getting focus
Pepsi, Redbull and Snapple crash the campus party you've been hosting, who are they and describe them to me. Pepsi, well he's yer average joe, nice guy kinda flashy. Snapple is a teacher, a soccer mom probably, she's like going back to school. Redbull is the freak, a piano organ player that studies kungfu. That's the kind of focus group sessions we had last night in the lab. Some great comparisons of company brands talked about on an descriptor sense of them. If Pepsi was on a flight next to you, what would he be like, or is he a she? LOL. Great stuff. It really gets people talking and all kinds of bits of data come out as a result. I guess the term for this kind of work is data mining, you're constantly tapping in the conversation dishing out more nuggets of info. Pepsi is single, flashy, he's a talker, has money, but yer average Joe. We're profiling a brand what is that brand, what does it do, how does it look, what does it talk about, what does it say, what's to wear to a party, what parties does it go to, is it single etc.. I really enjoy groups like this, the questions, the answers I love branding. Two groups, one young and old yielded as expected to an extent different results. The young folks had no trouble ripping on the brands and dishing out the comments, the older folks were a bit more weary about hammering a brand.
One thing I like about focus groups is that for lunch, typically the client gets excellent italian food from Sarfanio's in the North Market. Oh man, I loooove their garlic butter and bread. I could eat that alll day. And their salad with their special sauce is heavenily.
Speaking of the North Market, I spend alot of time there when the weather is nice like it has been lately. It's like a little city at times, full of life. It was crazy yesterday, tons of people shuffling around. Every now and then I try something new at the market. Yesterday I tried the Sabaro Mexicana place run by an indian guy. Initally that kinda throws me off, like rednecks servin chinese, just doesnt fit the picture, possible sure, but doesnt fit. Still I went with the enchilliadada's plate and ummm twas tasty, you really cant beat black beans. On the way out I hit Jenni's ice cream. Jenni was actually running the store even. Not everyday you actually meet the owner of the place yer getting something from. I tried the Lemon Yo ice cream, wow, good lemon, and picked up a pint of Coffee ice cream. I had a 2 scoop cup of the rich chocolate and coffee there the other day, mmmmm good stuff. Its safe to say, the pint of Coffee never made it home to the freezer last night.
Today's focus groups run all day into the wee hours, well 10-11pm ish. Should be fun hopefully I'll be able to take a break and try and pint of lemon yo this time around!