Group Psychology and Consumer Panels Part 2

In the last article we looked at how group psychology may affect a panel's ability to provide you with interesting information. Companies have been using panels for years – so clearly they have some benefit – but it still stands to reason that you may not be getting the most from your consumer panels, and if you're missing out on great ideas it may affect your survey research. So there is a need to try to improve the likelihood of finding interesting information from a panel. One potential but unproven idea is as follows.

We know that surveys reduce the effects of group psychology because they are taken in private when group psychology will play less of a role. Traditionally, however, surveys are used to research information after consumer panels have been completed. What if a qualitative survey was used on each individual panel member before the panel begins.

If you need to make a presentation to the panel, you can use technology instead (like recorded video) and have the individual watch the recording and place their thoughts or ideas into comment boxes within the survey. This will give them a chance to brainstorm without the influence of others and potentially get you some interesting and creative ideas or thoughts. Then, after they have provided their thoughts individually, you can move the panel together and start discussing the thoughts they placed in their comment sheets.

You can ask people to elaborate on their thoughts and discuss them or bring up the points you found interesting/unique and see if anyone has any thoughts they want to add. This way you still get the benefits of brainstorming, but you don't risk inhibiting any initial creativity that may have benefited your company. The conversation will flow based on more ideas (because you can change topics to other ideas people had rather than allowing a single idea to dominate the conversation) and you still have the opportunity to open the door for discussion, because the thoughts will be openly discussed by the panel.

This idea is unproven, and it may or may not work or have any effect. But if group psychology really is a concern with consumer panels, then the idea of starting every panel with a survey that gathers creative thoughts before moving it to a public room could be advantageous. It may be something worth experimenting with before your next panel.