If you've ever conducted groups in English Canada and Quebec, you've likely found some interesting differences in consumers' reactions to what you're testing or their views on what you're exploring.
But there's another, perhaps less obvious difference. Quebec respondents seem to genuinely like participating in focus groups.
I moderate focus groups in French and English so I
"feel" the room in both markets. In Quebec, there's
almost always one
respondent who walks up to me at the end of the session to shake my hand and say thank you. Perhaps it's a thank you for being paid to talk for an hour. Or
perhaps it's a thank you for listening to what they had to say. For giving them
an opportunity to be heard. While they clearly aren’t there to say what they
think you want them to say – and they’ll let you know if they hate the idea - Quebeckers appear to enjoy the conversation more. That’s not to say that
participants in English Canada do it only for money.
At a time when having “conversations” with consumers who are questioning their every purchase, Quebeckers seem even more keen than Canadians in English Canada to engage with marketers, even when it’s intermediated by a focus group moderator.
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