Fishburn Hedges

30.08.2011

The demands and rigours of a job in PR seem to have gotten to me. More responsibility, coupled with a hangover from student life, has consumed much of my time – if only I had Bernard’s Watch…

Nonetheless, I wish to write about my experience of helping to facilitate a focus group, an activity I found particularly interesting during my eight week internship at Fishburn Hedges (FH).

Through Rare Recruitment, an organisation that connects people from diverse backgrounds with opportunities at leading companies, I have had the opportunity to be the Summer Intern as part of the first Rare/FH scheme.

A quick ‘Google search’ shows the definition of a focus group as ‘a demographically diverse group of people assembled to participate in a guided discussion about a particular product before it is launched, or to provide ongoing feedback’.

In this particular instance, a focus group was held for a prominent financial services client who wished to gain qualitative research and consumer insight prior to launching a campaign. The focus groups were divided into three distinct age categories: ‘young people and young families’, the ‘squeezed middle’ and ‘empty nesters’ (over 55s). The individual focus groups comprised of an assortment of individuals from different walks of life and I really didn’t know what to expect as I watched them slowly filter into the observation room. The session began with a FH facilitator coaxing participants into giving responses to leading questions from our crucial campaign areas. I was able to watch the events unfold in a not-too-distant room through a live video feed and as the days progressed, I gained a voyeur-like lust for the action.

Before the beginning of each session, we wrote every participant’s name on a piece of paper and arranged them across a large boardroom table for ease of access. Subsequently, each time something juicy was uttered we frantically attempted to note down the soundbite. After no time at all, the FH team were functioning like a well-oiled machine as we seamlessly interchanged positions, even incorporating a few pen flicks and tricks (I even got to demonstrate a few optical illusions in-between soundbites). Having attended the launch of a financial report into savings a few weeks earlier, the findings were as I had expected. There is a general distrust and lack of engagement with financial service providers (FSPs). The findings from the focus group made it clear that in the future, FSPs need to be more transparent and offer a more personalised service to customers.

Following the discussion, we selected participants to record vox pops - a term used to describe video clips and one that I now know is Latin for ‘voice of the people’! Thereafter, I helped to edit the clips before writing up a report summarising the findings. The final product included introductory questions, impressive graphics and most importantly, genuine insight. It will hopefully be used on a microsite in an upcoming client campaign. Helping run the focus groups proved to be an exciting experience, and while this technique has traditionally been confined to advertising, it is an increasingly important research tool for the PR industry.

Follow me on @Channon89 and @Grad Online for more insights into my experiences of PR! http://gradonline.co.uk/category/creative-arts/theinternshipblog/

Posted by Channon Zhangazha