Focus Groups Need to Die
Ernest Hemingway was fond of saying:
“Just write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know".
OK Ernie … here goes nothing.
Focus groups are pure BullCrap!
Nothing more than expensive exercises in executive-level navel-gazing. Conducted by fat cat suits who seek data-driven validation for marketing mediocrity.
The entire interweb will either rejoice in agreement or recoil in utter horror. Did one of the most sacred cows in marketing just get ruthlessly skewered and butchered by a few sharp keyboard strokes? You’re damn right it did!
Dating back to the days of Shakespeare, there is zero empirical evidence to support the existence of focus groups. In all of recorded human history, not one focus group has ever created a legend. When business leaders rely on focus groups, they admit a lack of courage of their creative convictions. Wal-Mart is the latest example. The company Sam built, just spent over $1 million dollars on a bolder and brighter logo refresh. Focus groups signed off on this just like they did a year ago when the City of Calgary, Alberta spent $4.8 million dollars and consulted 129 organizations to rebrand itself as “The Blue Sky City”. So why would organizations like the biggest retailer in the world and Canada’s Stampede City pay good money for exorbitant excrement?
Giving people what they want is commerce. Doing what you want, trusting instincts and common sense is art. Get the art right and commerce flows like an onrushing River of Dreams to the Houses of the Holy.
Fear not friends. Hope is on the horizon with a courageous leader who dared to say a resounding NO to focus groups, on-line surveys, Grammarly and all forms of analytic-based consumer pandering. His name is Michael. He has successfully rowed the branding boat ashore with swashbuckling style in a cut-throat, uber competitive industry. Discover how Liquid Death took on all comers and reveal why Focus Groups Need To Die on Leaders & Legends.
“First, we kill all the focus groups””
According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, there are 2,735 bottled water companies in America. Given the proliferation of H20 providers, an entrepreneur would have to be completely insane, bonkers and bat-sh*t crazy to think they can enter that overcrowded market as a start-up and win.
Turns out, Michael Cessario is that brand of crazy. Been there. Has the t-shirt.
The way Michael saw it, he could seize on the opportunity to thumb his nose at the traditional bottled water industry. One that would kick conventional marketing in the A$$ and generate a hard-core fan base. Before they even had the product ready to be packaged and shipped, Michael and his team began with a story. One that would let the entire world see what they were up to. You read that correctly. Prior to product being loaded on trucks and delivered to store shelves, there was a compelling Signature Story on Facebook promoting Liquid Death.
Commercial success is fleeting.
Great art endures for ages.
Artists like Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Picasso, Dylan, Elton, Led Zeppelin, Norman Lear, Larry David, Cyndi Lauper, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield and Michael Cessario don't compromise. Artists refuse to prioritize money over their need to express their inner vision and perspective. By definition, artists are determined to create their own undeniable, unmistakeable ‘Category of One’. On the other hand, focus groups are just another cog in a giant bureaucratic wheel. Safe, corporate environments where people with impressive titles and designer wardrobes can feel important and productive while doing very little work of any real value.
In a focus group, not one person dares to venture out to the skinny part of any branch. But, that’s where you find the fruit. Once a true artist has the guts to grab that tasty fruit and vigorously shake the tree, a plentiful bounty falls to earth. Only then do commoners and plebians agree. Only then will the buying public hop on board. Turns out, the brilliant, talented artist had been right all along! Michael offers a 3:22 masterclass on why this story always repeats itself. At the 2:39 mark, he also explains the inherent flaw in market research and focus groups.
Like a Rolling Stone, Stairway to Heaven, Bohemian Rhapsody, Free Bird and Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald would never have survived music industry focus groups. Money-hungry record executives hell bent and fixated on finding a hit single that clocked in at less than 3:00. The Wizard of Oz, Gone With The Wind, The Godfather, Monday Night Football, All In The Family, Sesame Street, Seinfeld and Drive To Survive all faced similar opposition in the motion picture and television industries. In a 1939 review in ‘The New Yorker’, Russell Maloney called The Wizard of Oz "a stinkeroo" and said it lacked imagination, good taste, and ingenuity. In 1970, an all-white Mississippi commission voted to ban Sesame Street because of its racially diverse cast. In 2018 when Netflix signed off on Drive To Survive, two of the higher profile teams, Ferrari and Mercedes, famously refused to participate.
Eventually they came around. Once they saw rich fruit in the form of astronomical ratings from what became the #1 soap opera in sports. Once Ferrari and Mercedes saw how they could benefit from a story-based strategy and how it could send the brand valuation of Formula One soaring into the stratosphere. Legendary automaker Henry Ford was famous for saying, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have replied, ‘faster horses’. Henry’s customers didn’t complete on-line surveys or huddle in focus groups indicating they wanted safer horses or more comfortable buggies. What they really wanted was speed. They wanted to get from Saginaw to Detroit faster. In similar fashion, Liquid Death drinkers didn’t need to be polled or surveyed to know some people would say “hell yeah” and identify with a brand that made pure mountain water for head-banging ‘cool kids’.
And while we’re at it, let’s get Ozzy Osbourne to warn those kids!
Michael Cessario and Liquid Death broke with all conventions. They turned a ‘dumb name’, a Facebook post and a highly differentiated point-of-view into a water brand currently worth upwards of $1.4 billion dollars. He did by refusing to blend in with the crowd and drown in the sea of sameness.
THREE THINGS TO MULL OVER A CAN OF LIQUID DEATH:
1. Extraordinary vision and brilliant ideas will always be crushed when leaders feel the need to achieve consensus. If an idea is strong enough, it will always be derailed be ‘Nervous Nellies’; consensus seekers who default to diluting or ‘watering down’ any initiative that qualifies as truly BOLD. They don’t want to rock that status quo boat too hard for fear of getting wet.
2. Real leaders DON’T WAIT. They have a strong bias for grabbing initiative by the throat. Waiting and demanding more data and research means you are not taking action. No action = no value.
3. Real breakthroughs only happen when leaders with stones TAKE RISKS.
Each of the featured stories through 12 chapters of BIG LITTLE LEGENDS profiled leaders who saw risk as part of the job. They didn’t turn to committees or focus groups when it came to creating ‘Pawn Stars’, The Savannah Bananas, Raptor Mining in Edmonton, Alberta or ‘Canada’s Most Notorious City’ in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. When Ken MacLeod believed the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra should appear on global stages, very few in my home province thought the idea had any merit. Now that those kids have performed in different parts of the world, many people have noticed their good work, including Dan Brown, composer and author of the Da Vinci Code. When West Shore Home launched their Emmy-Award winning West Shore For Warriors series, they didn’t sit down and try and rig algorithms and game the system. They just demonstrated courage in living out their own values – regardless of what any critics may say about this segment from a veteran who once gave orders to a private named Elvis Presley when they were both serving in Germany.
What’s stopping you from ‘murdering your own thirst’?
What’s standing in the way of creating and sharing your own art?
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”
p.s… Anyone can name the lead singer or lead guitarist of a famous band. It takes a real fan to know the entire lineup of everyone who ever performed with Deep Purple or Black Sabbath. That also holds true in the automotive world where the names of Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford and Lee Iacocca are synonymous with fame and success. Rarely does a head designer or engineer get appropriate kudos for being the artist who created vehicles that would shift the landscape of the automotive industry. Today we tip our hat to Hal Sperlich who passed away January 20th at age 95. The man who created the Ford Mustang and the Chrysler Mini Van was constantly ahead of his time and pushing number-crunching executives to think different.
p.p.s…. To explore the depth of what Michael Cessario has created with Liquid Death, this is an excellent podcast to become inspired.
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