After having completed the focus groups for AIER with Zone 5 on Wednesday and Thursday, I must say that I have newfound respect for the process. Although I administered them and learned some of the finer techniques while at Newhouse, I was impressed by Paul Fahey’s handling of the groups. He has certainly mastered the art of getting people to become actively engaged with the topic at hand while guiding the discussion towards areas that interest the client. Paul and company came up with the great idea of using Google screenshots as a method of asking people what search terms they would use to research a specific topic. Given my recent fascination with search engine optimization (SEO), it makes it easier to optimize a site for specific terms when you know what those terms actually are. They also managed to squeeze in questions about our direct mail campaign, website, and books without actually having to say “What do you guys think about AIER’s [fill in the blank]?”
Needless to say, I now better understand the true value of focus groups.