they bring to consumer insight.