Know-How Exchange : Research/Metrics

Focus test groups are tricky to do well. It's too easy to have one person dominate discussion or influence others. Your sample size of 30 is quite small, and can be quite skewed.

A skilled facilitator is obviously important. But more important is to look at your goals for the groups. What specific information do you hope to get that you can't get through individual surveys/interviews? Are you looking to influence the focus group or simply get their views? Also very important - people in focus groups try to say the "right thing". People may know what's right - but you're looking for more than just their thoughts - you're looking for their actions. Ask for specific stories that illustrate their points, and your focus groups/interviews will be much richer.

Try to get a proportional representation of society as a whole (drinkers vs non-drinkers, social drinkers vs abstainers, men, women, youth and young adults).

I help a client run online focus groups for various industries. Some of these focus groups are youth related, others are for studying cell phone usage, shopping mall use, credit unions, etc. We find that drawing representation from the target groups really helps tighten up information drawn from the most immediate target group. If you are being very borad and general with your research, you might be better off posting a question here on Marketing profs and doing an online general survey from a few hundred folks raher than a small cluster of 30.

We've drawn focus group members from Marketing Profs and other online communities, and find the information very interesting. We've also drawn focus group members from customer lists of clients, as te case required.

Check out www.paid4focusgroups.com if you are looking for certain types of focus group members as we've been collecting contacts who are interested in participating in focus groups. Hope this helps you.

Darcy Moen
Customer Loyalty Network

As for tips regarding good form for questions - be sure the moderator's guide is reviewed ahead of time by both yourself and the client, so that everyone is aware of what can be covered. Give the client the opportunity to use the hostess once or twice to bring follow-up questions into the focus group room to you, but not more than than twice (too disrputive) and not earlier than 20-30 minutes into the session so that you have the opportunity to build rapport. Also, be careful when probing - instead of asking "why", try to formulate your follow-up questions in a manner that doesn't put respondents on the defensive or have them outwardly trying to justify their rationale. For example, you can say "what do you think drives your decision on that", etc.

Good luck!