An Overview of How to Conduct A Focus Group
By: Kimberly Grant
Ah, focus groups. They are a time-honored tradition of gathering a group of consumers together into one room and asking them to give opinions on a product or service. This type of group interview style is not just a marketing staple. It is also used for entertainment purposes on various television shows, movies, and even commercials. One hilarious mock focus group that comes to mind is the “Bad B—- Focus Group” segment of HBO’s The Black Lady Sketch Show.
Sketching a Mock Focus Group
In the sketch, several black women talk about their likes and dislikes of being fabulous. While these women are conversing, a cosmetic representative is watching the proceedings from behind one-way glass. The social commentary of the sketch is that cosmetic lines are using black women’s experiences to learn how to market to them. As hilarious as the sketch is, it is also what a typical focus group looks like to the outside world. However, there’s a lot more to focus groups than sitting around and talking.
To create a focus group, a marketing team needs the following:
In the case of the Black Lady Sketch Show, the moderator is played by Ms. Angela Bassett, who is a superb talent. But the Black Lady Sketch Show isn’t the only place where a focus group produced entertaining, yet informative results. There are companies that have harnessed the mock focus-group style as an effective marketing tool in their commercials.
Mocking with Effect
Chevrolet has used the mock focus group style for a few years. When the company’s mock focus group campaign first began, there was a moderator (an Everyman-looking male) who would stand in a warehouse and present trucks to a group of consumers who were participating in a focus group. In the commercial, the moderator expounds on the features and highlights of each presented vehicle. He would then ask the group to give their opinions on which truck brand they thought was attributed to the best truck. In the climax of the commercial, he would reveal that the best truck (or in some commercials, all of the trucks) were Chevy vehicles.
The focus group (read: paid actors) would then act in surprise and delight. Yes, it is only entertainment. However, for intents and purposes, let’s pretend that the “focus group” was made of real people (or consumers) who happened to consent to being filmed for a commercial that would be played nationally. These consumers who participated in the focus group would play a few roles.
Role-playing and the Focus Group
The first role of the “focus group” is to give Chevrolet insight into how a small sample of consumers think and feel about trucks (and SUVs and sedans) in general and the vehicles made by Chevrolet. The second role of the “focus group” is for the commercial itself to be memorable and thereby increase brand awareness for the Chevrolet brand. A third purpose of this mock focus group is to allow Chevy to illustrate its best features and recent Department of Highway & Safety awards without looking like the company is bragging.
Thus, the Chevrolet Mock Focus Group-style campaign is quite effective. While I won’t be buying a Chevy tomorrow, I have brand awareness the next time I decide to buy a car. Consumers like being heard and using a campaign to show customers that their voices will always be heard is now a part of the Chevy brand. When it comes to focus, Chevy makes the consumer feel fabulously heard.
For more Chevy focus group fun, click here.
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