Jack Williams has been asked to play a twenty-something father of four (he’s a 47-year-old bachelor), a Republican (he’s a staunch Democrat) and a beer-guzzling construction worker (his drink of choice is Chardonnay).

No, Williams is not an actor he’s a regular participant in market research focus groups.

There are thousands of people like Williams participating in focus groups each week in Los Angeles, and for some of them, it’s become something like a full-time job. Many are ready and willing to pretend to be someone they’re not in order to fit into the “target demographic” sought after by the marketer conducting the research. And those who conduct focus groups seem more than willing to look the other way.

As more and more focus-group testing is done and more participants are needed, it’s more difficult especially in the booming economy to find participants who fit the specified demographic profile.

“The problem we’ve encountered, particularly in this economy, is you can’t get people in the groups,” said Murray Kalis, creative director at Pacific Palisades-based ad agency Kalis & Savage, which uses focus groups extensively. “Particularly if you’re trying to find Internet users, or women with household incomes of $80,000 with advanced degrees they’re not willing to sit in focus groups. If you’re trying to find Jaguar owners, you’re not going to find them.”

Because Williams is youthful-looking enough to play 30 or younger and knows how to answer the recruiters’ questions, he can get into a wide variety of focus groups.

Some of the larger market research companies have extensive databases of focus-group participants, and won’t accept someone who has already been on a recent panel or whose personal information doesn’t fit the target group. But that’s no problem for Williams.

He just uses a false identity, with a different address and phone number. In the rare instances the market research facility asks for identification, he’ll say he was in such a hurry to get there on time, he left it in his car. And the fact is, many market research firms don’t keep databases or ask for I.D. and some even encourage people to lie.

“I can honestly say I’ve lied like my life depended on it to get the 50 or 60 bucks they were passing out to comment on their TV show or whatever they were shilling,” said Williams, who is a screenwriter. “Frankly, when the person who’s supposed to be qualifying you encourages you to just ‘tell them you’re 26 and a father of toddlers and a vegetarian’ in order that they get their own $5 cut let’s just say the whole enterprise doesn’t exactly breed scrupulous integrity.”

High cost for marketers

Focus-group fudging is a practice that enrages the marketers who are paying for accurate research about consumer needs and desires. After all, if you’re trying to find out what 40-year-old businessmen who make more than $100,000 a year are looking for in a luxury car, you’re probably not going to get accurate information from a starving actor in his mid-20s.

“They’re liars. And they’re lazy,” said the head of one large L.A. ad agency, referring to some of the companies that recruit focus-group participants. “They’re under incredible pressure to deliver 10 people for a group tonight, and they’ll hint to the people, and say, ‘Your income is too high for our target, are you sure about that?’ They’ll invite the same people back again, week after week.”

It’s a tough job getting the hundreds of people who are being used on focus groups on any given day in Los Angeles, especially when there aren’t many reasons why someone would do it unless they’re out of work, or strapped for cash.

The world of market research has changed over the past 40 years, as consumers have grown more savvy about the process of marketing and advertising. Now they know their opinions are worth money.

“In the old days, (the researchers) used to go door to door, and people were happy to help General Electric and give their opinions for free,” said Dennis Rook, professor of clinical marketing at USC’s Marshall School of Business. “Now, people have less time and they’re a little more mercenary.”

Typically, a focus group will have 10 to 12 respondents. Recruiters will overbook the group by about 10 percent to make up for no-shows.

Participants are usually contacted first by phone, and asked a series of personal questions to determine whether they fit the audience target. As the participants show up on the day or night of the group, they will typically be asked to fill out a questionnaire that asks the same questions they were asked on the phone, to make sure they haven’t lied to get into the group. Anyone who is well-versed in market research knows to take notes when they’re asked the questions the first time.

Participants are generally not wanted if they have been on a panel in the past four to six months. But there are more than 30 market research companies in Los Angeles, with five or six qualifying as the largest with tens of thousands of respondents in their databases. These databases are closely guarded secrets in the industry, so they are not shared between the companies that do the work. This makes it easier for participants to jump from group to group each week, or even several times a week.

Everybody else’s problem

“Sure, there are some devious people out there who advocate changing their names and identity to get into as many groups as they can and lie. It’s pretty frowned upon,” said Mark Tobias, who started market research firm Adept Consumer Testing in 1980. “But we have a pretty sophisticated system and we try to screen out professional respondents. We screen people three times, once initially, once when they’re confirmed, then again at the facility. We also demand a legitimate photo I.D. The computer database will let us know if there is a duplicate phone number. There are only so many phone numbers that people will give.”

Such responses are fairly typical among market researchers, who often say they’re aware of the problem but it only affects their competitors.

“A lot of those bad respondents view this as a second job,” said Laura Peters, associate director of Murray Hill Center West market research facility, one of the largest in Los Angeles. “Some facilities will use those kind of people, but we don’t.”

Large research firms recruit their own focus-group participants, and tend to hold the sessions in their own offices. Smaller firms, on the other hand, will rent out a focus-group room at a large research firm, and also pays that large firm to handle the participant recruiting. Sometimes, market research firms, both large and small, rely on independent contractors to handle their recruiting. And it is these outside contractors who get much of the blame for attracting inappropriate group members.

“It’s important for those of us who are doing this to only deal with field facilities that we (believe) are giving us good, clean recruits,” said Iris Sroka, a co-founder of Hypothesis Group, a small downtown L.A.-based research firm. “If we’re uncomfortable, we won’t go there. I don’t think I use five or six of them in the area.”

Faking is standard practice

Although in-house and outsourced recruiters are not supposed to let participants know what they’re looking for, a number of participants say it’s standard practice.

Carol, a film production worker who does focus-group work when she is out of work, has been told to be in her 30s (she’s in her 40s), to be a regular viewer of a certain cable channel, and to be a cat owner (she’s not).

“If they don’t come out and say it which some of them do you get a sense for what they’re looking for,” she says. “They’ll say, ‘How old are you?’ And I’ll say, ‘What age are you looking for?’ And if they say anything between 28 and 42, I’ll say I’m that age.”

She has also been asked to say she’s married, that she works for an apparel company rather than in media (which is prohibited), and urged to say she earns a certain amount of money and has watched the cable network that was being tested, which she hadn’t.

Because the primary purpose of focus groups is for preliminary research, some say focus-group fraud isn’t such a big a problem.

“You can’t completely screen out people like that,” conceded Diane Krouse, managing director of ad agency D’Arcy Masius Benton & Bowles. “I know there are people who are professional interviewees, who want to get the money and get a sandwich and spend a few hours and talk. But you know what? They’re usually not so outside the target you’re looking for.”