Toy Inventor

Do you focus group your toys? Why or why not?

Asked by somatiq almost 12 years ago

I don't since I run a very small-budget company and can't throw dollars any service unless it's absolutely critical. Also, it wouldn't matter to me if my toy scored a 20% rating on focus tests or 100% because I would be very skeptical of any kind of analytic attempt to measure "fun" (just remember the movie "Big"). Focus group testing is riddled with problems and I'm sure there are tons of instances where toys, TV shows, movies, etc. focus group tested off the charts and were absolute flops commercially and I'm sure that the reverse is also true. I'm not saying that focus group testing is completely useless, I just think that people put way too much stock into numbers/analysis as opposed to looking at the overall picture before deciding to put a product to market. For example, I once read that Pepsi cola kicks the crap out of Coke in almost every blind taste test, but that Coke is far and away the top seller. Why? Because Pepsi cola might just taste much better in smaller quantities and because people might base a lot of their purchasing decisions on factors that they are completely unaware of (perhaps a large portion of this has to do with superior marketing/branding, but I'm not sure how much). Instead of worrying too much about focus group testing and results, I think it's more important for small inventors and would-be entrepreneurs to realistically assess their core market, estimate how well their product would serve that markets needs, and then figure out the level of cost and difficulty in getting that product to that market. Obviously, if you grow to become a giant company like Apple or Google, it might be very worthwhile to spend $20 million on focus group testing if it helps you to arrive at a 5% more accurate product marketing decision.