Focus Pocus
Focus groups have lost their focus. Once a cutting-edge technique for probing the psyche of the public, they’ve outlived their usefulness. They are like a tired magician performing the same tricks week after week in the Catskills. Call ’em focus-pocus groups, for after a company has conducted hundreds of focus-group interviews, its likelihood of uncovering a truly fresh perspective is almost nonexistent. It isn’t enough to hear what people say they want. You have to find a way for people to show what they want, and that won’t happen in the stilted environment in which focus groups occur.