Focus groups are a waste of precious time

Richard Murray’s Private View struck a chord with the creatives here at WFCA Integrated (DW 24 November) as we increasingly spend our time, energy and dwindling sense of humour battling with focus groups and corporate boards who break out in a sweat when presented with a design/ branding approach that does not resemble a “most obvious” route.

Focus groups are a waste of time when guinea pigs behave like sheep. Their function is to remind us of approaches to avoid (preferably the ones they pointed out they liked). Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that if the design approach differs from their competitors, it invariably ends up back to the drawing board.

Visionary single-mindedness seems to be a rare commodity these days. Good marketing, branding and design is many a time the result of a despot.

Fabien Ho

Graphic designer

WFCA Integrated

fabien@wfca.co.uk