Another Focus Group Session

In December 2008, I participated in a Focus Group that discussed toilets which I wrote about on my blog. Yesterday, I was asked to participate in a group that discussed soft drinks!

A major soft drink manufacturer wanted to know what people thought about their packaging for a new product they hope to introduce to the market. While I don't think I should divulge the product here, I will tell you a little about what we talked about. Maybe after the product is introduced, I'll let you know what the product was at that time.

We were shown various cans of the soft drink and asked what our impressions were of them. They had different colors schemes, different fonts for the name of the product and different designs. We were also asked which cans made the most sense based on the way the product will be marketed.

Surprisingly of the 7 people we had testing the product, we all changed our minds on which can design worked best after we heard about the marketing concept. We did not like the design when we simply had to choose which design looked best to us not having heard the concept. But after hearing the marketing concept, our intitial choices did not seem to match what they were trying to portray with the marketing! Interesting!

We all did not like the color scheme of our final selection initially. It just did not do anything for us. But after considering how the product was going to be marketed and also after taste-testing the product, we all agreed that our "loser" choice made the most sense for the product! It was a 180 degree turnaround!

The product itself was actually very good. It did not taste too sweet nor did it taste like a diet drink. It did not leave as much of an after-taste like a diet drink does. It has more calories than a diet drink, but substantially less than a non-diet drink. Overall, we all thought the product was a winner and we could see ourselves buying the product in the future.

It will be interesting to see the product finally on store shelves to see if what we picked is what the company finally choses to package the product.

I enjoy participating in focus groups. You get to see new products before they hit the market and you get to express your thoughts about it which could change the way a product is presented to the marketplace. And, they pay you for it too! That's always a plus!