Focus Groups

There’s nothing quite like listening to a group of your customers as they talk about you.  Or watching the looks on their faces when they see your new ad campaign.  Focus groups have always been a popular choice for exploring the attitudes of customers and prospects.  Led by a professional moderator who keeps the discussion on track, these groups allow you to:

• Pose open-ended questions for group discussion.
• Probe specific statements, attitudes, or reactions.
• Test multimedia advertising, product packaging or labeling, and other visually oriented materials.
• Observe physical reactions and behaviors and group interactions.

While focus groups often function as stand-alone studies, they also play an important role in identifying issues to test on a quantitative basis.  Focus groups are exploratory and directional in nature, and provide a basis for surveying a broader base of customers or prospects to ensure that the results are projectable to the entire market.

Traditionally, focus groups have been conducted in-person at specially designed facilities.  While that remains the most common approach, these groups can also be conducted over the phone (like a teleconference) or online.  It just depends on who you want to talk to and what you want to ask them.