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And because researchers often use a small sample size in a specific setting,it's hard to generalize their results.The findings that researchers do reach from focus groups are often tested through experiments and data gathering.Those put numbers on questions like how many potential customers there are and what price they'd be willing to pay.This part of the process changes as technology evolves.But focus groups have remained largely the same for decades.Perhaps when it comes to the big, important questions,there's no substitute for people genuinely interacting with each other.

But although they can provide valuable insight,focus groups do have their limitations,and one of the main ones is that the simple act of observing something can change it.This principle is called observer interference.The answers participants give are likely to be affected by the presence of the researchers,social pressure from the rest of the group,or simply knowing that they're taking part in a focus group.

The idea is that this can reveal useful information about the participant's feelings that traditional questions might not get to.Beyond these basics,many variations are possible.A focus group may have two or more moderators perhaps taking opposite sides on a question,or a researcher might be hidden in the focus group unknown to other participants to see how their answers can be influenced.And the whole process may also be observed by researchers through a one-way mirror.

First, companies recruit between six and ten participants according to specific criteria that meet their research objectives. They could be mothers of children between five and seven,or teenagers planning to buy a new phone in the next three months.This is often done through professional recruiters who manage lists of people who've agreed to participate in focus groups for payment or other rewards.During a session, participants are asked to respond to various prompts from the group moderator,like sharing their opinions on a certain product,or their emotional reactions to an advertisement.They may even be asked to do seemingly unrelated tasks,like imagining brands as animals in a zoo.

For example, early focus groups found that contrary to popular opinion at the time,wives often had more influence than their husbands when choosing which car to buy,so Chrysler shifted gears by marketing cars directly to women.And Dr. Dichter himself conducted focus groups for Mattel to learn what girls wanted in a doll.The result was the original Barbie doll.So how does a focus group work?

It couldn't tell marketers what percentage of people buy a certain product or brand,but it could tell them more about the people who do,their reasoning for doing so,and even the unconscious motivations behind those reasons.Rather than providing definite conclusions for business and sales,focus groups would be used for exploratory research,generating new ideas for products and marketing based on deeper understanding of consumer habits.

Instead of polling large numbers of people with straightforward questions and quantifiable answers,the researchers conducted in-person interviews,sometimes with small groups,engaging them in more open discussions.Later, this method was picked up by the advertising industry with the help of consultants,like Austrian-born psychologist Ernest Dichter,who first coined the term focus group.This new technique was a type of qualitative research focused on the nature of people's preferences and thoughts

Why do we buy certain products or choose certain brands?This is the sort of question advertisers have always asked,and there are no easy answers.However, there is a handy tool that helps companies explore this and similar questions,and it's called the focus group.Until the 1940s, market research was often quantitative using things like sales figures and customer polls to track consumption. But this changed during World War Sociologists Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld set out to learn how unprecedented exposure to wartime propaganda was affecting the public.

When you look at it this way,the paradox of unanimity isn't actually all that paradoxical.Unanimous agreement is still theoretically ideal,especially in cases when you'd expect very low odds of variability and uncertainty,but in practice,achieving it in situations where perfect agreement is highly unlikely should tell us that there's probably some hidden factor affecting the system.Although we may strive for harmony and consensus,in many situations, error and disagreement should be naturally expected.And if a perfect result seems too good to be true,it probably is.

From 1993-2008,the same female DNA was found in multiple crime scenes around Europe,incriminating an elusive killer dubbed the Phantom of Heilbronn.But the DNA evidence was so consistent precisely because it was wrong.It turned out that the cotton swabs used to collect the DNA samples had all been accidentally contaminated by a woman working in the swab factory.In other cases, systematic errors arise through deliberate fraud,like the presidential referendum held by Saddam Hussein in 2002,which claimed a turnout of 100% of voters with all 100% supposedly voting in favor of another seven-year term.

In fact, a 1994 study found that up to 48% of witnesses tend to pick the wrong person out of a lineup,even when many are confident in their choice.Memory based on short glimpses can be unreliable,and we often overestimate our own accuracy.Knowing all this,a unanimous identification starts to seem less like certain guilt,and more like a systemic error,or bias in the lineup.And systemic errors don't just appear in matters of human judgement.

we should also expect varied distribution.If you toss a coin one hundred times,you would expect to get heads somewhere around 50% of the time.But if your results started to approach 100% heads,you'd suspect that something was wrong,not with your individual flips,but with the coin itself.Of course, suspect identifications aren't as random as coin tosses,but they're not as clear cut as telling apples from bananas, either.

