Page 125 - Marketing Management

102 PART 2 CAPTURING MARKETING INSIGHTS

demographic, psychographic, or other considerations and brought together to discuss various
topics of interest at length. Participants are normally paid a small sum for attending. A professional
research moderator provides questions and probes based on the marketing managers’ discussion
guide or agenda. In focus groups, moderators try to discern consumers’ real motivations and why
they say and do certain things. They typically record the sessions, and marketing managers often
remain behind two-way mirrors in the next room. To allow for more in-depth discussion with
participants, focus groups are trending smaller in size. 19
Focus-group research is a useful exploratory step, but researchers must avoid generalizing from
focus-group participants to the whole market, because the sample size is too small and the sample is
not drawn randomly. Some marketers feel the research setting is too contrived and prefer to seek other
means of collecting information that they believe are less artificial. “Marketing Memo: Conducting
Informative Focus Groups”has some practical tips to improve the quality of focus groups.
In the American Airlines research, the moderator might start with a broad question, such as,
“How do you feel about first-class air travel?” Questions then move to how people view the differ-
ent airlines, different existing services, different proposed services, and specifically, Internet service.

marketing
Memo Conducting Informative Focus Groups

Focus groups allow marketers to observe how and why consumers accept people always seemed grumpy and negative—people were resistant to
or reject concepts, ideas, or any specific notion. The key to using focus any idea we showed them.” Finally in one session a fight broke out be-
groups successfully is to listen and observe. Marketers should eliminate tween participants. The problem was the room itself: cramped, stifling,
their own biases as much as possible. Although many useful insights can forbidding. “It was a cross between a hospital room and a police interro-
emerge from thoughtfully run focus groups, questions can arise about their gation room.” To fix the problem, the agency gave the room a makeover.
validity, especially in today’s complex marketing environment. Other firms are adapting the look of the room to fit the theme of the
There are many challenges to conducting a good focus group. Some re- topic—such as designing the room to look like a playroom when speak-
searchers believe consumers have been so bombarded with ads, they un- ing to children.
consciously (or perhaps cynically) parrot back what they’ve already heard in- To allow for more interactivity among focus group members, some re-
stead of what they really think. There’s always a concern that participants searchers are incorporating pre-session homework assignments such as di-
are just trying to maintain their self-image and public persona or have a aries, photography, and videography. An area of increasing interest is online
need to identify with the other members of the group. Participants also may focus groups. These may cost less than a fourth of a traditional, in-person
not be willing to acknowledge in public—or may not even recognize—their focus group. Online focus groups also offer the advantages of being less in-
behavior patterns and motivations. And the “loudmouth” or “know-it-all” trusive, allowing geographically diverse subjects to participate, and yielding
problem often crops up when one highly opinionated person drowns out the fast results.They are useful at collecting reactions to focused topics such as
rest of the group. Getting the right participants is crucial, but it may be ex- a specific new product concept.
pensive to recruit qualified subjects who meet the sampling criteria ($3,000 Proponents of traditional focus groups, on the other hand, maintain that
to $5,000 per group). in-person focus groups allow marketers to be immersed in the research
Even when marketers use multiple focus groups, it may be difficult to process, get a close-up look to people’s emotional and physical reactions,
generalize the results to a broader population. For example, within the and ensure that sensitive materials are not leaked. Marketers can also
United States, focus-group findings often vary from region to region. One make spontaneous adjustments to the flow of discussion and delve
firm specializing in focus-group research claimed the best city to conduct deeply into more complex topics, such as alternative creative concepts for
groups was Minneapolis, because there it could get a sample of fairly well- a new ad campaign.
educated people who were honest and forthcoming with their opinions. Regardless of the particular form it takes, the beauty of a focus
Many marketers interpret focus groups in New York and other northeastern group, as one marketing executive noted, is that “it’s still the most cost-
cities carefully, because the people in these areas tend to be highly critical effective, quickest, dirtiest way to get information in rapid time on an
and generally don’t report that they like much. idea.” In analyzing the pros and cons, Wharton’s Americus Reed might
Participants must feel as relaxed as possible and strongly motivated have said it best: “A focus group is like a chain saw. If you know
to be truthful. Physical surroundings can be crucial to achieving the right what you’re doing, it’s very useful and effective. If you don’t, you could
atmosphere. At one agency an executive noted, “We wondered why lose a limb.”

Sources: Naomi R. Henderson, “Beyond Top of Mind,” Marketing Research (September 1, 2005); Rebecca Harris, “Do Focus Groups Have a Future?” Marketing, June 6, 2005,
p. 17; Linda Tischler, “Every Move You Make,” Fast Company, April 2004, pp. 73–75; Alison Stein Wellner, “The New Science of Focus Groups,” American Demographics, March
2003, pp. 29–33; Dennis Rook, “Out-of-Focus Groups,” Marketing Research 15, no. 2 (Summer 2003), p. 11; Dennis W. Rook, “Loss of Vision: Focus Groups Fail to Connect
Theory, Current Practice,” Marketing News, September 15, 2003, p. 40; Sarah Jeffrey Kasner,“Fistfights and Feng Shui,” Boston Globe, July 21, 2001; Piet Levy,“In With the Old,
In Spite of the New,” Marketing News, May 30, 2009, p. 19.