Focus Groups – To Do or Not To?

Focus Groups – To Do or Not To?

Focus groups are so tempting to companies who see them as an inexpensive way of doing research – something they can NEVER be. And those who don’t want to acknowledge this fact will stop reading here – and may have plenty of company, particularly among focus group companies/moderators. Truth-seekers and dedicated researchers, read on….

What the hey is a focus group?

Focus groups are a form of qualitative research– often in preparation for QUANTITATIVE research. Here’s is a table I’ve constructive regarding some differences.

	QUALITATIVE – Focus Groups	QUANTITATIVE – Survey Research
PURPOSE	Explore ideas and issues Get preliminary information Formulate hypothesis about problems. Construct a questionnaire for a survey.	Test hypotheses. Answer specific research questions. Help quantify the problem by collecting numerical data upon which statistical analyses can be performed
TYPES OF DATA COLLECTED	Richly detailed responses to the usually open-ended questions of a moderator/interviewer. Observational data from psychologically sophisticated moderators	Consumer responses to a carefully-constructed questionnaire Consumer responses which can be coded numerically Consumer responses which can be easily compared with one another and categorized by demographics Potentially generalizable quantitative data
RESULTS	In-depth understanding of individual processes. Numbers which are descriptive of the group (but not generalizable) Discovery of ideas to be tested in quantitative research	Statistical analyses which may be generalizable to a larger target population Potentially accurate predictions along with the accuracy of such

More specifically, focus groups usually consist of eight to ten people who are brought to a research facility based on certain qualifications. Telefocus groups (via telephone conferencing) and Internet focus groups are becoming popular and can be equally effective if video (allowing visual/non-verbal information) is included.

When to use focus groups….

In the initial phases testing

advertising copy
marketing promotions
positioning products or services
new concepts for a product or service
usability of a product or service

When NOT to use focus groups….

to make a final, critical decision
as a substitute for a survey – instead find a way to do a less expensive survey (shorter, smaller sample) – get many bids
when you want statistics/probabilities (NOTE: my focus group reports will usually contain some percentages but only as a measure of that particular group; results are never generalizable beyond this.)
to explore issues which are personal to individuals – that is, topics about which people will not want to discuss within a group (In this case, I would recommend Individual Interviews — possibly only by telephone or an even more distant such as email, but guaranteeing confidentially/anonymity in writing)
to make pricing decision
to validate corporate decisions for which you need support!
when company employees are serving as moderators!

Next Blog “Innovation vs. Creativity”… Coming soon