So it's natural to think that more consensus is a good thing.And up until a certain point, it usually is.But sometimes, the closer you start to get to total agreement,the less reliable the result becomes.This is called the paradox of unanimity.The key to understanding this apparent paradox is in considering the overall level of uncertainty involved in the type of situation you're dealing with.If we asked witnesses to identify the apple in this lineup, for example,we shouldn't be surprised by a unanimous verdict.But in cases where we have reason to expect some natural variance,

Imagine a police lineup where ten witnesses are asked to identify a bank robber they glimpsed fleeing the crime scene.If six of them pick out the same person,there's a good chance that's the real culprit,and if all ten make the same choice,you might think the case is rock solid,but you'd be wrong.For most of us, this sounds pretty strange.After all, much of our society relies on majority vote and consensus,whether it's politics,business,or entertainment.

By understanding these codes,and how they work together to subconsciously change the way you think,feel and act towards products and ideas,you'll be aware of these techniques and able to identify their impact on you.One of the most powerful advertising mediums in the world is word of mouth.If you've ever recommended a product or movie, a service, or even a video online,then you've played your part in passing the message.So soak all this information up.Recognize how the family tree of technical codes works on you, and those around you, to make an impact Find excellent examples,and spread the word.

And Technical Codes, Junior has three sons:Camera Angles, Framing and Lighting.For these boys, it's all about how the camera is placed,how objects, people and places are shot,and what we see on screen -- or just as importantly, what we don't see.When the camera is placed high above the subject,it makes you look small, insignificant and powerless.And the reverse is also true, when the camera is below.So is this video trying to manipulate you to buy something?Yes, an idea.The idea that understanding the relationship between technical codes and the role they play in shaping your understanding of the world around us through the media we consume is fun and interesting.Is it trying to make you feel a certain way?Absolutely.Every image, every word,has been carefully crafted to work together to make you feel positive about the idea that you need to be educated to engage with what you read,watch and listen to in movies,TV shows, magazines and on the Internet

Have you noticed how many times I've said the word you?You should feel like it's directed specifically at you, and only you,that it's addressing your needs and desire to learn about your world.If I tell you that all the cool, fresh and hip people are buying a new drink or wearing a particular brand,the buzzwords new,fresh or freemake the product seem more interesting and appealing.If I wrap that product or idea in a simple phrasethat's easy to remember and becomes part of your everyday speech,then every time you hear or say those few words,your brain connects them to the product.So Just Do It, Think Different,and Enjoy the power of the catchphrase.

This branch of the family is all about representation.Red represents hot or stop or danger, depending on its context.So if you see a red light above a yellow and a green light on a pole above the road,you know by this context that the light represents stop.Written Codes has three sons:You and Only You, Buzzwords and Catchphrase.These guys are all about saying a lot with a little,or planting a word in your subconscious that triggers a response whenever you hear or read it.

If we add a crescent moon shape,and a circle with a line on it in front,the two lines now have a context,a relationship to their surroundings,and are magically revealed as the letter T.By adding additional information around the code,we've changed its context, and therefore given it a concrete meaning.Let's meet the family.Technical Codes, Senior has three sons:Symbolic Codes, Written Codes and Technical Codes, Junior.Symbolic Codes has three sons:Symbolic Color, Symbolic Objects and Symbolic Animals.

Secondly, codes are made meaningful by their context.We can't fully interpret or decipher a code until we see how it relates to other signs and symbols.Look at these two intersecting lines.Without any context, things around the code to help you understand or make meaning from it,it's hard to know exactly what these lines represent.They could be a cross, symbolizing religion,an add sign, symbolizing a mathematical concept,the letter T from the alphabet,or they could just be two lines intersecting.

A set of codes and conventions that work together to make you feel happy, angry, afraid, excited.To make you want to buy a particular product --a refreshing drink, a new phone.To style your hair a certain way.To cheer for the hero or boo the villain.Welcome to the family tree of technical codes.So what constitutes a code?First of all, it has to be recognized by all who read it.Imagine a busy city where motorists don't know how to read the traffic signals.We all have to know red equals stop,green means go, for the system to work.Otherwise it would be chaos.

Every movie you've ever seen,every TV show, every magazine,every time you surf the Internet,you're absorbing information,a bit like a sponge absorbs water.The words on the screen, the images,the colors, the sounds, the angle of the camera,every detail is designed to make you think,act or feel a certain way.Your brain is subconsciously decoding images and sounds,and just by being alive today,by interacting with and reading all these different types of media,you're already an expert at decoding and understanding these hidden messages.