Beyond Listening: Learning the Secret Language of Focus Groups [Hardcover]

Bonnie Goebert (Author), Herma Rosenthal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 21, 2001

A groundbreaking guide to making one of marketing's most important resources more effective

When kids in a Nabisco focus group told researchers that they always separated their Oreos before they ate them, the researchers recommended that the company develop a cookie that couldn't be taken apart. Fortunately, in this case, Nabisco didn't heed the researchers' advice. Each year, companies spend a billion dollars on focus groups designed to ferret out consumer motivation, and, according to expert Bonnie Goebert, in many cases they're throwing their money away. In this fascinating book, Goebert, a highly respected moderator with three decades of experience with focus groups, explains what's wrong with how companies use the information. More importantly, she draws on her own experiences with clients like the New York Times, Tropicana, Maxwell House, Colgate, Maybelline, Lipton, Federal Express, and scores of other prestigious accounts to provide simple clear-cut guidelines on how companies of just about any size can use focus groups to capture the hearts and minds of consumers.

Bonnie Goebert (Southampton, NY) heads her own focus group consulting firm.

Editorial Reviews

Review

??there are some useful observations about the limitations of focus groups??(Marketing, 31 July 2003)

From the Inside Flap

Why is it some consumers purchase certain brands religiously and are hard-pressed to name any of the competition? Why can even the tiniest change to a product be a complete turnoff? Answers to questions like these are critical to developing effective advertising and marketing strategies. You must understand how your core consumers perceive your brand and what will motivate them to continue to buy (or begin to reject) your product in this competitive marketplace.

Carefully listening to what they have to say-and correctly interpreting their behavior-is key in understanding the emotional relationship between consumers and brands. Which is why Beyond Listening: Learning the Secret Language of Focus Groups can be your most valuable tool in this endeavor. This book was written to help you gain the necessary insight to meet changing consumer needs and strengthen loyalty to your products and services.

With thirty years' experience as a focus group moderator, Bonnie Goebert has mastered the art of reaching out to consumers. Her unique approach to focus groups encourages consumers to reveal their secret thought processes so marketers can hear the usually silent dialogue we have with ourselves when choosing the right shampoo, sorting through breath mints, or deciding which painkiller will actually ease a headache. In Beyond Listening, Goebert, along with Herma Rosenthal, shows how being aware of the way consumers articulate these thoughts and how they relate to brands will benefit any size company-even those unable to conduct full-tilt focus groups.

Drawing on numerous case studies of Goebert's impressive client list (The New York Times, Excedrin, the Hard Rock Cafe, Lysol, Tropicana, and DuPont, among others), the book illustrates how to leverage feedback from focus groups to yield positive results for your business. Colorful examples demonstrate how household-name companies use-and sometimes ignore-consumer information. You'll also see how to:
* Determine who should-and shouldn't-be in focus groups
* Master the skill of really listening
* Learn from consumer disappointment
* Uncover the true identity of a brand
* See your product from the consumer's perspective
* Protect brands in a changing marketplace
Avoid potential marketing disasters by successfully interpreting consumer response with Beyond Listening-and turn your knowledge into strong results for your company.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1st edition (November 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471395625
• ISBN-13: 978-0471395621
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,021,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific read, December 10, 2006

By 

Jennifer L. Meier "havanahipster" (Modesto, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Beyond Listening: Learning the Secret Language of Focus Groups (Hardcover)

This book is a great collection of insights and case studies of how other companies have utilized qualitative research methods to uncover key learnings and how they have both successfully and unsuccessfully implemented ideas for the consumer. A terrific read for all marketers.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely useful words from a colleague who has seen it all. This is the real thing., May 7, 2007

By 

D. Stuart "Researcher at Kudos" (Auckland NZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Listening: Learning the Secret Language of Focus Groups (Hardcover)

Too many Market Research books tend to be dry tomes, focusing on quantitative methods but written in a fairly theoretical style: they talk about why research is useful, and how surveys are conducted. Ho hum.

But here is a Market Research book that feels real. Bonnie Goebert is a senior researcher who has run countless groups and experienced the hard crunch of difficult respondents and the challenge of digging into topics that others find difficult to articulate. She knows the score: and knows that the mission is bring back to the client a living, breathing understanding of what motivates their customers and what will drive success.

Bonnie has an ethnusiastic, grab-your-lapels style of writing and sharing her insights and experience, and this is what gives the book a very real credibility. She comes over as the senior guru everyone wishes they could learn from.

If there's a main theme here, it is her passion for going beyond description ("respondents said this...") and nailing the insightful idea that follows. As she says: the zip-loc bag didn't get invented because consumers wanted a zip-loc bag. It got invented because somebody listened to consumers discuss the mundane daily battle to wrap Johnny's sandwiches and store yesterday's left-over meatloaf.

In this sense the book is a zesty hybrid between a how-to guide on running groups and an example-laden treatise on how big ideas come from little insights. Bonnie goes beyond simple listening, and she encourages us to do the same. A great read for researchers, ad agency strategists and marketers alike.

Two other books on focus groups you might like to follow up: The very original guidebook: Focused Interview and a lightweight introduction for qualitative newbies: Moderating to the Max: A Full-Tilt Guide to Creative Insightful Focus Groups and Depth Interviews

10 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sell More Product, Read This Book, January 7, 2002

By 

Burke O'Malley (Washington, DC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond Listening: Learning the Secret Language of Focus Groups (Hardcover)

I loved this book and I wish all those high flying ad agency people would read it. What are the thoughts that float through a homemaker's mind as he pushes his cart through the supermarket? You know what yours are, but do you know what his are? Bonnie Goebert says listen, ask the right questions. Don't try to con, talk down to or objectify the consumer because the consumer is us. This is the perfect book for account executives, art directors, copywriters, market researchers and anyone who's ever wondered how people make the decisions they do when they go to buy a product, any product. It's full of interesting anecdotes about human behavior, insightful observations and common sense conclusions that could help any company looking to jump start their business. It's lively, well written, and as the culmination of thirty years of focus group moderating, impecably researched. If more ad agencies and CEO's read this book, they'd find out who we really are...and what we really want. Wouldn't that be nice?