Why You SHOULD Use the “Focus Group of One”

Posted on Aug 4, 2010 in Big Ideas, Individuality, Inspiration | 4 Comments

Focus Group of One

Oftentimes we’re told not to use the “focus group of one”, namely ourselves, when we’re brainstorming creative ideas. But to be blunt, I ask: Why not?

Social media marketing, unlike mass media, is based on the pillars of relationship building and a few-to-many model. That said, if you fall within the target audience, it shouldn’t be hard to understand that if you find something interesting, at least a good portion of the target audience will as well. I bring this up because not long ago, I contributed some thoughts to Griffin Farley’s Propagation Planning Brief (basically, the creative brief for the social age). One of the questions we listed was: “Why would someone want to pass something like this to others?”

I think in the case of social media, and propagation planning, using the “focus group of one” is vital, and recommended, in determining the viability of an activation program. It’s no secret that when you come up with an idea, it sounds great. It’s your idea; so, of course it’s great. But I think “Is this a good idea?” and “Would I pass this along to my friends?” are two very different questions, and are the necessary stress tests that an idea should go through. Good ideas are a dime a dozen. But not all good ideas are ones you would necessarily rush to tell your friends and family about; and ultimately that’s the goal.

If social marketing is about humanizing a brand and developing relationships on a micro-level, then we should be including ideas that individuals, marketers or otherwise, stress tested themselves. Ultimately, we’re all still just people. And we all equally find cool stuff to be…well, cool, regardless of what hats we wear from 9-5pm.

So, the next time you’re brainstorming, champion the idea that you think your group of friends would be interested in seeing; because odds are, you aren’t the only one who would rush to show them.

4 Comments

  1. Anthony Perez
    08/05/2010

    If I was the inventor of Farmville and used myself as the focus group of one, there would probably be no Farmville because I thought “I’d never share this. Who would want this?”

    It’s an interesting thought, but there’s stuff people share that I just don’t understand why they think it’s cool and interesting haha.

  2. amadeo
    08/05/2010

    Yeah. There definitely are things that are shared that I don’t get, but then the question is: are we a part of that group of people who it is geared towards? I don’t personally play any social games, or spend half my day on Facebook. So, I don’t find it surprising that I don’t care much for Farmville.

    Though, I have heard, from people just like us, that Farmville stole their lives. I don’t want to find out, but I heard there’s something addicting about it. You know what: I don’t like MMORPGs whatsoever, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t have a life for 7 days when World of Warcraft did their stress tests before its release years ago. It was like crack and I couldn’t get enough.

    So, who knows. Maybe if you gave Farmville an extensive chance, you might find yourself wearing overalls everyday. It’s bigger than Twitter, so it’s gotta be doing something right.

  3. Andrew G
    08/05/2010

    I think this notion of “Focus Group of One” applies an idea of any sort, though I understand your relating it to social media/mass marketing because that’s what you specialize in. Many Good Ideas were the brainchildren of just one person. It’s just that it is exceedingly difficult to execute a Good Idea by yourself because if it was trivial to do it was probably done already. Turning a Good Idea into a million or billion dollar company requires at minimum a handful of people just to get off the ground, and you’d be insane to try and do it yourself.

  4. Anthony Perez
    08/12/2010

    Of course you can always use the stress test of putting your ideas through the paces of the principles set out in “Made To Stick” to get an early sense of whether your idea will likely stick. Then again, almost every viral video ever made doesn’t really fit that mold so who knows if that’s a good barometer either.

    One REALLY interesting article you should check out for Farmville/World of Warcraft is 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying To Get You Addicted. Yeah, it’s a list article and on Cracked, but it’s a damn interesting read: http://www.cracked.com/article_18461_5-creepy-ways-video-games-are-trying-to-get-you-addicted.html

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