Clay
In the marketing world, focus groups are a way of reaching out to existing or potential customers for feedback. Companies of all sizes often use focus groups to improve an existing product or service or to test new ideas. These facilitated discussions of 6-10 people can elicit a great deal of valuable information.
For start-up companies, focus groups can be a particularly powerful tool for evaluating new ideas, products or services before they are put on the market, avoiding costly missteps.
Developing new products can be very expensive, and focus group research can remove some of the risks by saving you from wasting time and money on ideas that won’t fly and by helping you strengthen good ideas. If conducted properly, focus groups can uncover many diverse insights from participants into how the product may potentially be viewed and can aid in development of marketing strategies that will most effectively address customer needs.
Take a look at this video describing how Domino’s Pizza used focus groups to learn what needed to be improved about their pizza.
In many cases, companies use outside resources to coordinate focus group research; the cost for which typically can be $3,000-$6,000. This may seem expensive for a small business, but compared to other research methods, it can be relatively economical. For those who can’t justify the expense, there may be ways to reduce the overall cost of conducting a focus group. For example:
- Holding the session(s) in your own meeting space can save the expense of using specialized facilities; just make sure that the space is comfortable and private.
- Using someone from inside the company as facilitator instead of an outside consultant may be cost effective; chose a person adept at leading discussions and keeping the group focused on the objective.
- Having an internal scribe make notes of and summarize the meeting can save money, but the person(s) must be sure to capture the numerous thoughts and ideas from the discussion that will direct the efforts to move forward on the issue.
- Analyzing the data internally also could save a significant sum; however, the risk of biased reporting, can make having an outside source analyze the data a worthwhile investment.
While there are options for cutting corners when conducting marketing research, there also are aspects on which the firm does not want to skimp. The most important elements of a focus group are the participants. You do not need to pay large fees, but some small level of compensation for participants’ time and ideas is required. Also, make sure you have the right audience (people without the proper background or interests will provide useless or distorted information).
Check out these links for more tips:
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