Sticking Your Finger in People's Brains (Don Draper on Focus Groups)

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Sticking Your Finger in People’s Brains

On August 16, 2010, in Mad Men Marketing, by Brett Duncan

I’ve ranted and warned and cited other experts regarding focus groups before. But now, I can play the “Don Draper said so” card when the idea of focus groups come up (and don’t think I won’t!).

In episode 404, “The Rejected,” of Mad Men, the season finally makes a little progress. Pete’s gonna be a daddy, and he’s finding ways to fully leverage his account with the dad-in-law. Don finally has to face some consequences of sleeping with his secretary. Peggy’s found a new lesbian friend who’s introducing her to all kinds of new things.

All good stuff, but not exactly the kind of meat I’m looking for in terms of what we marketers can actually put into play today.

On Focus Groups: People Just Start Talking

However, the interestingly tense interactions between Don and Faye, the marketing research brainiac, continues to intrigue me. Faye has already pegged Don’s type; now she’s poo-pooing his campaign ideas based on a sample of six women from around the office. In response, Don delivers a classic line:

“You stick your finger in people’s brains,
and they just start talking.”

He goes on to add that, when you ask people to give their opinion on something, they’ll work hard to give you one. Whether they have one or not.

I’m not anti-focus group. I just think they’ve traditionally been too heavily relied upon. And poorly handled at that. Take Faye’s example. While she was methodically presenting the session in what appeared to be a very impressive way, there were some fundamental flaws in place. For one, all the participants were taken from the office. There’s a ton of bias already in place. Second, she included Allison when Allison even knew the angle they were testing. That’s an even heavier bias (and let’s not even mention her other bias in this situation).

How Much Can You Trust Your Gut?

Don loves his gut. He may love it too much. But he’s not going to let research dissuade him from his most compelling “gut moments.” I believe it was the very first episode of the series where he takes a report from the marketing research lady and tosses in the garbage can, right in front of her. He also adds in this episode something along the lines of “Why should we ask people what they think when they don’t know how they should be thinking?”

How do you draw the line between your gut and your research? What drives your decisions more? How do you break ties?

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