Idea Killers?

Posted on January 15, 2008 | Permalink

By Lane Casteix

I am not a big fan of focus groups. Unless carefully moderated they can easily be led by panel members on ego trips eager to demonstrate their "knowledge" of the subject under study. At best a focus group can raise possible issues that the designers should at least look at.

At worst they are idea killers. If the makers of Absolut Vodka had listened to the testing, they would have never introduced the product. The testing said clearly the product would die on the shelf, and it might have, but their agency came up with an effective campaign that offset the limitations of the package and played up its uniqueness, which was seen in testing as a weakness. That campaign ran for many years and helped grow the brand to the giant it is today.

Here is a little video that illustrates the focus group problem quite well.
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