I would suggest they do some research to see if the company still exists. This time period took place in the 1980's. The CEO was Doug Hellman.

I don't recall any big mistake incident(s). But there was a humorous incident when we had an early group (6:00 a.m.) of physicians who witnessed my boss' African Parrot, "Crumpet" get lose from his office cage, and trotted all the way to my desk while the doctors were checking in. Crumpet jumped on my typewriter keyboard and had fun clicking the keys. It slowed down the check-in process due to the doctors laughing and watching Crumpet's behavior.

We had done several focus groups for an un-named toy company to see how young children liked their new product. The parents were allowed to sit behind a two way window so they could view their children while they were being interviewed. When it was the parents time to enter the focus group (the children were taken to another room to wait for their parents) there was great bantering about whether the toy involved was age appropriat,e and the general concensus was that they were not likely to buy the toy when it came out on the market because it was too provocative to be a toy. However their children had all liked the toy and said they would definitely ask their parents to buy the product. After the focus group was over with, the toy manufacturers that were in attendance, sloughed off what the parents opinions were and said they would target their ads to the children in such a way that it would most likely override how the parents felt about this promiscuous toy. (without the parents knowledge) Most of the parents bacame angry and returned the free sample they were given to give to their children. The owner of Probe, was very disturbed that these particular clients didn't give a hoot about the parents. It was very stressful indeed to view all of this.

We had done several focus groups for an un-named toy company to see how young children liked their new product. The parents were allowed to sit behind a two way window so they could view their children while they were being interviewed. When it was the parents time to enter the focus group (the children were taken to another room to wait for their parents) there was great bantering about whether the toy involved was age appropriat,e and the general concensus was that they were not likely to buy the toy when it came out on the market because it was too provocative to be a toy. However their children had all liked the toy and said they would definitely ask their parents to buy the product. After the focus group was over with, the toy manufacturers that were in attendance, sloughed off what the parents opinions were and said they would target their ads to the children in such a way that it would most likely override how the parents felt about this promiscuous toy. (without the parents knowledge) Most of the parents bacame angry and returned the free sample they were given to give to their children. The owner of Probe, was very disturbed that these particular clients didn't give a hoot about the parents. It was very stressful indeed to view all of this.

I was able to diplomatically deflate the incident and fortunately, the clients involved, returned to our facility to do more research studies in the future. I think attitude plays a huge part in client/manager relations.

I found it fascinating to meet clients from various cultures from around the world, when they would come into our facility to market their various products via "Focus Group Studies". At that time Probe Research was located in Farmers Branch, TX. There were two "Probe Research" companies in the Dallas area. The other was a Christian based company, not a Marketing Research firm.