I came home from work last night at around 6pm and found a message on my voicemail. The message was left at about 4pm and the lady explained to me that she was calling from Nissan/Infiniti Canada. I apparently had been randomly 'selected' to participate in some sort of focus group, but it was going on at 7pm that night (3 hrs notice?) in the Yonge & Bloor area. She said that the group was not a sales pitch of any sort and was going to focus on my buying experience and my treatment as a customer. (Boy did I have a long list of things I was going to say!) BUT, I had a dinner engagement I couldn't get out of. And get this, the kicker? For 1.5 hrs of my time, they were going to give me an honourarium of $175 CASH... not some weird Nissan bucks or anything hokey (but who knows really).

I called her back to say I'd be interested in participating but tonight was just not going to work. In the end, it turns out that they were a 3rd party market research firm doing the legwork and that they were actually doing this over the course of several nights, like Dec 1, 3,4,5,7,9,10 (I'm guessing here) and that it was for different car models and approaches. I found it interesting though that even though her message said that this was NOT a sales pitch of any sort, she kept asking me on the phone if I was planning on buying a car in the next 9-12 months - LOL (no sales pitch my a$$)

Anyways, I was just curious if this was a common occurrence or if anyone had actually done it and it really was on the up and up.

Thanks,
Al

 

i didnt get the call for this but ive done 2 of these before for the same company. one was for humber college and the other was for a hotel chain. at the end of each they gave me a cheque, no problems and no sales pitch. my dad did one for chrysler and had no sales pitch and got paid without a problem right at the end. I think if they say they are a 3rd party they usually really are and you wont get te sales pitch.

 

Al, I've got some experience from the client end and consumer end of focus groups.

In my experience it is always a third party doing research focus groups. I don't know of any company that hosts one themselves. This sounds legit other than the late notice and the amount of money. The higher amount is likely to compensate for short notice however and its possible they are having difficulty finding attendees or filling cancellations. The question about buying a car in the next 9-12 months likely has more to do with the screening process. I highly doubt they are going to try and sell you a car in this format. They're looking for someone who- A. can afford a new car B. isn't showing up just for money

 

Interesting comments. yeah, I didn't mean my posting to refer to ALL focus groups, I meant in relation to Nissan/Infiniti. While they were all professional in their demeanour I did find it somewhat newbie to put out the call 3 hours before you needed someone - but that last minute cancellation thing makes sense. But now, it makes me think I didn't even make the cut and was really only second fiddle...
Al

 

yup yup ...I got the same call about 2 months back ....Was busy so discarded the whole thing ...