My colleague Joe Sharlip just wrote an interesting piece about how friction uncovers insights when he conducts workshops with management teams to develop brand strategies.  This got me thinking: the same thing happens when conducting focus groups and other market research: some of the most valuable insights are uncovered when participants contradict themselves or disagree with each other.

Some examples:

• During a focus group, I asked a customer to explain to a non-customer what they like about the product being discussed.  When the customer described a specific feature of the product, the non-customer said, “when you put it that way, of course I’d be interested.”  We thus uncovered an important marketing angle for the product.

• I find that research participants tend to initially give “politically correct” answers to questions, but when given the opportunity, they will later contradict themselves and tell the truth.  For example, in an interview about retirement investing; the participant initially said he had put money aside for retirement every month for decades.  Later in the interview, when I mentioned “other people” who had difficulties saving consistently, he admitted to having the same challenge and we had a discussion about the barriers to saving on a regular basis.  That interview not only provided valuable information about the challenges of disciplined savings; it also gave us insight into some people’s attitudes that they should be saving and their embarrassment when they don’t.

In general, we always try to notice discrepancies, and then (politely) delve into them.  Do people say they love a commercial but they can’t remember the product being advertised?  Why is that?  Did people like a product at the beginning of the discussion and dislike it later (or vice versa)?  What made them change their minds?

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Sources: “Want to Uncover Hidden Brand Insights? Create Some FRICTION!” Mothership blog, 11/5/14; Bureau West research