Editor’s Note: "War Stories" is a regular feature in which Art Shulman, president of Shulman Research, Van Nuys, Calif., presents humorous stories of life in the research trenches.
Moderator Bill Weylock of Weylock Associates recalls a focus group session which was well underway when the proprietor of the research facility interrupted by bringing some homemade muffins into the room. The well-intentioned woman was oblivious to the fact that Weylock’s group had been recruited to test a new snack chip, a bowl of which was on the table.
Later in the session, after the muffins had been removed, the microphone in the ceiling fell and dangled over the table. After being summoned to the room, the proprietor climbed up on the table and put the mike back in place, all the while dexterously managing not to step on the bowl of chips.
Weylock believes the facility is now out of business.
Steve Billig of Billig & Associates tells about a focus group participant in her 60s who thought she’d been invited to a support group. At the start of the session, before people began talking about the real subject at hand, vacuum cleaners, she began telling her terribly sad story. Her husband had died a few months earlier and, soon after, her son was killed in a car accident. Her heart-rending story went on and on and she wept as she shared her sadness.
The moderator, wisely putting humanity over productivity, allowed the woman to grieve before regaining control over the focus group. The moderator did not excuse the participant. After waiting for the right moment, he explained to her the purpose of the session and offered her the option to stay or leave. She opted to stay.
Freelance moderator Paul Schneller recalls reviewing screeners for a focus group he was to conduct. One of the questions asked was, "What do you like to do in your spare time? (INTERVIEWER: RECORD VERBATIM IN SPACE PROVIDED)"
The replies were a bit briefer than Schneller had hoped. On every screener, the recruiter had written "VERBATIM," neglecting to record anything the respondent had said.
An anonymous marketer tells about a presentation of a new product launch made by someone in his marketing group. One of his large charts contained a spelling error, announcing a "Pubic Introduction."
The presenter wasn’t sure why there were giggles around the room when he uncovered that chart, though when someone later explained his spelling mistake, he told them that he thought his fly might have been open - which, if true, might actually have been a "pubic introduction," in a manner of speaking.
We’ve talked before about clients from hell behind the one-way mirror at focus groups. How about the experience of Steve Lackow of Retail Profit Management? In the days when TelePrompTers were being tried in lieu of passing paper notes from the back room to the moderator, Lackow’s client repeatedly told him on the monitor to "Get Michelle’s phone number," Michelle being a very attractive and bright group participant.
After several of these messages, an annoyed Lackow stopped the group for a short while and went to the viewing room, where he asked the slightly inebriated client to stop or he might have to cancel the group.
About five minutes later, another similar message came though the TelePrompTer. Lackow paid the participants and sent them home!
Margaret Roller of Roller Marketing Research tells about a group she was moderating on dried herbs where her client sent in a note asking her to gauge the group’s reaction to the "fact" that the competitor’s product consisted of 5 percent rat feces.
Roller tossed the note and continued conducting the session according to her guide. To this day she has never found out if the "fact" was correct or a guerrilla marketing ruse.