Focus Groups
Focus-Group
• Most frequently used form of qualitative marketing research
• Frequently mentioned is their popularity
• Many advertising and research agencies consider them to be
the “only” explanatory research tool
• An unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group
of people
Focus Group
• Appealing approach
• Superficially direct and accessible
• Always something of a horserace, you don’t know what
information you’ll get out of them until you’ve gotten it
• A group of individual selected and assembled by researchers
to discuss and comment on, from personal experience, the
topic that is the subject of the research.
• Rely on the interaction within the group based on topics
that are supplied by the researcher.
Benefits
• Gaining insights into people’s shared understandings of
everyday life
• And the ways in which individuals are influenced by others
in a group situation
Purpose
• Can help explore or generate hypotheses and develop
questions or concepts for questionnaires and interview guides.
• used during preliminary or exploratory stages of a study,
during a study and after a programme has been completed.
Potentials and Limitations
• Enables participants to ask questions of each other as well as
to re-evaluate and reconsider their own understandings of
their specific experiences
• Forum for change, both during the meeting itself and
afterwards.
• The researcher has less control over the data produced
• Difficult to assemble.
Potentials and Limitations
• May discourage some people from trusting others with
sensitive or personal information.
• Not fully confidential or anonymous.
Organization of FGD
• Six to ten participants.
• Possessing similar characteristics or levels of understanding
about a given topic.
• Moderator – provides clear explanation of the purpose, help
people feel at ease, and facilitate the interaction.
• 90 minutes up to 2 hours.
The Proposal
• A capsule projection of how well the researcher understood
the project’s goals, and thus gives the interviewee some
protection as well
• A formal, written proposal may be replaced by a verbal
pledge
• Time and cost are the heart of the proposal
• It may tie up hours of researcher’s time, which probably will
not be compensated
Discussion Guide
• A series of memoranda to the researcher-as-moderator,
recapping the discussion areas she must be sure to cover
Scheduling Focus-Group Interviews
• Who’s choosing. What inputs are considered.
• Who’s going
• Marketplace geography
• Unpredictable contingencies
Where and When
Morning interviews
only be recruited reliably among homemakers (young children
and certain entrepreneurs, who make their own schedules, and
sometimes available then as well)
Luncheon interviews
Employed men and women are sometimes possible, an if the
promised recompensed is sufficient to motivate them
Where and When
Afternoon interviews
Most convenient for students and night workers
Evenings
Prime-time for most employed adults.
Any prospective panelist coming during lunch or dinner hours
must be promised reasonably substantial food
The Interview
Livingroom style:
Seek pleasantness and relaxation
polite or casual interchange, usually colored by superficial
responsibility or motivation to labor
Employ a one-way mirror
Focus-Group Methodology and Ethics
Ethical issues have become an essential aspect
Due to the nature of close interaction and relationship between
the researcher and the participants as well as the unstructured
and unpredictable nature of methods
Codes of ethics comprise informed consent, deception, privacy
and confidentiality, and accuracy.
Focus-Group Methodology and Ethics
• The moderator needs to observe the stress levels of
participants and be well prepared to intervene if necessary
• It may be better to run a small group rather than a group
with too many participants
• It is essential to have a debriefing session after the focus
group so that the participants can talk about their reactions
to the discussion
• It may also desirable to have a co-researcher with clinical
experience present during the focus group so that the
“comfort level” of the participants can be monitored
References
Cooper,D. and Schindler, P. (2011) Business Research Methods,
11th Edition, International Edition, McGraw Hill
Liamputtong, P. (2011). Focus Group Methodology Principles
and Practice.Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications
Templeton, J. (1987). Focus Groups: A guide for Marketing
and Advertising Professionals. Chicago, Illinois: Probus
Publishing Company