It seems that marketing research, and the "focus group" in particular, is a
hot topic in media circles these days. This is perhaps because, as the Globe and Mail reported in a breathless feature story this past January, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, Kevin Costner, Conrad Black and even The Queen have all used qualitative research in order to gain some insight into how their constituents feel about a variety of critical issues.

That Globe article made some interesting and even well-founded observations about the uses and abuses of focus groups. But in the course of it, the writer's tone was anything but flattering. It suggested a deep mistrust of the process, incredulity at the power supposedly attributed to focus groups, disdain for the clients who need to use them, and skepticism about the objectivity of anyone involved, especially "the Oracle or High Priest," as focus group moderators were termed.

Marion Plunkett: "Focus groups need to be interpreted with caution."

The view presented by the piece was essentially that anything can be construed or misconstrued to prove anything you want using a focus group. "They reduce creative ad campaigns to lowest-common-denominator blandness," the article went. "Skeptical executives believe they have less to do with the views of the panel than those of the moderator, who writes a report drawing conclusions from the sometimes vague words of the subjects."

While perhaps an extreme view, it wouldn't be uncommon to find senior people in the ad and marketing business, especially agency creatives, saying similar things. In fact, much of the criticism leveled at the focus group in that article is criticism with which I would personally agree.

But that doesn't mean qualitative research doesn't have a valid and vital roll in marketing decision-making. The consumer's voice is important and must be sought out by marketers. Ignoring this voice is just as arrogant as allowing the moderator to be positioned as a "High Priest." We now have more tools and techniques than ever with which to probe the realities of consumer attitudes, but the responsibility to be objective and faithful to the consumer's truth is more critical than ever. And, yes, one MUST have good judgment too.

A few months before the Globe article appeared, Marketing's editor Stan Sutter approached Plunkett Communications Inc. about doing something to demistify the whole arena of market research. He wanted to convey a sense of the state of the art, the current views on the subject, and where it is all going in the future. The initial result of that discussion is the articles on these pages, which we hope shed light on how focus groups work and what they can, and can't, do. This, of course, only scratches the surface. We'll explore in a little more depth various aspects of the research process and the issues surrounding it in regular columns over the coming months.

If there's one message I'd want anyone reading this article to take away, however, it's this: Focus groups are not a panacea.

New thought you say? No. That was actually the headline of an article published by Marketing Magazine, around the time that I was an innocent having just joined Ogilvy & Mather in the 1960s and about to embark on what has been an extremely long, at times emotionally fraught, but generally very satisfying relationship with "the focus group."

As an instrument, focus groups need to be handled with care--structured carefully, put in proper perspective, and interpreted with caution. That that doesn't always happen is, I believe, the big reason people, both inside and outside the industry, are wary of focus groups.

Of course, the agency creative department has historically been the most vocal on this subject. And really, they often can't help but be defensive about the whole thing. As a moderator one must handle with care their "babies"--the ideas that have been born and nurtured and developed, and are now to be explored. There are many lenses through which any given project is viewed, and to bring it together requires very careful handling skills.

But being able to carefully listen and accurately interpret what is really being said is the core talent of a good focus group moderator.

The researcher has a huge responsibility as the link between the consumer and the decision makers. Research in any form can be no more or less than an aid to decision making, and never a substitute for good judgment.

One can almost always hear, in the course of a qualitative research project, that one comment that proves one's point. That is why it is so critical to always put comments and observations in perspective. Again, it is the moderator's responsibility to do everything possible to ensure that what is heard is what is meant. This means projective techniques to help us understand the underlying meaning, good probing, listening to the client's needs, and gaining some perspective on the consumers' comments, with both time and other experiences brought to the overview and analysis.

It can be complex work, but it's not black magic.

MARION PLUNKETT is president of Plunkett Communications Inc. of Toronto.