I have a lot of experience both in using focus groups and in participating in them. If done right, I think they are the very best sources of information about a potential audience or customer base-- far more useful than questionnaires or other survey methods. The particular value of the focus group method is that they have a tendency to come up with answers to questions you would never have thought of posing. I have also found them to produce far more useful and accurate information than other methods.

Focus groups can be abused. For example, it is relatively easy to manipulate the choice of participants and the questions to get the answers you want. But if done professionally and objectively, I find they can really surprise you.

In the case of AMICO, I think focus groups would be particularly useful in testing out sensitivity to certain terminologies and approaches to hot buttons like fair use. For example, I would test a scale of use restrictions to see where a majority of participants felt things were becoming unfair and too commercial. A lot of the marketing issues around AMICO seem to boil down to issues of what you call things, what kind of image you project, whether you seem like a friend or a faceless mob, etc., and focus groups can really flush out where the sensitivities are if they are correctly managed.

I would also make the recommendation that the actual groups be conducted by marketing professionals. They can be astonishingly skilled at eliciting answers and they can also help make sure the process stays objective and professional.

Peter Walsh, Davis Museum