Marketing Australia – February-March 2019

‘truthful’ when using intervention tools, but the lesson here

is about finding insight through self-awareness, rather than

behavioural observation. Pre-group diaries can heighten

respondents’ self-awareness, opening them up to greater

honesty in a group.

The Johari window helps visualise how truth, honesty

and secrets play out. It is incredibly useful for developing

discussion guides and analysis plans.

Open

The public self that we happily share and with which

we feel most comfortable. Time must be spent to help

bond the group using storytelling, probing and bouncing

techniques. Storytelling narratives are great for getting

people to open up. Storytelling also benefi ts honesty as it is

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eople hold back the truth for various reasons.
It may not matter to them, they don’t want
to disappoint or they may want to believe
what they say is true. To get to the truth is to
understand how consumers communicate
and to establish the underlying motivations for lying
or providing half-truths. This is where genuine insight
emerges. Have we uncovered a secret? Are we intruding
on highly sensitive territory, or have we just caught the
respondent in a lie told through nervousness, as a cover-up
or because they genuinely want to help the study?
Populist books like Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking
Fast and Slow called into question the value of focus
groups, especially when it comes to expressing consumer
intentions and future purchase behaviours. This, however,
is more about choosing focus groups for the wrong reasons.
Focus groups are best used for building brands, ideas and
communication, rather than simply validating them.
Focus groups remain the best way to know consumers
fi rsthand – their needs, motivations, joys and concerns.
Peter Thiel talks about the value of secrets in building
businesses. Qualitative research is a powerful way to
uncover consumer secrets – things people don’t know
about themselves or things they don’t want others to know

• things observational research and big data cannot off er.
  It also has a power to help consumers reach self-awareness
  about what they fear, desire, want and need. Participants
  often tell me how much they’ve learned in a group, not just
  about the category but about themselves. This is a result of
  giving them licence to share, feel and connect.

SECRETS, LIES AND SELF AWARENESS
We know from qualitative diary work that consumers often
eat more healthily when asked to report their daily food
intake; their awareness is drawn to their consumption.
This is important. Research is stigmatised for not being

How to get to the truth

in focus groups

Everybody lies – to family and friends, doctors and

pollsters. Lying is human.
Ellen Baron is CEO, founding
director and innovation thought
leader at Ruby Cha Cha.

MARKETING 2019

KNOWN TO SELF NOT KNOWN TO SELF

NOT KNOWN TO OTHERS KNOWN TO OTHERS

OPEN SELF BLIND SELF

HIDDEN SELF UNKNOWN SELF