Notes

Successful Innovation Does Not Come From Using Focus Groups
It's a worrying idea that the effectiveness for new product concepts is less than 20%, despite them being regularly vetted in focus groups. This should lead us to question whether the qualitative focus group is the right tool to use for ideation or concept testing.
The thought of using a focus group in NPD is always to find and get the true emotions, experiences and opinions of customers - as a way to identify an unmet need or look at the potential of an product idea (and, hopefully, improve upon it). However, over the last ten years, there was a shift in opinion, amid increasing evidence that focus groups actually kill ideas, particularly the most creative ones.
So how come there the belief that focus groups kill innovation? Maybe it appears from many frustrating hours of watching focus groups and reading the consequent debriefs with heavy hearts. NPD and true innovation relies upon on uncovering deep insights and unknown ways of issues that, often, consumers never knew that they. But from the experience, focus groups, by their very nature, are just not equipped to get this done - for three key reasons:
1. An artificial environment
It's unsurprising that people battle to express their thoughts, feelings and ideas in just a focus group. It is, all things considered, a very unnatural environment - essentially strangers thrown together in the windowless room, being led by another stranger, knowing their every move and surveys are being watched by faceless others. Would this make you feel comfortable in revealing your deeper thoughts or even in expressing ideas?
Companies spend time and effort and funds on generating safe and artistic atmospheres for internal ideation workshops and brainstorming. But we expect consumers to start and spill the beans inside a totally artificial and non relaxing environment. Unsurprisingly, it simply doesn't happen.
2. The tip from the iceberg
According to behavioral economists, economic decision-making is 70 percent emotional and 30 % rational. In focus groups, the contrary is valid. Consumers will rationalise their thoughts and responses. They will play the role of helpful by wanting to remove the emotion from their responses. Unfortunately, brands mainly live and really enjoy emotion. Consumers should go as far as to attempt hard to respond to questions and give opinions, even if they do not know the answer or whatever they say isn't true. At best, focus groups provide us with a truthful and factual account of consumers' conscious thinking process - but the exact same thing, is problematic.
Neuroscientists declare that individuals could only access about 5% of these cognitive processes - that is certainly, the thoughts, associations and emotions that happen inside our brains. Harvard Business School professor, Gerald Zaltman, supports this theory as part of his excellent book How Customers Think. He writes: 'Most with the thoughts and feelings that influence consumers' and managers' behaviour exist in the unconscious mind.' And, in conclusion: 'Contrary to standard wisdom, [focus groups] are not effective when developing and evaluating cool product ideas.'
The fundamental concern is that focus groups are battling from the idea that high of our thoughts about is unconscious, and our emotions are intertwined with your reasoning. focus groups perth within bring in more business are certainly not being irrational or lazy, just unconscious (not literally, even though some from the focus groups we've watched...!)
3. Seeing the longer term
Every brand desires to stay ahead of the bunch by wanting to differentiate itself from the competition. However, this is the one thing that consumers in focus groups inherently dislike about services and innovation ideas. They prefer to remain in 'familiar territory' in doing what is comfortable and expected, and of their current frame of reference. It's just human nature.
So, when focus groups are given the unfamiliar, their natural reaction would be to respond with scepticism and doubt. And this will be the reason why many innovative ideas, services and products experience difficulty removing.
This may also be problematic when focus groups are used to test new ideas. In these cases, negative feedback often closes the thought before it even extends to market. Most people have no idea of what you want before they view it and so they can't understand an innovation that comes in to solve a difficulty they don't really yet know they have. As Henry Ford famously said: "If I gave people whatever they said they wanted, I would make a faster horse".
So what's the result?
So if consumers can't invent the long run - and asking people in focus groups what you want or need doesn't get the crooks to - what is the best tactic in driving new ideas for innovation?
Now, more than ever, you will find there's broader spectrum of exploratory research methodologies for insight and idea generation - and also the options are growing continuously. Using these new and innovative methods allows us - and our clients - please take a fresh perspective and understand consumers from new angles.
Ethnographic and 'in-situ' based research methods involve an anthropologist spending time with individuals as they start their day-to-day lives, so that you can observe they will use and experience products. The validity of those methods is finally starting out be recognised, after a period of derision. And people 'in-the-know' are actually beginning to appreciate that this approach can produce invaluable insights. Reach presenting an anthropologist as permanent person in our strategy team.
Success lies in spending quality, one-to-one time with individuals in natural settings, and using a working system. It's important to comprehend the limitations and possibilities of clients' abilities to build and understand new ideas. We must have the ability to take away the blinkers and expands minds. We do this by showing consumers the future - as well as the possibilities - developing a new frame of reference, which assists these phones visualise and understand new ideas and concepts.
The goal from a NPD or innovation process is sales and market success. We would like to begin to see the failure rate for first time products drop from above 65% - and also the 1st step is usually to stop the default utilization of focus groups. They may are the quickest and cheapest way to gather consumer opinions, however, if the chances are stacked against you these are surely an incorrect economy.
Focus groups can also be comfortable plus a known entity - but this may be the very antithesis of innovative thinking. To quote one from the world's most innovative thinkers, Albert Einstein, "Insanity [is] doing the same again and again and expecting different results." So for true innovation, and a competitive advantage, try involving and with consumers inside a different way.
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