I Don't Believe Focus Groups

by Steve Fodor

I don’t believe them. And I don’t believe in them.

Quite a bold and definitive statement coming from a person that makes his living helping companies figure out their most effective marketing communications messages.

Actually, focus groups do have their place in the world of research. But not for defining marketing messages. Here’s why I say that.

Focus groups, by their nature, force rational responses. They typically last about an hour. And the respondents are asked a series of questions. Each respondent gets to comment. And around the room the moderator goes, asking each respondent to explain why they feel that way about a topic. The respondents are being asked to rationalize why they think or feel a certain way.

Though valuable for gaining perceptions into opinions, that’s not the way people respond to a marketing message.

Human beings are motivated by emotions first, then by rational thought. Biologically, it’s how the brain processes information. Scientific research has proven that emotion stimulates the mind 3,000 times faster than rational thought.

Yet, what do most marketing communications vehicles (in any medium) seem to focus on? Rational benefits. Price. Product features. The old “hammer” approach of pounding a longer list of benefits into people’s heads.

I’m not suggesting that marketing communications should be void of product features and price. But ask yourself this question: If your brand, or product, ceased to exist today, how would it affect your customers’ lives? What would they be missing in their daily lives or jobs if you were gone today? When you can answer that, you’re on the path to discovering the true emotional benefit your brand or product provides. And, ultimately, a much stronger position in customers’ minds.

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/striatic/

Benefits in Advertising (or, I wish Aristotle was the copywriter)

by Steve Fodor

Did you ever see an ad and ask yourself, “What were they thinking?”

I saw an ad recently for a fishing reel (big surprise coming from me.) The name of the company, ironically, is U.S. Reel. The headline in the ad reads, “Designed in the Midwest and Manufactured in the Far East.” I showed the ad to a few of my colleagues and they had the same “what were they thinking” reaction I did.

How can “Manufactured in the Far East” be a customer benefit when one of the biggest issues facing our economy is the loss of U.S. jobs to low-cost, overseas labor? Maybe the people at U.S. Reel thought this message implied quality (designed in the U.S.) and affordability (made in the Far East.) Maybe that’s the logic behind that headline. But it sure isn’t the emotional reaction I had to their ad.

The point is: It doesn’t matter if you like your advertising. It only matters if your customers do.

Ranking benefits with customers is not hard or even a terribly expensive thing to do. Having worked with many companies on their advertising messages, people often think that message research and confirmation involves a long and expensive series of focus groups. Focus groups can be of value. But, by their nature, they tend to generally produce rationalized responses from customers. There are other research methods that can quickly get at both the rational and emotional responses to advertising benefits.

Now, someone reading this might say, “Well, you remembered the ad, the headline, the company and even the implied benefit. The ad did its job.” Yes, I remember everything about the rational benefits of the ad. Even some of the specific product features. But what I remember more is the emotional reaction I had to this ad. As Aristotle once said, “You persuade people through their emotions. Not their intellect.”

Flickr Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/albany_tim/