Blonde Productions Group

What makes a magazine inviting to pick up and worthwhile to read?

Blonde Productions Group completed two focus groups in October for a national women’s magazine that focuses on healthy living, relationships and prosperity.

Two groups of 10 women each participated. Ranging from their 20s through 70s, the participants reviewed four issues of the quarterly publication prior to meeting jointly. Discussions were facilitated by Nancy Clark of Blonde Productions Group.

The purpose of the focus groups was to ascertain whether the publication’s original intent was being achieved, according to reader perceptions. Other than a focus group, the publisher had no real way to formally assess readers’ responses to their efforts. Sure, subscription numbers are a telling way to determine whether a publication is hitting the mark, but that takes years to tally and requires an advertisement investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Studies show that people will register a complaint more frequently than a compliment and that complaints travel nine times faster than positive reviews. In a competitive publishing world, the focus group findings can be used to exponentially improve the attraction, reach and results of the publication. Now, rather than too late.

Clark guided the two focus groups through the publication, recording participant’s comments and input. She then assessed that data comparatively, drilling down to the common denominators and differences between the two groups. Finally, Clark was able to prioritize suggestions with an overlay of how the publication could use the data to net ownership of market share.

Often people limit their thinking about marketing to the front-end contact with customers, clients and buyers of their service or product. The fact is that customer retention (in this case, reader retention) is less expensive than it is to attract new customers.

Apply this to your own business, whatever that might be, by asking customers and clients:

• How did you find out about us in the first place?
• What can we do to help you?
• How can we improve?

Remember to look the customer in the eyes when asking these questions. Most people have become desensitized to the inquiry “How are you?” The auto-responder is, “Fine.” Business owners have to be brave to ask customers what it is they’re doing best as a business or what could be improved within their business operations. Some of the feedback can be painful. Realize that you won’t know what to improve upon if you don’t ask for customer input.

Hire Blonde Productions Group to perform your Focus Group and get feedback that will help you do business better in the future. Contact nancy@blondeproductionsgroup.com for details on customizing a focus group to gather data on your enterprise.