THE JAM^TM & THE SPIRIT OF CHOICE
You can lead a horse to water, they say, but you can't make it drink. But what if you lead young drinkers to their favorite watering holes, can you make them think? Such was the question we posed when a certain purveyor of spirits asked us to assess its vodka's standing among people under 40. And thus was born The Jam^TM.

Method
We have long known the limitations of traditional qualitative research techniques. Even the esteemed in-home one-on-one interview can feel at times more like an interrogation than the relaxing fireside chat it's meant to suggest. That in mind, we decided to talk with people not where they live but where they party. Our operating premise was simple: put groups of young men and women in familiar environments, engage them in pertinent activities (drinking), encourage them to talk among themselves, and truths will be revealed.

Results
We convened Jams in popular night spots in four US cities known for their thriving youth culture: New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle. Greenberg strategists gently steered conversations toward key cultural trends and brands, carefully noting the occurrence (or absence) of our client's name among them. Conversations were lively but focused. Follow-up discussions in single-gender focus groups helped us refine both our impression of how our client's brand fit into the lives of this particular market segment and our recommendations as to how our client could stay relevant. Not incidentally, they also reconfirmed utility of The Jam^TM as a research tool.