Last Updated Tuesday March 25, 2008, EDT 5:20 AM
The man wouldn't speak. Despite everyone in the six-person group being a diabetic, he wasn't comfortable publicly discussing his illness. In fact, he'd meticulously hid that information from co-workers. About halfway through the 90-minute session, though, he finally broke his silence: He didn't think inhaling insulin three times a day at mealtimes was a good idea.
[Illustration by Staff Artist Billy Beccera.]
"It would be a dead giveaway," he said.
Others jumped in. "I would rather stick myself in the morning" with a needle, one man said.
"You're lucky you can stick yourself," another added. "My wife has to do it for me."
This wasn't a support group for diabetics. Donald Mazzella of Palisades Park was recalling an exchange from a 2006 focus group in which he took part.
A diabetic who uses pills to regulate his blood sugar, Mazzella believes the inhaled insulin product the group discussed was under development by a major drug company — and subsequently scrapped as a result of his and other focus groups held nationwide.
"Where else do you get paid for spouting off?" said Mazzella, who received $200 for his contributions.
Nearly every consumer product and commercial unleashed on our consumer nation is tested on focus groups, mostly in the major markets of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. For geographic purposes, Bergen County is grouped with the New York metropolitan area, but the North Jersey region may be a better cross section of the nation than Manhattan in terms of consumer habits, according to experts.
"We can get participants that range from high income to low income; people in apartments to those who own very expensive homes," said Richard Miller, president of CPR Research, a focus group company with an office in the Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus. "We find all races, all creeds."
And consumer research firms need them. Focus groups happen at different stages of a product's life, from conception — the idea of inhaling insulin, for example — to evaluating the qualities of a finished product to screening new television commercials that tout products' "new" or "improved" qualities, so North Jersey residents like Mazzella are in high demand.
Pocket money
In the past five years, Mazzella has been tapped to opine on Chevrolet cars, the layout of merged Fed-Ex/Kinkos stores and homeowner's insurance. Another focus group respondent, Bianca Muccia of Maywood, has voiced her thoughts on cellphones and acne cream.
"I am very outspoken," said Muccia. "I don't tell them anything they want to hear. ... With the acne cream, I told them flat out, 'This is burning my skin.' "
In the cellphone study, she was asked to give her opinion about all facets of cellphones, including a mobile phone's form factor (or shape and feel). She and other participants were given an unmarked model cellphone to look at and touch. Participants tried putting the models in their pockets or bags, and told the moderator what they thought of the size or the weight.
"It's more exciting than jury duty," she said. "With jury duty, it's the outcome of someone's life. Here, it's not life or death — I'm not putting someone in jail. It's a lot cleaner, and the food's better."
Plus, it's an opportunity to get paid. Most focus groups will pay anywhere from $50 to a few hundred dollars, depending on the product, length of the focus group (on average an hour or two), and what's asked of the participants. Mazzella and Muccia agree that it can be a good way to earn some extra pocket money, although marketing companies tend to discourage participation in more than one focus group a quarter.
So how and why does the process work?
Marketing research companies regularly compile enormous lists of potential focus group participants that fit different categories of age, sex and consumer habits. (Individuals can sign up for these lists.) Those on the list only receive calls when they fit the profile for a specific product.
Warming the room
Muccia was a teenager when she tested acne cream, and Mazzella was chosen for a car group because he owned a Buick.
Typical focus groups involve six to 10 participants. A moderator like Miller — who has helped run focus groups since 1969 — oversees the proceedings and tries to elicit honest opinions and reactions to products, their packaging and how they're advertised. It's easier said than done, as he'll often have to warm the chill out of a room filled with complete strangers.
Sometimes it's necessary to use indirect means such as eye contact to get less vocal participants talking — and avoid having one respondent dominate the discussion.
"Focus groups are designed to get people's deep emotional reactions," he said.
That candor is imperative because the clients behind the focus group want to find out what consumers really think about a potential or existing product.
"Many times, [running a focus group] helps you shape your message," said Alan C. Marcus, president of public relations firm Marcus Group. A Saddle River resident, Marcus once represented the National Basketball Association and regularly polls focus groups for opinions on commercials that his company produces.
"We found out that people in New Jersey don't like New York garbage, even though it's the same kind of garbage," he said of one local case.
"We also found that people hate trucks. So our commercial [against shipping in New York garbage] demonized trucks: 'They're coming,' was the slogan."
For everyday consumers, the focus group provides a keyhole into and a small role in the shaping of products they use or buy. It doesn't hurt that food and a paycheck are part of the equation.
Muccia, 27, has another good idea about why someone might want to sign up for a focus group.
"If you're single and you don't want to meet people any other way, it's kind of a good way to meet people," said Muccia, who has suggested the social technique to her friends. "You're in a room with different people, and you all have common ground.
"Especially when I went to the acne one, some of the guys were pretty good looking," she said, "... and they were from New Jersey."
E-mail: shih@northjersey.com
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