"Hullow," I croaked into the phone after I'd struggled across the room and managed to grab it on its fourth ring.
"Mr. McDaniel? This is Ross Roy Research, and we'd like to ask you a few questions about your radio-listening habits, if you could spare a few moments."
At least it wasn't a telemarketer. "Go ahead," I told the interviewer.
"Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. First, what radio stations do you regularly listen to?"
I listed all the radio stations to which I had set the buttons on the car radio, and was somewhat amused to realize that four of them turned out to be "oldies" stations. Can I help it if I'm forever stuck in my teenage years during the '60s? The car radio in my father's car has all the buttons set for 1940s big band stations.
"Next," the interviewer asked, "would you please stop me when I come to the listening category you fall into. Would you say that you listen to the radio one to two hours each day ... three to five hours ... six to eight ... or more than eight?"
"If I'm in a room with a radio," I replied, "it's usually on. I never turn the car radio off, so I'd probably fit into the six-to-eight category"
The interviewer then went on to ask me questions about my age, number of household members I was living with, my rough income, if I owned a TV, VCR, DVD, and what other entertainment options I had. He then finished off the interview by saying that in a few days I would receive, by mail, an invitation to attend a research focus group at the Sea-Tac Hilton for which I'd be paid $30 if I chose to attend. Also, would I please call the phone number on the invitation to reserve a space?
Marketing research is a process every modern, intelligent corporation goes through whenever it is thinking about introducing a new product, changing an old one, or just wants reinforcement that its present course is a correct one. Even the paper you're reading right now occasionally runs questionnaires that help us bring a better product to you, our readers.
Of course, just because you've done some marketing research doesn't guarantee that you've asked all the pertinent questions. Probably two of the most famous examples of bad marketing research concerned the Edsel automobile, brought out by Ford in 1958 and allowed to die a grievous death three years later, and New Coke. While Coca-Cola drinkers responded that they'd try the "new" Coke, the question the researchers failed to ask was: "Would you buy it instead of 'old' Coke."
Attending focus groups always seems to be a somewhat amusing way to spend an evening occasionally, and you might even pick up a few dollars in the process if you qualify to fit in the sought-after research group.
A friend of mine has probably earned a couple of hundred dollars during the past few years attending focus groups on everything from car-care products to burglar alarms. During these groups, a moderator usually focuses the group's attention on providing opinions on a specific subject, such as the preference of one headline on a dummy ad over another possible headline.
A focus group is usually about 30 people sitting around in a small room talking about the subject. Another member of the research team, and very possibly the advertising client, is in a room next door looking through a sheet of one-way glass while the current advertising is ripped to shreds. This often elicits unheard comments questioning the focus group's intelligence, taste, even parentage.
I appeared at the Sea-Tac Hilton at the appointed hour and was shown into a large conference room where about 150 people of all descriptions gathered. The product we were going to be asked about was the playlist of an unnamed radio station. The moderators then handed out computer-scored answer sheets the likes of which I hadn't seen since college, and asked us each to grade the following songs using: a) liked very much, b) felt neutral, c) disliked or d) didn't recognize. Next they played the first five seconds of probably 300 songs as we doggedly tried to keep up with our marking pencils.
Halfway through, they gave us a few minutes break, a soft drink and a moment to stretch. The gentleman seated next to me started reminiscing with me about how good it was to hear all the old songs.
"You recognized all those songs?" I asked as I looked over at his sheet with only two songs marked in the "d" column.
"I not only recognized them," he told me, "I can tell you the name of probably 80 percent of the artists who sang them. I'm a heavy oldies listener. If you've got the time, I can probably even tell you a 15-minute story about where I was and who I was with when that song was popular."
Later, when the last song snippet had been played, the moderators collected the answer sheets and paid us. Rock on, oldies listeners.
That night, I drove back smiling, with the Beach Boys playing on the car's radio.
Gary McDaniel is a local freelance writer. He can be reached c/o doug@ kirklandcourier.com.[[In-content Ad]]
