The following is an excerpt from The 7 Keys to Marketing Genius by Michael Daehn

I had the privilege of attending a focus group for an insurance company. Rows of comfortable seats and a hot Chinese food buffet awaited the heads of the company paying for the research, not the participants in the focus group. The participants in the study were eating hot dogs and potato chips. I was perched with company officials behind a large two-way mirror and enjoyed a hearty meal while watching the focus group participants gush about what a great idea the insurance product was.

Were these accurate responses? Would these people really buy the product if they were not sitting in a focus group? In the end the CEO and founder summed up the results, “Well, I do not think we really learned anything we did not know, but it was an interesting thing to watch.” I have to agree with his assessment. It was hard to tell if any of those people would actually buy the product in real life based on the advertising material they were given to evaluate, but it was surely fun to watch, and our food was excellent. I am glad they were footing the large bill for the exercise and that I got to come along for the ride.