The only way to get true market intelligence from consumers is to collect market intelligence candidly via online market intelligence and online business intelligence. Why? Because “all consumers are liars.”
“In focus groups, says Adam Hanft in INC, the participants may think they’re being honest, but they’re not.”
From the article by Adam Hanft:
“For the most part, you’re listening to liars. So a useful exercise is to imagine what your marketing decisions would be if you proceeded from that assumption. Here’s an example. Let’s say you operate a group of termite and insect control franchises in a three state area. You’ve done some focus groups to figure out why your business is flat when the termite population is actually growing.”
“In the groups, homeowners claim that the reason they aren’t protecting their homes is that their busy and haven’t gotten around to it. If you took that at face value, you would step up your marketing efforts — direct mail, local newspaper advertising, maybe search marketing on the Internet — to remain top-of-mind. But the reason they aren’t using termite services might be something they’d rather not talk about: They’re planning on selling their houses in a few years, and they see termite protection as a long-term proposition. It’s a behavior driven by the recent, rapid increase in housing prices and the resulting trade-up phenomenon.”
“This isn’t exactly a flattering thing to say, so it’s no surprise it didn’t come up in the groups. But if that acutely practical — and selfish — consideration is what drives the category, your marketing response would need to recognize it. So your strategy would have to find a way to address that in a clever way. One response: your messaging approach, whether in direct mail or advertising, would communicate the problems of selling a house that has termite damage. You would use first-person stories, i.e. “How a $250 termite program would have saved me $25,000 when I sold my house.” But if you listened slavishly to the focus group response, you would have missed the selfish reality that drives the purchase decision.”
“Another dangerous thing about focus groups: There’s something in them for everybody. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched people observe the same focus groups, with each camp firmly convinced that the sessions validated their going-in perspective. Which is why, more often than not, this kind of research is more about self-validation than any real learning. And even though everyone nods in agreement when the point is made that this small-scale research is for directional purposes only, and isn’t definitive, I can’t tell you how many times ideas and programs are nuked or advanced based on what 10 people had to say.”
“So if you’re going to embark on groups, my advice is to force everyone who attended the sessions to write a report that points out a) the problem with their idea that the groups brought forward, and b) positive energy around other ideas different than their own. Since the observers are usually those who dreamed up what is being tested, this exercise will force people to separate from their intellectual possessions.”
“The bottom line: listening and learning aren’t always joined at the marketing hip. Doing a couple of quick focus groups can result in more indigestion than insight unless you are as attuned to what you don’t hear as what you do.”
