What to expect from a focus group?
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 5:46 am
If you ask me what my favorite hobby is, I would have to say: people watching, which is not unusual since I am a market researcher. Observing people and their interactions with each other can be a great source of inspiration and entertainment.
Today there are tools that allow a large number of people to gather in one place: the Internet.
This has caused market research to be much more complete since using a tool to create Online Communities allows you to obtain reliable results through the interaction of a group of people, whether of the same profile, or completely different profiles.
These tools have also significantly reduced the cost of focus groups, allowing companies to do professional research without investing a lot of money.
Leaving aside technology for a moment, I remember that a few years ago I had to participate in the organization of a focus group and it was quite an experience for me.
Although I like to watch for fun, I wasn't sure what to expect. A lot of questions nepal phone number ran through my mind: Who will attend? What will I learn? What should I be observing? What is the flow of the conversation? And many more!
I was fascinated by the attendees and surprised by the way opinions were shared so openly among the group. I expected people to be more reserved, but I experienced the opposite: the group was very receptive, providing clear information on concepts as if I were talking to my best friend. While I was skeptical about how the market research would go, by the end of the day I realized the value of this type of methodologies. Learning the “why” of something can be very valuable.
What happens behind a focus group
Even with my limited involvement, I knew that the first step (as with any marketing research) was to determine the objective: What information are we seeking? How will the insights from the research be used? What do we want to discover? Once our goals were established, I learned that the next step is to choose a moderator. From here, the collaboration begins.
Logistics seem to take up an inordinate amount of time and money, once you choose the moderator/facilitator you think that's it, but no, it's amazing the little details that need to be taken care of. Needless to say, I was happy to find out that the market research manager is responsible for choosing the markets where the focus groups will be held, developing a screening questionnaire to identify qualified participants, working together to manage the recruitment process and logistics, coordinating the stimulus and communicating agreements to internal clients. Even though we got final approval, it was a relief to have a partner on board to organize everything together.
Today there are tools that allow a large number of people to gather in one place: the Internet.
This has caused market research to be much more complete since using a tool to create Online Communities allows you to obtain reliable results through the interaction of a group of people, whether of the same profile, or completely different profiles.
These tools have also significantly reduced the cost of focus groups, allowing companies to do professional research without investing a lot of money.
Leaving aside technology for a moment, I remember that a few years ago I had to participate in the organization of a focus group and it was quite an experience for me.
Although I like to watch for fun, I wasn't sure what to expect. A lot of questions nepal phone number ran through my mind: Who will attend? What will I learn? What should I be observing? What is the flow of the conversation? And many more!
I was fascinated by the attendees and surprised by the way opinions were shared so openly among the group. I expected people to be more reserved, but I experienced the opposite: the group was very receptive, providing clear information on concepts as if I were talking to my best friend. While I was skeptical about how the market research would go, by the end of the day I realized the value of this type of methodologies. Learning the “why” of something can be very valuable.
What happens behind a focus group
Even with my limited involvement, I knew that the first step (as with any marketing research) was to determine the objective: What information are we seeking? How will the insights from the research be used? What do we want to discover? Once our goals were established, I learned that the next step is to choose a moderator. From here, the collaboration begins.
Logistics seem to take up an inordinate amount of time and money, once you choose the moderator/facilitator you think that's it, but no, it's amazing the little details that need to be taken care of. Needless to say, I was happy to find out that the market research manager is responsible for choosing the markets where the focus groups will be held, developing a screening questionnaire to identify qualified participants, working together to manage the recruitment process and logistics, coordinating the stimulus and communicating agreements to internal clients. Even though we got final approval, it was a relief to have a partner on board to organize everything together.