Auto Focus
Maybe it’s because I’ve never been chosen for a jury. Maybe it’s because I’m dying to be the first to know about the next big thing. Or maybe it’s just because I like to hear myself talk. In any case, I’ve long been obsessed with focus groups.
Now, some focus groups are pretty plum — one paid a few hundred dollars of mad money for a couple hours of chatting about skincare. But don’t think it’s all about the money. A while back I spent a lunch hour (or two) looking at print ads for a carbonated cranberry drink in exchange for maybe $50 and some stale sandwiches. Hell, I’ll even do an online research survey on household appliances when the rewards are accrued in some non-specific “currency” that can be used in a manner to be announced later.
On the surface I may seem like the ideal focus group member — I have disposable income that I’m all too happy to dispose of, I read all sorts of magazines and I watch far too much TV. What they don’t know is that I’m convinced advertising doesn’t work on me. All my life I could remember the jingle or the cute concept but I could never for the life of me tell you whether the commercial was for Coke or Pepsi, Crest or Colgate. I’m not overly brand loyal (all those Prada shoes and Lainey sweaters notwithstanding), but it’s not like a single commercial could sway me one way or the other. So I can talk passionately about why I’d never buy the cranberry drink based on an ad prominently displaying big ripe cranberries that actually turn out to be carbonation bubbles, but should any market researchers really be listening to me? If I may say so myself, my shopping patterns are uniquely particular. . . Now that’s a good thing, right?
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