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Topic: Student Questions

Unable To Get Together A Focus Group-alternatives?

Posted by lkg21 on 3/26/2014 at 9:41 AM ET 125 Points
I'm putting together my final year research project on Topshop and one of my objectives is to find out the opinions on Topshop of 25-34 year old women. To do this I was planning on holding a focus group and discussing their thoughts on Topshop at length. Unfortunately my adverts for participants have gone unanswered so it seems that a focus group is now out of the question.
What would be the next best option available to me to get peoples opinions on Topshop with in depth reasonings?
I was thinking an online forum but I'm unsure where to even start with this? Also on a very tight deadline and really need to get this research together in the next week!
Any thoughts appreciated!

Many thanks
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by saul.dobney on 3/26/2014 at 12:20 PM Accepted
    Adverts won't work - you need to be much more active for recruitment and as you don't have a big incentive to offer, you'll have to work via charm. Call people - particularly friends of friends. Pick up a clipboard and approach people face-to-face - eg adminstrative staff, receptionists etc around the college. Aim to collect an email address or phone number, then call or send an email to invite them to an online forum in the evening, or as another alternative a conference call (use Skype) for a 3-4 person telephone group discussion - or individual depth. Don't plan anything more than 15-20 minutes long for each discussion to avoid imposing on people doing you a favour - but you might do 3, 4 or more and build up the story from one to the next.
  • Posted by mgoodman on 3/26/2014 at 12:30 PM Accepted
    Online focus groups work well, but they cost money -- for the facility and for incentives. If you have a budget, I'd look into an OLFG. If funds allow you can even hire a professional to develop the discussion guide and moderate. Then you can focus on analysis and interpretation.
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 3/26/2014 at 1:01 PM Accepted
    Do you know any people who fall within your target? Can you do one on one interviews with them? Even just getting a few friends to do this would give you a start on data, and could be enough to find out interesting/unexpected results that often show up. The more you do, the more statistically significant the results would be.
  • Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth on 3/26/2014 at 2:56 PM Accepted
    Can you leverage Facebook?
    Can you be outside various stores with a clipboard and interview people as they come & go?
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 3/26/2014 at 6:07 PM Accepted
    Worst case scenario: you stand outside your local TopShop, with a clipboard and your questions, and you stop people coming out of the store and ask if they'd spend 2 minutes to help you. You might want to speak with the store manager (and the city center manager's office) just to get the all clear that it's OK for your to do this without getting hassled by store or mall security, or by the local police.
  • Posted by telemoxie on 3/27/2014 at 7:56 AM Accepted
    you say that your objective is to determine the perspectives of women in a certain demographic. Certainly one way to do that would be focus groups. But for the sake of discussion, let's assume for a second that that is impossible. What are some other options?

    One option would be to survey customers, and compare survey results across various demographics.
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