The popular War Stories column, which presents humorous tales of life in the research trenches, has historically been compiled by Art Shulman, president of Shulman Research in Van Nuys, Calif. Each month in our e-newsletters we feature anecdotes from past War Stories columns and over time, we have received a handful of submissions from our e-newsletter readers who want to share their own outlandish or otherwise entertaining experiences of research gone just-slightly awry.
Submit your own War Story today!
A slight panic
July 1, 2025
Many years ago, Kevin Dona was as a young analyst working in the CPG arena, and had a colleague who was managing an in-home test of a new dip. She approached Dona one day in a slight panic and said, "I don't know what to do about these results." It was a simple question of where consumers expected to find the product in the store. Enough people selected "other specify" with the response "in the dumpster" that it was coded and showing up in the client tables. After tasting the sample myself, Dona recommended leaving that consumer suggestion.
Dress a mannequin
June 17, 2025
Cheryl Simer recalls a focus group she conducted on bras, where one of her responsibilities was to dress a mannequin with various prototypes, and then obtain consumer reactions. Rushed for time, she had hurriedly put the bras on the mannequin. The fourth bra to be evaluated suddenly began to slip upward and snapped off the form, shooting up two feet in the air. The consumers took it in stride. With slightly disapproving looks they said they were not interested in bras that did that!
Out of stock
June 3, 2025
Once, when Rob Podhurst was conducting an in-store intercept study for a brand of toilet bowl cleaner, he got to the store where the interviews were to take place and discovered that the store was out of stock on the product. Quickly improvising, Podhurst headed over to a rival supermarket and filled a shopping cart with the needed product.
As he stood in line to pay, he noticed he was getting some very strange looks from the woman in line behind him. Seizing the moment, he leaned over to her and whispered, "I've got a very busy day ahead of me!"
The session ended without incident
May 20, 2025
Betsy Bernstein recalls a focus group among small business owners, where the owner of a boxing firm – a former prizefighter – started actively using his phone for e-mails and texting. The boxer had arrived at the session late and missed the initial phones off reminder, so to keep him engaged with the session, Bernstein politely asked him to turn his phone off. He said no; he needed to stay in touch with his business. OK. Small business. He had already said that his business is his life.
A few minutes later he proceeded to stand up and pass out business cards to everyone in the group. Bernstein again asked him if he could defer this activity until the end of the session, at which point this prizefighter said she was "really beginning to piss him off." The group helped reach a detente and the session ended without incident.
An hour after the session ended, the facility received an call from the boxer with an apology. He thought he had been invited to a networking event where he was paying $250 to attend. Imagine his surprise when he received $250 instead.
The morale of the story? Even though we think we are explaining the research process – many times and through many channels – to the inexperienced respondent, coming to a focus group isn't always what they expect it to be.
He removed his denture
May 6, 2025
During one group among denture wearers, the discussion turned to tartar and plaque. When one man said something moderator Sharon Livingston couldn't understand, he removed his denture, thrust it in her face and asked, "Is this what you're talking about, honey?"
Amid the roach traps
April 22, 2025
Sherry Haub cites a focus group on roach traps she conducted early in her career. The session was held in one of the loveliest rooms she ever moderated in, with plants everywhere and a large skylight highlighting a big round marble table. The table featured a plate of elegant goodies for respondents to snack on, surrounded by a dozen of the client's roach traps, the intended subject of discussion.
The group was progressing nicely when suddenly all faces in the room registered surprise, then puzzlement, then dawning dismay as they noticed the Madagascar-sized roach perched insolently on the edge of the goodies plate, safe amid the armada of roach traps it had so casually negotiated on its way to the snacks.
Buying beer again
April 8, 2025
Gail Fleenor tells of conducting in-store surveys in two small towns and receiving two types of refusals she’d never received before. One man refused to be interviewed because he was purchasing beer and was sure that somehow through the survey (which of course was anonymous) his pastor would find out that he drank.
Another gentleman purchasing beer refused to be interviewed because he didn’t want his wife to know he was buying beer again.
A flatulent dog
March 25, 2025
A client asked Doug Schorr if he had any stories from a week of shop-along and in-home ethnographies that were conducted in Dallas. At first the answer was a simple no, just the usual cast of characters. But then his team remembered the extremely flatulent dog (the respondent stated the dog was nervous of the interview), the cat in a dress chasing a wasp on the ledge, a 1940s murder house and being sequestered in a retail store while on lock down from a horrible hail storm. Maybe not just the usual after all!
In his bathtub
March 11, 2025
Dan Safreno recalls recruiting respondents to provide feedback on a few concepts. It was right as everyone moved to virtual in-depth-interviews, and respondents were told they had to be on camera and use a PC to view the concepts in order to participate. When one of the respondents logged into Zoom, he was not on video. The researchers asked the respondent to turn on his camera so they could see each other and quickly realized he was on his phone in his bathtub. After a little shock, the researchers reminded the respondent he needed to be on a PC to participate. He said it wasn't a problem and started to get out of the bathtub. The team didn't like the direction this was going and quickly ended the interview!
The merger
February 25, 2025
Doug Conwell once told about a 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.
"Oh, he works in advertising"
February 11, 2025
Imagine how Donna Tinari-Sigfried felt when, while moderating a focus group on a new product being tested as a promotion by her telecommunications company client, a respondent said, "I love this new promotion, my dad sent me a whole bunch." "Your dad sent you these?" Sigfried asked, somewhat panicked, as a large contingent of agency and client personnel observed through the mirror. "Oh, he works in advertising for [the client company]," explained the consumer.
Sub-zero Midwestern weather
January 21, 2025
Chuck Teaman tells about being a new researcher who had occasion to accompany an interviewer door-to-door in sub-zero Midwestern weather on a home placement callback interview.
When the interviewer came to the overall rating question (a 5-point asymmetrical scale) and read the scale choices, the respondent answered, "I liked it fine," The interviewer said, "Oh, you mean excellent," promptly circled "Excellent" and went on to the next question. Teaman didn't want to interrupt so he spoke to the interviewer afterward, who assured him that, "Well, everybody knows 'fine' means 'excellent' in Peoria, Ill.!"
Extended warranties
January 7, 2025
J. Patrick Galloway cites a telephone study of recent appliance purchasers, where one 93-year-old respondent expressed an interesting view of extended warranties.
Interviewer: "And why do you say you would 'definitely not' purchase an extended warranty for your new dishwasher?"
Respondent: "Honey, at my age I don't even buy green bananas."