When conducting market research, researchers need to understand their target market’s opinions, needs, and problems. In order to accomplish this, market research can set up a focus group discussions. They help to provide information that could represent your target market’s issues and get significant feedback from them. 

What Are Focus Groups?

Focus groups refer to groups of people that you choose and guide for having discussions related to your business and the ongoing market research. The outcome from these discussions is to understand their needs and getting their feedback on a certain product or service from your brand. 

When You Need Focus Groups?

There are some situations where focus groups are necessary, such as:

• A new business that does not fully understand its target market 
• When a business launches new products or services that need early feedback
• When a business wants to compare its products or services to competitors
• When a business is testing out new posters or slogans
• When a business needs to test its business idea for business development purpose
• When  a business wants to know some specific behavior or choices of its target market

How to Set Up a Focus Group?

Before setting up a focus group, a business needs to have a strong marketing plan to ensure that the focus group you want to build is on the right track. When you have decided your marketing plan, then you will know your goals and which of them needs in-depth analysis. From this point, you can plan to set up a focus group.

To set up a focus group, here are what you need to do:

1. Select the right participants:-

The first thing to do in setting up a focus group is selecting the right participants, including how many participants you need and how to find and choose the right participants. Generally, a focus group contains eight to twelve members. As to select the right participants, you can get them from these following sources:

• A list of your customers to save you time in finding participants for the focus group discussion
• Referrals who include your family members, friends, and customers. When asking them to be participants of your focus group, make sure you explain the target market you look for and the purpose of the focus group discussion
• Events where your target market is likely to attend. You can attend the events as a sponsor, a guest, or a collaboration with the hosts of the events. 
• Post Ads where you ask for the target audience to apply to the focus group. This way offers you broader options of candidates to choose from.

2.Plan for the Discussion:-

After selecting the participants, the next thing that needs to be done is to plan for the focus group’s discussion. The proper focus group discussion must have these following aspects:

• Start the discussion with a good overview so that the participants know what the focus group’s discussion is about and the rules
• Stay focus on the main purpose of the discussion. It can be started with a specific or a generic question to get a more specific response from participants
• Focus groups should present explorative and open-questions to explore more of participants’ opinions so that you can come up with additional insight and opportunities
• Give participants an opportunity to provide a concrete answer, like memories, reflections, examples, ratings, etc. By doing these, you will get an understanding of their deeper insights.

3. Use experienced moderator to lead the discussion:-

Unlike any other informal group discussions, focus group should focus on the outcome or goal you want to achieve. In order to lead the discussion in the right direction, you involve an experienced moderator. An experienced moderator can make participants feel comfortable to speak up their opinions, facilitate discussions, and as them follow-up questions when needed. Make sure the moderator does not display any judgment or bias towards the results of the focus.