focus group

(Oscar poll results announced tomorrow, I promise...still haven't had a chance to properly tabulate)

So I went to my first focus group last night.

It was an impulse decision, prompted by curiosity (I've always wondered what happened at a focus group, and the topic was digital cameras), greed ($50 for what seemed like an easy hour) and an e-mail from a friend who said that because of last-minute cancellations, the company was desperate to get more people to participate.

After calling the phone number my friend had given me, I talked to a nice-sounding fellow named Avi who grilled me extensively about my use of traditional cameras, digital cameras, buying habits, other demographics. I was nearing the point of irritation (this was just a pre-screening; was this all a scam to get me to answer survey questions for free?) when I was told that I qualified, and that I'd be receiving a phonecall to confirm the appointment later that day.

More prescreening questions during the second phonecall, plus detailed instructions about when and where I was supposed to go, and to bring photo id. I needed to show up 15 minutes in advance, I was told, or I might not be paid.

The next evening, I show up. I'm immediately taken into a small room and given yet another pre-screening interview in which some of the information I gave in previous interviews were confirmed. Except most of the info seemed to be wrong. No, I wasn't between the ages of 45-55. No, I didn't use 6-10 rolls of print film during the past year. Didn't matter, I still qualified (they must really have been desperate for people, I guess).





I am given a name tag and then taken to a carpeted waiting room with comfy seats and a table with coffee, pop, and cookies. Other people with nametags are waiting, as well. We all eye each other curiously; there seem to be a wide range of demographics in evidence...an older corporate executive guy in a suit, a young trim executive woman type, a teenage but chic girl, a student type, a housewife. How do they see me, I wonder?

I'm scheduled for the 7:30 pm focus group slot. 7:30 comes and goes. We waiting room people start getting restless. We start talking to each other. Two of us are focus group newbies, the others have all been through the experience before. One (the housewife) has been to quite a few; the last one was an all-day affair with a full meal. The meal was pretty good, she says. I ask her how much she was paid and find out that she was paid $140 for four hours of listening to talks about mutual funds.

We keep waiting. I'm getting somewhat ticked off. It gradually dawns on me that they have us trapped. We're paid for an hour, but they can keep us waiting forever. I go to the front desk and ask how much longer it's going to be. The woman apologizes, says it shouldn't be much longer, that they're backed up right now.

At the half hour mark, a slick-looking guy comes out and calls my name. He is wearing a silver-gray tailored suit with a black shirt, one earring, and (even though we're indoors and it's nighttime) hip-looking sunglasses. I give a cheer (I actually do cheer, amusing the others in the waiting room) but a few minutes later am sent back to the waiting room because he found out he made a mistake. I get more ticked off. The woman from the front desk refills the plate of cookies.





About an hour after I was told to arrive, I finally get to go in. The room is packed with people and about seven tables with camera-related things on them. I'll be taken to three of these tables. I'm assigned to a guy from the marketing group...I can't remember his name, so let's call him Alvin (I'm grateful that it's not the slick guy with the sunglasses, who ends up being assigned to someone else). At each table, I'm also introduced to a representative from Kodak.

Each Kodak person does a brief presentation on some aspect of the new camera (the overall design, the e-mail tagging, etc.), then Alvin goes through a detailed questionnaire. Kodak is testing customer response to a new model of digital camera that's going to be released next year.

They ask me what I think of the design of the camera. I only get to see a prototype (since it's still being designed), and it is butt-ugly. I tell them so, but am more tactful in my wording. The design reminds me of my very first "real" camera when I was a kid, the point and shoot kind, very plain and very rectangular.

All the questions during the hour seem to assume that I am an empty-headed consumer who goes ga-ga over cool-looking camera design without much thought to actual functionality. One of the initial screening questions was something like "If you had to compare your taste in choosing a camera design to choosing a car design, which of the following cars would you choose?" I laughed out loud, I couldn't help it. When I realized the interviewer was still waiting for my answer, I told him to pick the smallest car.

After we are finished (and it takes exactly an hour), they thank me and give me a $50 bill in a plain white envelope.

My overall conclusion? It was worth doing once, just to see what it was like, but I doubt I'll do it again. :-)

---

Today's Blatherpics:

I turn 40 this Friday! These are photos of a birthday present sent to me by my friend Helen (she recently moved to London from Amsterdam).

	Front of the t-shirt that Helen sent me for my birthday. The picture in the front is of the Clangers, a kids' television show from the 70s. She said that even though I might be turning 40, I'm still a kid at heart. :-)
	Me in the t-shirt.
	Helen also sent me some chocolate bars: two Curly Wurly's, and two Cadbury Fudge Bars. This is the newspaper in which the chocolate was wrapped. :-)