Focus Groups and Political Marketing: Science and Democracy as Axiomatic?
| Published date | 01 February 2007 |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-856x.2007.00253.x |
| Date | 01 February 2007 |
| Author | Heather Savigny |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Focus Groups and Political Marketing:
Science and Democracy as Axiomatic?
Heather Savigny
Focus groups are an established and influential way of generating public opinion data. They have
been extensively used by the British Labour Party and are more broadly associated with marketing.
Focus groups, as referred to within much of the political marketing literature and used in political
practice, are underpinned by two central but largely implicit claims: first, that the use of focus
groups is scientific; second, this claim to science is conflated with the normative assertion that focus
groups enhance the democratic process. This article renders explicit and disentangles these under-
lying assumptions that inform the theory and practice of focus groups. These theoretical concerns
are illustrated by reference to the Labour Party, in particular its modernisation process during the
build-up to the 1997 election. By separating and interrogating these basic premises two salient
issues subsequently emerge. First, it is contended that the use of focus groups, in the political
marketing literature and in political practice violates ‘scientific’ principles. Second, it is argued that
over-reliance on focus groups challenges normative claims to democracy, by confining the potential
for democratic debate to the few, rather than the many.
Introduction
Focus groups have been and are regarded by academics and practitioners alike as an
important method of identifying public opinion. Their significance has been
acknowledged within academic literature in fields such as health (Kitzinger 1994;
Smith 1995); media studies (Morrison 2003); and management (McDonald 1993;
Rook 2003). However, the remit of this article is the manner in which they have
been incorporated into contemporary politics, in academic debate and in practice.
Focus groups have been viewed as an essential means through which political
actors can establish their electoral campaign strategy (Scammell 1995, 274). They
are widely used in America; Reagan used focus groups to pre-test campaign slogans
(Niffenegger 1989) and Clinton regularly tested policy ideas on focus groups
(Morris 1999; Newman 1999). In the UK the Labour Party has also made extensive
use of this method to inform its electoral behaviour (Gould 1998; Wring 2003 and
2005). Collecting public opinion data in this way is intimately linked with the wider
trend of marketing politics. The marketing of politics entails applying techniques
and concepts associated with business practice to the political arena, both in the
academic literature and political practice, and focus groups are one of the methods
used in this process. For practitioners and within the literature, focus groups have
also played a crucial symbolic role: to indicate responsiveness, implying that their
use enhances the democratic process.
There has, however, to date been a lack of systematic theoretical evaluation of this
method, particularly with regard to political marketing. As a result, this article
doi: 10.1111/j.1467-856x.2007.00253.x BJPIR: 2007 VOL 9, 122–137
© 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Political Studies Association
critically evaluates the claims made as a consequence of the use of focus groups in
practice, and as a means within the literature of supporting normative claims in
respect of the benefits to democracy of using marketing. It is argued here that the
use of focus groups is underpinned by two central premises: (a) that they are a
‘scientific’ method and as such can be used to generate scientific data; and (b) that
to employ them is desirable as this is beneficial for democracy. These two implicit
and guiding assumptions will be rendered explicit so that the underlying tensions
and contradictions can be explored. It is contended that while focus groups have
utility and value as a method of collecting data in respect of public opinion, their
current usage and application within much of the literature and in political practice
serves to undermine their ideals.
The article begins by locating the use of focus groups in political practice as part of
the broader process of the marketing of politics. It shows how the political market-
ing literature justifies and incorporates the focus group method, as both normative
and scientific. As such, the significance and dominance of scientific approaches in
marketing and politics are then discussed. The historical development of focus
groups is then outlined and it is demonstrated how approaches to science and focus
groups have become conflated, within the political marketing literature and prac-
tice. The normative and positive claims for the democratic process that are made,
underpinned by this usage, are then highlighted and evaluated. The article con-
cludes by considering the symbolic function that focus groups, perform within
political marketing literature and practice, in relation to both science and democ-
racy. It is argued that in violating the principles of ‘scientific’ research, claims to a
scientific method are difficult to substantiate. Further focus groups have the poten-
tial to undermine democracy, symbolically providing the perception that voters are
listened to and engaged with, while in practice a minority of voters may have the
potential to influence political actors, and this occurs outside of the electoral arena.
Marketing and Politics
The use of marketing in politics is nothing particularly new (Wring 1996 and 2005).
However, changing contextual factors (including for example realigning/dealigning
voter bases; increasingly sophisticated media and communications technologies)
have contributed to an increasingly marketised political environment. As parties
employ marketing techniques to achieve their goal, i.e. winning an election, so the
identification of public opinion is an essential element in informing contemporary
electioneering. While surveys and databases are used to identify, collate and store
data in respect of public opinion, focus group use has accelerated in the last decade.
This, in part, can also be attributed to broader questions in respect of the reliability
and perceived inadequacies of other methodologies (for example following 1992
where the polls famously ‘got it wrong’ (Moon 1999; Sparrow and Turner 2001)),
and the need to revive credibility in respect of opinion research.
An academic literature has emerged to describe the proliferation of the applica-
tion of marketing to politics. The political marketing literature has imported
models from the management marketing literature to chart contemporary political
behaviour in America (e.g. O’Shaughnessy 1990; Newman 1994) and Britain (e.g.
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© 2007 The Author. Journal compilation © 2007 Political Studies Association
BJPIR, 2007, 9(1)
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