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Why do we buy certain products or choose certain brands?
为什么我们会购买特定产品或特定品牌？
This is the sort of question advertisers have always asked, and there are no easy answers.
这是广告商经常问的问题，但想要得到答案并不容易。
However, there is a handy tool that helps companies explore this and similar questions, and it's called the focus group.
然而有一种便捷的工具可以帮助公司解答这类问题，它叫焦点小组。
Until the 1940s, market research was often quantitative
20世纪40年代之前，市场调研主要是定量研究，
using things like sales figures and customer polls to track consumption.
通过使用诸如销售数据、消费者调查来追踪销量。
But this changed during World War II.
但是这在二战时发生改变。
Sociologists Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld set out to learn how unprecedented exposure to wartime propaganda was affecting the public.
社会学家罗伯特·莫顿和保罗·拉泽飞开始研究前所未有的战时宣传是如何影响大众的。
Instead of polling large numbers of people with straightforward questions and quantifiable answers,
研究者没有对大量人进行直接提问并给出量化的答案选项，
the researchers conducted in-person interviews, sometimes with small groups, engaging them in more open discussions.
研究者选择了个人访谈，有时以小组形式进行，使受访者参与到更开放的讨论中。
Later, this method was picked up by the advertising industry with the help of consultants,
这种方法随后被广告业采用，得益于咨询师的协助，
like Austrian-born psychologist Ernest Dichter, who first coined the term focus group.
例如，出生于奥地利的心理学家欧内斯特·迪希特，最先提出“焦点小组”这个概念。
This new technique was a type of qualitative research focused on the nature of people's preferences and thoughts.
这种新的方法是一种定性研究，专注于人们偏好及想法。
It couldn't tell marketers what percentage of people buy a certain product or brand,
它不能够告诉市场营销人员多少人会购买该产品或品牌，
but it could tell them more about the people who do, their reasoning for doing so,
但是能说明哪类人群会购买，以及他们购买的理由，
and even the unconscious motivations behind those reasons.
甚至是购买理由背后的无意识动机。
Rather than providing definite conclusions for business and sales, focus groups would be used for exploratory research,
相比于为商业销售提供绝对的结论，焦点小组多被用于探索性研究，
generating new ideas for products and marketing based on deeper understanding of consumer habits.
为产品本身以及营销方式提供更深刻地基于消费者习惯的理解。
For example, early focus groups found that contrary to popular opinion at the time,
比如说，早期的焦点小组发现与当时的主流观点相悖的是，
wives often had more influence than their husbands when choosing which car to buy,
对于买车决定， 妻子比丈夫的影响更大，
so Chrysler shifted gears by marketing cars directly to women.
因此克莱斯勒公司改变策略直接针对女性进行营销。
And Dr. Dichter himself conducted focus groups for Mattel to learn what girls wanted in a doll.
迪希特博士自己也为马特尔公司组织了焦点小组访谈，研究女孩们想要什么样的洋娃娃。
The result was the original Barbie doll. So how does a focus group work?
研究结果则是芭比娃娃的原形。那么，焦点小组是如何运作的呢？
First, companies recruit between six and ten participants according to specific criteria that meet their research objectives.
首先，公司会找到6-10个参与者，他们符合一定条件来满足研究目标。
They could be mothers of children between five and seven,
参与者可能是5-7岁儿童的母亲，
or teenagers planning to buy a new phone in the next three months.
或是计划在三个月内购买新手机的中学生。
This is often done through professional recruiters
这通常是由专业招聘人员完成，
who manage lists of people who've agreed to participate in focus groups for payment or other rewards.
他们联络愿意参加的人，并给予参与者酬金或其他奖励。
During a session, participants are asked to respond to various prompts from the group moderator,
讨论时，参与者被要求回应小组主持人提出的各类指示，
like sharing their opinions on a certain product, or their emotional reactions to an advertisement.
例如分享关于某产品的想法，或是对某个广告的情绪反应。
They may even be asked to do seemingly unrelated tasks, like imagining brands as animals in a zoo.
受访者或许还会被要求完成看上去毫不相关的任务，例如，将品牌想象成动物园里的动物。
The idea is that this can reveal useful information about the participant's feelings that traditional questions might not get to.
这样的讨论旨在揭示参与者感受，这些有用信息是无法通过传统的问题研究获得的。
Beyond these basics, many variations are possible.
除了基本的模式以外，还有很多其他的变式。
A focus group may have two or more moderators perhaps taking opposite sides on a question,
一个小组可能有2个及以上主持人，组内可能会形成对立双方，
or a researcher might be hidden in the focus group unknown to other participants to see how their answers can be influenced.
研究员也有可能是参与者，在其他参与者不知情的情况下，观察他们的回应如何受到影响。
And the whole process may also be observed by researchers through a one-way mirror.
研究人员可能通过单向镜观察整个过程。
But although they can provide valuable insight, focus groups do have their limitations,
尽管焦点小组研究可以提供有价值的信息，它也有一定局限，
and one of the main ones is that the simple act of observing something can change it.
主要局限之一是观察某种行为可以改变该行为。
This principle is called observer interference.
这叫做观察者干扰。
The answers participants give are likely to be affected by the presence of the researchers,
参与者给出的答案很可能由于研究者在场，
social pressure from the rest of the group, or simply knowing that they're taking part in a focus group.
或来自其他成员的社会压力，以及知道自己正在参与焦点小组而受影响。
And because researchers often use a small sample size in a specific setting, it's hard to generalize their results.
由于研究者通常选取小样本在特定场景下进行研究，其结果的推广是很困难的。
The findings that researchers do reach from focus groups are often tested through experiments and data gathering.
通过焦点小组得出的研究结果，经常需要通过实验以及数据收集来检验。
Those put numbers on questions like how many potential customers there are and what price they'd be willing to pay.
一些数字，比如，潜在消费者的数量以及他们愿意支付的价格。
This part of the process changes as technology evolves.
随着科技的发展，这一过程也发生变化。
But focus groups have remained largely the same for decades.
但几十年来，焦点小组的基本形式没变。
Perhaps when it comes to the big, important questions,
或许，在当遇到重大问题时，
there's no substitute for people genuinely interacting with each other.
没有什么能够代替人与人之间真实的交流互动。
