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.
Barbara Gural of CTAM previously worked at another company, where she moderated focus groups. One of her groups was conducted among people who served as caregivers to their family members with Alzheimer's.
At the start of the group, one particular respondent, a woman in her 40s, behaved normally. But later she acted as if she were deaf, and after that she became a little child speaking of her daddy. Some respondents shifted in their seats, those closest to her actually easing their chairs as far away as they politely could from the woman.
It turns out that the respondent had a multiple personality disorder.
After the group was over, the woman refused to accept her cooperation incentive, stating she hadn't participated in the group. Moreover, when Gural offered to take her outside to her car, she informed Gural that she didn't know who Gural was and wasn't going.
Gural's clients were behind the mirror. and when the session was over she told them, "You said you wanted us to recruit a lot of different kinds of people!"
Speaking of folks who don't have it all together. Richard McCoy of Action Research has an example. His firm was recruiting people for a focus group. A man was disqualified toward the end of the screener, due to a lack of knowledge about the business being studied. But this was after being told about the $40 incentive.
The man became very irate and demanded $40 for his time. A supervisor spent half an hour on the phone politely explaining that he was disqualified and that the stipend was for actual participants.
The individual then stated he would visit Action Research headquarters in the morning to make sure it was a "legit" business.
The next morning, the man did show up, entered an employee's office, and refused to leave until he was paid $40. The staff once again explained to the person he had been disqualified on the phone for the focus group and that he should leave. The man refused to leave and started shouting, and following staff around the building. The office manager called the police while staff attempted to reason with the man.
The police arrived and warned the man to leave the premises. He refused, instead choosing to head up the stairs, prepared to smash the windows. Needless to say, the police arrested the man and were forced to literally carry him away.
It was later learned that when the man appeared before a judge (he had to be carried in), he laid on the floor and refused to speak or enter a plea. The judge ordered him taken away for psychiatric evaluation ... where he presently remains. It is assumed he is still demanding $40.
Of course, it's not only the public out there that is deemed nuts. Once I sent a speculative proposal to the market research department of the Carnation company suggesting they do a segmentation study among cows.
I received a reply letter from a senior executive which simply stated, "I think you are crazy."
That letter, which I had nicely framed, hangs proudly in my office, next to my framed degrees. I refer to it sometimes when things are hectic. It calms me to know that I am crazy. Makes me feel normal.
Doug Conwell of the Tampa Tribune tells about a recent opinion poll regarding the possible merger of two local municipalities. Respondents tended to be older retirees. The first night of interviewing, when a respondent was told the topic of the survey was the "merger," she replied - in horror " Murder?"
Conwell and his group at first thought it was very funny. But when it started happening over and over again, they had to change the terminology.