Focus group
Focus groups are used in market research to better understand people's reactions to products or services or participants' perceptions of shared experiences.
[4] A focus group is also used by sociologists, psychologists, and researchers in communication studies, education, political science, and public health.
[4] Marketers can use the information collected from focus groups to obtain insights on a specific product, controversy, or topic.
[6][7] Used in qualitative research, the interviews involve a group of people who are asked about their perceptions, attitudes, opinions, beliefs, and views regarding many different topics (e.g., abortion, political candidates or issues, a shared event, needs assessment).
Focus groups may also include an observer who pays attention to dynamics not expressed in words e.g., body language, people who appear to have something to add but do not speak up.
[4] Paul Lazarsfeld had also received a government contract to get insight into individuals' responses to war radio propaganda.
[9] Psychologist and marketing expert Ernest Dichter coined the term "focus group" itself before his death in 1991.
In addition, teachers, other professionals, and researchers can also be recruited to participate in focus groups to ascertain those individuals' library-related needs.
[14] Another advantage is that a focus group can allow participants to learn from one another as they exchange views and to understand research as an enriching experience.
Focus groups are usually employed in the early stages of product or concept development, when organizations are trying to determine the overall direction of a marketing initiative.
Participants are recruited on the basis of their similarity to members of the demographic groups targeted as potential consumers of the product.
Conducting focus groups in different areas of the country would require considerable expenditure on travel and lodging for moderators.
[18] For example, in some Asian languages, open-ended probes and nonverbal communication can encourage greater participation in the group discussion.
[19] In some non-Western cultures, a younger person does not openly disagree with an older individual; focus group composition, therefore, must be carefully considered when designing the research plan.
[21] The moderator should create an environment that encourages members to share their views, while keeping track of the discussion and preventing it from drifting from the topic at hand.
The session should ideally start with introductory questions to address the general topic, helping the participants to understand the broader context.
The benefits of online both synchronous and asynchronous focus groups include the absence of a need for transportation and ease of access.
Qualitative data collected in focus groups can help researchers decide what kinds of items to include in surveys.
[35] Focus groups ordinarily consume less time than structured interviews, thus increasing sample sizes, lessening resource investment, and providing fast results.
[31] A focus group discussion can create a synergy that can provide information that can't be gained in other ways.
[33][37] Non-verbal behavior plays a role in the moderator's decision-making and research results,[37] increasing the chances of obtaining rich, in-depth information.
The discussion must be audio or videotaped, field notes have to be recorded, and comments must be transcribed verbatim, increasing the risk of error.
[citation needed] There is also the potential for discussion facilitators to ask leading questions that produce biased results.
Focus groups are "One-shot case studies" especially if they are measuring a property-disposition relationship within the social sciences, unless they are repeated.
[38] Focus groups can create severe issues of external validity, especially the reactive effects of the testing arrangement.
Because focus groups often aim to please their underwriters rather than provide independent opinions or evaluations, the data are sometimes cherry picked to support a foregone conclusion.
Rushkoff cited the disastrous introduction of New Coke in the 1980s as an example of focus group design, implementation, and analysis gone bad.
Focus group data provides the opportunity to analyze the strength with which an individual holds an opinion.
However, there is a danger that a consensus can be assumed when not every person has spoken: the researcher will need to consider carefully whether the people who have not expressed a view agree with the majority or whether they may simply be unwilling to voice their disagreement.
The capacity of computers to effectively sort, store, and retrieve information makes their use in qualitative data analysis appealing.
