Focus Groups

A qualitative market research method

Gain valuable feedback on a specific product, service, concept or marketing campaign via Focus Groups.

Focus Groups UK

What are focus groups?

A focus group, also known as a group discussion or group depth interview, is a qualitative market research method. Focus groups bring 8 – 12 participants together to provide feedback on a specific product, service, concept, or marketing campaign. Focus groups can take place either virtually with an online panel, or in a group meeting environment.

What are the benefits of conducting focus groups?

Focus groups are valuable as they allow an alternative method of obtaining information from consumers rather than using online surveys, which tend to produce quantitative data. In a focus group environment, participants can interact, influence and be influenced, giving actionable insight into the participants knowledge of your brand, product, or service. The interaction between participants is critical to the success of the research. Participants can initiate discussion, debate and even arguments on the focus topic. Research has shown that individuals are more likely to talk about a particular topic in more detail if they are in discussion with other group members, rather than if they were to be interviewed directly.

Focus groups have a distinct advantage over other types of market research because they are flexible by design.

You can hear someone’s tone and view their body language to better understand how they feel about a particular subject and guide the conversation to achieve the desired outcome. An experienced moderator, ideally from outside your organisation so that there is no bias, should host the focus group using a pre-agreed discussion guide.

Conduct Focus Groups
Valuable focus groups

How do I organise a focus group?

The first step to organising an effective focus group is to clearly define the purpose of the research. This will identify what you want the discussion to accomplish, and which demographic of participants best supports that outcome. Selecting participants who are qualified to take part has a huge impact on the success of the research.

Once you have defined your participant demographic, the next step is to decide how the participants are associated with your business. Depending on the purpose of the research, focus groups can consist of regular customers, one-time purchasers, lost customers, past customers or even individuals who have no connection with your business at all.

The next step is to select a market research agency or independent research moderator. Our recommendation is that this person should be from outside of your organisation. Therefore, they don’t have any pre-determined opinions on the purpose of the research and are completely unbiased. If you would like to host a focus group with participants who have never interacted with or purchased from your business, you will need to select a research agency who can provide the participants.

At My View Research we have a panel of over 2,500 participants who can take part in different research methods, based on the required participant demographic.

Get in touch

Get in touch

Talk to one our Research Consultants today to find out how we can design a bespoke Focus Group for your business and unlock valuable insight for your customers

Results at your fingertips

All results across the different survey types will be collated and hosted on our online reporting platform and App! Most importantly your teams can review the results, run comparative data across question sets, and use the insight to present the feedback back to relevant team members.