The late Larry King was a legendary interviewer who made his guests feel like they were having a chummy conversation on his back porch instead of on air. Marketing and public affairs professionals would be wise to emulate his technique.
King was a veteran broadcaster who survived 25 years on CNN as a talk-show host. His goal in interviews was to entertain an audience. But his interviewing skills can be applied to make quantitative and qualitative research projects more productive.
The source of King’s success, by his own admission, was unquenchable curiosity. And, he developed the discipline to ask simple, direct questions that got his guests talking. “If I’m talking, I’m not learning,” King said.
Curiosity and discipline are essential qualities of the kind of research that informs effective marketing campaigns and compelling public affairs messaging.
Curious people want information. “I went into interviews to learn,” King said. “If I thought I knew all the answers beforehand, I wouldn’t have been much of an interviewer.” Often his questions yielded unexpected answers. When has asked Frank Sinatra why he didn’t appear on talk-shows, the aging crooner replied, “No one invites me.” When he asked Richard Nixon what he thought when he saw the Watergate complex, the former President blurted, “I’ve never stepped inside the Watergate.”
Disciplined researchers know how to ask questions that fetch quality information or launch valuable conversations. King viewed his job as a “conduit between my guests and my audience”. He wanted to spark engrossing conversations, exactly what focus group facilitators seek to do.
King posed uncomplicated questions and usually got straightforward responses. Complicated, multi-part questions are a classic mistake found in many research surveys. Convoluted questions make interpreting answers difficult because you don’t know what part of the question the answer addresses. Confidence in findings is eroded.
King was proud to call himself a broadcaster first and foremost. He didn’t view his job as interviewer as a bully pulpit to share his views. Avoiding bias, intended or unintended, in survey questions or in focus group facilitation are important to avoid skewed, and consequently unusable, findings.
Timing is important. While King didn’t aim to create breaking news, he did focus on newsmakers. He strove for diverting, not divisive interviews. Substitute “informative” for “diverting” and you have a solid formula for research projects. Timing is important so topics are top-of-mind for respondents.
Disciplined researchers know how to ask questions that fetch quality information or launch valuable conversations. King viewed his job as a “conduit between my guests and my audience”. He wanted to spark engrossing conversations, exactly what focus group facilitators seek to do.
King was criticized and satirized for asking softball questions. It was more strategic than safe. Asking someone about their favorite ice cream flavor, for him, was a way to break the ice in an interview and often an avenue to streams of information that standard questions would never unleash. His approach applies to research, where easing into heavy questions gives respondents a chance to settle into an interview.
King’s popularity was in an era when other channels aired iconic sitcoms like “Cheers” or “Seinfeld”, a reminder people are interested in listening to interesting people talk off-script. That should be the attitude of organizational executives. You can learn by listening, even if you think you know the answers. The words people use and the insights they share are the rich raw material of key messages, advertising approaches or policy arguments.
