Editor's note: Richard A. Feder is president of The Marketing Group, Inc., Stamford, Conn. Bryan W. Mattimore is president of The Mattimore Group, Stamford, Conn.

It used to be so simple. All it took to run a consumer focus group was some straightforward questions and a course in how to talk to people. The respondents had fun, viewers learned all they wanted, and you looked like a genius.

Then the world tilted.

Women went to work, sessions moved to evenings, and respondents arrived tired. Before long, these tired consumers became marketing-savvy critics of advertising. They started using words like "concept" and "demeaning" and took umbrage at the idea they were affected by emotional appeals. As if that weren't enough, along came political correctness, which made these tired advertising critics reluctant to disagree with each other publicly. That's when conducting consumer focus groups got to be a lot like work, and those behind the mirror started amusing themselves looking for the blue M&Ms.

Today a classically-moderated consumer focus group including a search for deeply felt beliefs, relevant emotions and brand imagery can be a long, weary and potentially misleading experience on both sides of the mirror. Viewers end up learning more and more about less and less - hearing all about how a cold makes people feel congested, without finding out that it makes them feel angry, slow-witted, and socially ostracized (and scouring for the remaining blue M&Ms).

Fortunately, there is an alternative: don't moderate, facilitate.

Facilitation utilizes a body of techniques developed and perfected by people like James Osborne, Sid Parnes, Andy VanGundy, Irv Merson, Charles Clark, Michael Michalko, James Higgins, Synectics, Inc., and ourselves. These direct and projective techniques rely on verbal, visual and sensate stimuli and have long been used successfully to generate new product ideas and to solve human relations problems. Facilitation techniques like excursions, brainstorming, metaphors, collaging, idea hooks, role playing, and mind mapping are ideally suited to consumer focus groups to get at responses where social pressure or personal inhibitions have to be overcome. They also make it possible to extend groups when necessary to two-and-a-half to three hours without the energy level or the value of the output diminishing.

Warming up with your eyes closed

Facilitating groups is easy for any experienced moderator to learn and has value on both sides of the mirror. The difference between moderating and facilitating starts with the first question. The difference is not in what is asked but how it is asked. After the respondent introductions, traditional focus groups most often begin with the moderator posing an introductory question which respondents answer one at a time, usually addressing the moderator, thus setting a pattern for the group as a series of one-on-one interviews. In a facilitated group, the leader poses the same question, encourages everyone to contribute an answer, then walks to an easel and turns his or her back on the group. The facilitator stays this way, recording answers, without saying anything, until two things happen:

  • All respondents have said something; (You can tell who's talking by looking in the mirror.)
  • Respondents have given up on getting a response from you and have started to talk to each other.

Five minutes after the group has started, you have the answer to your question and a group of energetic respondents reacting to each other.

Projective role playing and the usage occasion

Learning about a product or service category often starts with a discussion of the usage occasion. To get beyond the mechanics to the feelings characterizing what is it like to use a credit card or have a cold, get the group to write a script for a popular television show about it. You could do a "Cheers" episode called "Sam Gets a Cold." Tell them the opening scene is Sam walking into the bar to open up. He's talking to Carla about how he feels. Ask them, "What does he say?" "Sam is vain; what does he say about how he looks?" "How does he sound?" Just as Rebecca comes in, he has to sneeze and takes out his handkerchief. "What does she say?" And so on, through Norm, Cliff, Frasier, and Woody talking about Sam and his cold and colds in general.

Then ask the group how the situation is different for them when they get a cold or when others they work or live with have a cold. You'll find yourself tapping into another, deeper level of self-realization and candor.

Mind mapping category segments

Need to get a good reading on category segmentation? Have respondents construct mind maps of the category. Put all the category brands (or representations thereof) on the table. Give each respondent a piece of posterboard and some Magic Markers. Tell them to individually create groups of the brand names, putting the brands that are most like each other together and putting each group as close to, or far from, other groups as they perceive it to be. Have them label each group, indicating what the brands in each set have in common. Then tell the group you are interested in seeing if there are any patterns and invite them to compare their boards and talk about them.

Brainstorming brand attributes

Learning about the perceived differences among brands also lends itself to facilitation. Start as you would when moderating by having the respondents rate each major brand in the category in writing on a scale of one to 10. Collect the ratings. Discuss the differences between the top brand and a 10, and the top brand and each of the other brands. Then return to the easel.

With your back turned, get the group to brainstorm all the characteristics of the ideal brand. Write them on the left side of the chart. Keep pushing for more. Once you've gotten as many as you can, push for the benefits of each attribute and write them on the right. Once you're done getting divergent thinking, converge on the elements that are most important to the group. Have them identify those attributes and benefits they get adequately from the current products (the category mandatories). Then have them pick the two or three attributes they don't have, or don't have enough of, that they would most like (the product improvement or new product opportunities).

Defining brand personality with 20 questions

To get at the personalities of each brand, play 20 questions. Start by picking a brand and telling the group you want them to help you build a composite person with the same personality as that brand. Then ask your questions. "Is it a man or a woman?" "How old?" "Thin or fat?" "How is he/she dressed?" "What does he/she do in spare time?" "What do his/her friends like most about the person?" "Least?" "If you were casting a movie, who would play the part?" "How would you describe this actor to someone who doesn't know him or her?"

You can usually repeat this for two or three brands without any erosion of participant imagination or enthusiasm.

Collaging brand imagery

To get into other aspects of brand imagery, have the group do collaging. The visual stimuli bring forth a whole different kind of response. Break the group into three or four small teams. Give each team some old magazines, scissors, a glue stick and a posterboard, and assign them one of the brands. Have them cut out pictures and words from the magazines which illustrate dimensions of the brand imagery and have them make a collage. Watch the BMW illustrations gravitate towards one brand, while the Volkswagen bug pops up elsewhere. Then have each team explain their collage to the group. (And they thought they were immune to advertising imagery.)

Concept evaluation via team selling

To expand and accelerate concept evaluation, start the usual way by showing the group the concept and having them write down a purchase intent on a scale of one to 10 without saying anything. Then do a team selling exercise, where those who rated it eight or higher try to sell the idea to the rest of the group, and vice versa. Let both the teams prepare their pitches before they make them. The unique attributes, the benefits and the reservations just spew forth. (At this point the group behind the mirror will be writing so fast, they'll forget about the blue M&Ms.)

Great thinking about product improvements

If you're showing or tasting a product, after going for the usual responses, get the help of some great thinkers to learn about potential product improvements. Present the group with a list of people, such as Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg, Julia Childs - eight or 10 thinkers with different perspectives. Let each respondent pick one and give them a card with some information about the background and achievements of the great thinker they selected. Ask the respondents to imagine they are the person they have selected and to write down what advice that great thinker would give on how to improve the product. Then start the discussion.

Summary

Relative to just five years ago, consumer respondents in focus groups are more guarded about their opinions, more knowledgeable about research, more marketing savvy, and more tired. Moderators are working harder and observers are enjoying it less. Getting information from these respondents on emotions and feelings requires tools that are not part of traditional moderating. Fortunately, suitable tools are available as part of facilitating. Whereas moderating relies primarily on direct, verbal stimuli, facilitating uses both direct and indirect verbal, musical, visual and sensate stimuli. Facilitating techniques let you go deeper into consumer motivation and behavior. They also increase the enjoyment and energy level on the other side of the mirror (long after all the blue M&Ms are gone.)

Try it, you'll like it.