Focus Groups Provide Low Cost Consumer Understanding
Commentary and highlights from a Business First of Louisville article by Emory Williamson, "Focus Groups Still Provide Low Cost Solution to Gaining Customer Feedback".
Contrary to some, focus groups are not dead. In fact, they continue to serve as an excellent, low cost solution to eliciting essential consumer input and feedback.
This recent article noted that the advertising and marketing industry has become markedly more technical in recent years as technological advances have allowed firms to collect more data from consumers to direct client campaigns.
I wholeheartedly agree with the article, however, that there is no replacement for the age-old tradition of talking face-to-face with consumers to see how they react to products and services going to market. The use of relatively low-tech and inexpensive focus groups can be a useful way of understanding an audience and ultimately bolstering business revenue.
Focus groups remain among the best ways to gather information. They likely won't be replaced soon by either telephone surveys or even complex information systems that gather data for the advertising and marketing industry. Here are some additional highlights from the article.
1. Use of focus groups is a way to better understand consumers and to initiate personal interaction. They measure emotion and get to the heart of the matter and not just the head. You are able to probe consumers and get a better idea of not only what they like or dislike, but often more importantly why they are positive or negative.
2. Focus group sessions often provide new questions and revelations rather than just answers. Focus group sessions often provide "ah-ha" moments. These are surprises - unfounded insights or unexpected revelations.
3. If done properly with an experienced moderator, they can probe beneath the surface, rather than focus too much on superficial consumer responses, or having one consumer serving as a participant who dominate a group's discussion, influence others and limit solid results.
4. It's essential to employ strong recruitment methods and not allowing dominant, professional focus group respondents be included who can be a threat to a company eager to obtain candid, honest feedback.
5. Keeping the groups relatively small can also encourage more substantive discussions, since each respondent has more time to provide their thoughts and feelings about the topic at hand.
So, to conclude, focus groups continue to be a popular and way of reaching consumers. Using focus groups is an inexpensive solution for many companies. They also provide a good start for companies that want to test their ideas before investing too much in a campaign or product.
Here is a link to the article: Business First of Louisville article