Know-How Exchange : Branding

If the participants in the focus group each represent a different segment of the target audience, then it is relevant to tie the comments to the segment represented by the respondent who made the comment. If, however, the group is homogeneous, then there is no need or reason to identify specifically who said what.

Presumably the focus group moderator also promised participants anonymity, so disclosing individual names is out of order regardless. I'd extend that to say that unless participants explicitly agreed to be identified by name, it would be inappropriate (and probably irrelevant) us use real names in your reporting of findings.

Usually you wouldn't need to report who said what. One exception: when you have a focus group where one participant quickly establishes dominance and becomes a leader in the group. (A skilled facilitator can battle this down, but sometimes we don't have access to a great facilitator.) If you have that dominant personality speaking, you need to pay careful attention to what comments are his/hers and whether or not they are followed by similar comments from others.

kellyann

I think it is important that you record who says what. However, I don't mean this in a name and where they come from way.

Have the researcher / facilitator give you a pen portrait of each respondent. Their traits, their beliefs, their strong points of view, their indifferences, their perspectives.

This way you can align comments and opinions with the type of person giving that opinion.

You could then go a step further to use a quantitative study to identify this type of person (and a similar community / segment of the population) and uncover other traits such as media usage, demographic similarities etc to help inform your marketing strategy.

Hope this helps,

Andy

Dear Susan,

No.

Most of the time I don't believe who said what is important in a focus group. What does matter is how things were said (tone of voice, body language, emotion) and what trigger sparked the comments.

But when it comes to WHAT was said and the demographic or
socioeconomic group? Yes, because that information directly impacts
and reflects branded packaging, positioning, appeal, feel, perceptions, suppositions, and feelings of price and value.

But Kellyann makes a great point: social dominance.

Sometimes, all it takes to skew results is one person, either someone with a strong opinion, or someone who simply does not know when to shut the hell up, to screw things up.

Through sheer weight of personality or through having zero social skills, this person can crush other people's willingness to comment or otherwise engage. Either that or their baggage is such that they use it to belittle and deride the input of others until people are literally brow beaten into saying anything, just to get the hell out of there.

In cases like this, the blabber mouth either needs to be taken into consideration (or asked to leave), or the test needs to be re run with a more evenly matched group in terms of temperament. In cases like this, pre screening might be an option. However, the problem with pre screening is that it can also impact results.

Remember: there are lies, damn lies, and statistics!

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA