How to Conduct a Focus Group

Using a focus group is a great marketing strategy. You get information from real people and you can use that to tailor your product, service or marketing efforts. You can determine their attitudes and beliefs toward your company and use this information to increase your sales.

Instructions

1. Assemble your focus group. Each group should have six to 10 people and preferably, and you want to have at least three or four groups. These should consist of representatives from all walks of life so you get a random sampling of the true population. Offering an incentive such as cash or a product to keep can help entice participants.

2. Prepare your questions ahead of time. Approach it like a science experiment: you need an objective, a hypothesis, research method and a way to quantify the data. This information will help you formulate your questions.

3. Reserve a place to conduct the group. Examples of good locations include conference rooms and banquet halls. Let each person in the group known the date and time well in advance.

4. Get the room ready before the session starts. Organize chairs, set up refreshments and position any video or recording equipment, if applicable.

5. Start the session by introducing yourself and what you're studying. Keep the conversation informal and make the participants feel comfortable and at ease enough to speak freely.

6. Begin asking general questions of each participant, then follow up with more specific questions. Give each person as much time to answer as they need. Probe for details if they aren't giving enough. Take notes as necessary.

7. Stay neutral and don't take sides on an issue or with a participant. Your duty is to run the focus group, not influence how you want the participants to respond.

Tips & Warnings

• You may want to hire a professional moderator to run the focus group. As an employee of the company doing the research, you may unconsciously influence the data or skew the participants' responses.