Tips: Focus Groups

In certain situations, focus groups can be valuable research tools. Below are answers to frequently asked questions about focus groups.

Q: When should I use focus groups instead of some other research method?
A: Focus groups are useful in the following situations:

• Discovering the "whys" behind people's opinions and actions
• Testing a visual concept such as a logo or a television commercial
• Identifying the important issues to test in a quantitative research study

Q: How many focus groups should be conducted?
A: It depends upon how many different groups of stakeholders you have. For instance, if a school wants to know the opinions of students and parents, then it should conduct at least two focus groups with each stakeholder audience - students and parents - for a total of four groups.

Q: How are focus group participants selected?
A: In most cases, participants are recruited through a random selection process. For example, if the telephone company wants to know opinions of its customers, it will randomly recruit people from the customer database.

Q: Is it necessary to pay people to participate in a focus group?
A: Paying people is the best way to guarantee that you will have enough participants to conduct your focus group. The amount you pay to each participant depends on the market.

Q: Who should conduct the focus groups?
A: Hiring an outside moderator brings objectivity to the process.

Q: Should focus group participants know who is sponsoring the research?
A: In many cases, conducting the research "blindly" is the best approach because it provides participants with the freedom to give their opinions without concern for offending the sponsor.

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