Why focus groups do not work? Because they are AQUARIUMS

March 26, 2006

My friend Laurent Flores of CRMMetrix re-launched his “customer-listening” blog. His French humor definitely comes out in his latest post…

So why focus groups do not work as well as you think? Because they are "AQUARIUMS"…

Because they are not REAL…if consumers are looking for truth and human conversations…how can "faked" discussions with "trained" consumers or professional respondents can be real? How can brands really learn from those set ups? As I said in a previous post, rather than to talking to real consmers directly, brand managers hide behing the screen…and listen to faked conversations…I usually compare those to "visits to the aquarium"…rest here.

Laurent gets the notion of customer listening. Check him out.

  • http://www.adify.com Jim Larrison

    What he is missing is the fact that a good moderator takes the “AQUARIUM” issue out of the picture.

    Being involved in over 200 focus groups, I have seen the difference between the aquarium effect with a poor moderator and the true immeasurable value of the great moderator.

    The reason the brand manager is behind the glass is because he/she does not know how to draw out the value from the participants.

    You get what you pay for!

  • http://www.adify.com Jim Larrison

    What he is missing is the fact that a good moderator takes the “AQUARIUM” issue out of the picture.

    Being involved in over 200 focus groups, I have seen the difference between the aquarium effect with a poor moderator and the true immeasurable value of the great moderator.

    The reason the brand manager is behind the glass is because he/she does not know how to draw out the value from the participants.

    You get what you pay for!