Are Focus Groups Obsolete?
Nothing is certain but taxes and death … unless you’re launching an ad campaign. Then you can certainly add dropping truckloads of dollars to conduct focus groups. They represent the conventional wisdom, a seemingly inevitable tactic. After all, if you can’t marry the market to the message, you’re sunk, right? But wait – there’s less. How ’bout we skip conventional research, go straight to consumers, deliver a variety of messages (some of which will be off target), and in the process, tailor your message to maximize ROI, uncover hot-button messaging, and maybe, just maybe break even on cost. Whoa. Impossible? Not if you consider creative (some would say radical) new ways to employ sponsored search. You may already be using sponsored search (AKA pay-per-click or PPC) or be at least familiar with it. (If you aren’t, click over to see our white paper, Pay-Per-Click 101.) We call PPC the “microwave of advertising” because you can deliver highly refined messages directly to specific targe
