Focus Group

What is a Focus Group?
A focus group is a marketing research tool in which a small group of people (typically eight to twelve individuals) engages in a roundtable discussion of selected topics of interest in an informal setting. The focus group discussion is typically directed by a moderator who guides the discussion in order to obtain the group's opinions about or reactions to specific products or marketing-oriented issues, known as test concepts. While focus groups can provide marketing managers, product managers, and market researchers with a great deal of helpful information, their use as a research tool is limited in that it is difficult to measure the results objectively. In addition, the cost and logistical complexity of focus group research is frequently cited as a deterrent, especially for companies of smaller size. Nonetheless, many small businesses find focus groups to be useful means of staying close to consumers and their ever-changing attitudes and feelings. By providing qualitative information from well-defined target audiences, focus groups can aid businesses in decision making and in the development of marketing strategies and promotional campaigns.
A key factor in determining the success of focus groups is the composition of the group in terms of the participants' age, gender, and product usage. Focus group participants are generally selected on the basis of their use, knowledge, attitudes, or feelings about the products, services, or other test concepts that are the subject of the focus group. In selecting participants, the objective is to find individuals who can knowledgeably discuss the topics at hand and provide quality output that meets the specified research objectives.

Types of Focus Group
Variants of focus groups include:
Two-way focus group - one focus group watches another focus group and discusses the observed interactions and conclusion
Dual moderator focus group - one moderator ensures the session progresses smoothly, while another ensures that all the topics are covered
Dueling moderator focus group - two moderators deliberately take opposite sides on the issue under discussion
Respondent moderator focus group - one or more of the respondents are asked to act as the moderator temporarily
Client participant focus groups - one or more client representatives participate in the discussion, either covertly or overtly
Mini focus groups - groups are composed of four or five members rather than 8 to 12
Teleconference focus groups - telephone network is used
Online focus groups - computers connected via the internet are used

Online Focus Group this permit business owners and managers to directly observe group discussions without going to the time and expense of traveling to the locale in which the exercise is taking place. Using the Internet as a medium to conduct focus groups is a logical—and vastly superior—successor to videoconferencing. Videoconferencing enabled companies to conduct focus group research without incurring major business travel expenses. But equipment glitches, the logistical challenge of gathering observers at a central location, and the expense of purchasing and implementing this high-tech option made it a decidedly imperfect vehicle. But as business writer Alf Nucifora observed, "the advent of video streaming technology now means that focus groups can be observed 'live' from the comfort of one's desk. …A camera captures all the action close-up … and broadcasts the action via video streaming to an unlimited number of viewers who can watch real-time from the comfort of their desktop computers at any time, in any place." The completed focus group session can then be saved in computer-readable form for future use.
Analysts cite online focus groups as a particularly exciting development for small business owners with limited resources. Business Week noted that traditional focus group research can take several months and a great deal of expense (as much as $100,000) to complete. But growing numbers of market research firms offer online focus group research services for less than $5,000 a session, the results of which can be studied and tabulated within a matter of weeks. Still, not all business ventures are equally suited to pursue this electronic alternative. "If your customers aren't tech-savvy, or if your product relies heavily on touch and taste, you may be wiser to foot the bill for a traditional group," counseled Business Week. "But if all you require is a quick glimpse into your customers' minds, an online group could be the way to go."
Traditional focus groups can provide accurate information, and are less expensive than other forms of traditional marketing research. There can be significant costs however: if a product is to be marketed on a nationwide basis, it would be critical to gather respondents from various locales throughout the country since attitudes about a new product may vary due to geographical considerations. This would require a considerable expenditure in travel and lodging expenses. Additionally, the site of a traditional focus group may or may not be in a locale convenient to a specific client, so client representatives may have to incur travel and lodging expenses as well.
The use of focus groups has steadily evolved over time and is becoming increasingly widespread

Characteristics of Focus Group
The most common method of selecting participants for focus groups is from some type of database that contains demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle information about a large number of consumers. Such databases are available from a variety of commercial vendors. A list of desired characteristics is drawn up and matched with the database to select participants for focus groups. These characteristics may include purchase behavior, attitudes, and demographic data such as age and gender. The goal is to select participants who would likely be in the target audience for the products, services, or concepts being tested.
There is no absolute ideal in terms of the number of participants, although eight to ten participants is the norm. Different moderators are comfortable with different sizes of focus groups, but most consultants en-courage companies to utilize groups in the eight-ten person range. Supporters of this size contend that these groups are large enough to provide a nice range of perspective and make it difficult for one or two individuals to dominate the discussion (moderators should guard against such developments). Groups that include more than ten participants, however, are usually more difficult for moderators to control. Group interaction is also more difficult, and moderators have a harder time stimulating discussion. In addition, it is often more difficult for a moderator to spend time following up on the insights voiced by one individual when there are a dozen or more participants.
Focus groups that are relatively homogeneous in terms of age, gender, and product usage generally work better than mixed groups. When it is desirable to obtain data from different age and gender groups, most experts recommend scheduling a series of focus groups using homogeneous participants. They claim that group dynamics tend to become inhibited in mixed-gender or age focus groups. In addition, specific topics can be explored in greater depth when there is homogeneity among the participants with regard to usage of or attitudes toward the products being tested.

Benefit and Strength of Focus Group
Group discussion produces data and insights that would be less accessible without interaction found in a group setting—listening to others’ verbalized experiences stimulates memories, ideas, and experiences in participants. This is also known as the group effect where group members engage in “a kind of ‘chaining’ or ‘cascading’ effect; talk links to, or tumbles out of, the topics and expressions preceding it”
Group members discover a common language to describe similar experiences. This enables the capture of a form of “native language” or “vernacular speech” to understand the situation
Focus groups also provide an opportunity for disclosure among similar others in a setting where participants are validated. For example, in the context of workplace bullying, targeted employees often find themselves in situations where they experience lack of voice and feelings of isolation. Use of focus groups to study workplace bullying therefore serve as both an efficacious and ethical venue for collecting