I have always felt uneasy about focus groups. A small cross-section of society is shut in a room for an hour or so, and asked what they think of products, services or magazines. Big companies then base their future marketing strategies on what the small group thinks.
 
There was a good example of how this could mislead at the recent Futuresource Entertainment Summit in London last week (June 10/11). Don't get me wrong. Futuresource do good conferences and I was glad I went because I learned a lot about Tesco's future plans for home entertainment marketing. More than Tesco had planned to say, I guess. More about that later.
 
For a Focus Group on 3D, Futuresource had assembled a good cross section of six smart young-to-middle-aged professionals, all already with HD and Pay TV in their homes. Their role was to “share their reactions to the 3D TV experience and discuss their interest in bringing 3D into their homes”.
 
Their “experience” had been to watch some 3D movie and game clips on a Sony TV in the foyer, for a short while shortly before the on-stage group discussion. All the panel were seeing home 3D for the first time and predictably all their first impressions were “blown away”, “fantastic”, “phenomenal” and “overwhelmed”.
 
But they were all bright enough to have a bundle of very pertinent questions to ask.
 
What price would the sets be? How much did the glasses cost for a family of four? How would 3D work with a smaller screen? How would soaps like Eastenders look in 3D? How does 3D work for spectacle wearers, or people who have taken out their contact lenses in the evening?
 
How would home movies look? Will there be 3D camcorders?
 
Are the glasses for different sets compatible?
 
The stand-up foyer viewing was obviously not a domestic situation, so they wondered how 3D would look in a large lounge? And if, as one panellist found, watching a short clip of 3D football made her feel queasy, how many hours a week would be healthy?
 
Would it be better to wait for 3D TVs that don't need glasses?
 
Panasonic announced 3D prices months ago. By the time of conference street prices for the Sony sets had already been announced at Sony briefings in the US and London - £1800 for a 40in TV, £2200 for 46in, but with £50 extra for the infra red transmitter, and £100 each for glasses – which is £400 for a family of four, and £100 each time someone sits on a pair. (As one reviewer has already found out, the glass cracks and the LCD material shatters).
 
But no-one had told the panellists the prices, or seemed to know what was already trade knowledge; £3000 for a TV was mentioned as a guesstimate.
 
No-one had suggested to the panellists that they could get a feel for the home experience by watching the foyer screen from the side, or tilting their head a little to simulate lounging on a sofa. In each case the 3D effect is almost completely lost.
 
No-one told them that the glasses for different brands are not compatible. Or that no-glasses 3D is already possible but so expensive and inferior in definition that research leaders Philips and Sharp have put consumer marketing plans on hold.
 
No-one had explained that Panasonic has already developed home 3D camcorders and that some TVs, including Sony's, have inbuilt converters that can turn old 2D home movies and feature films into quite reasonable 3D.
 
After half an hour of this haziness all my worst suspicions about the perils of focus grouping were rock hardened. If the group is not properly briefed with available facts, the results will be skewed.

Barry Fox