Focus Groups

The 21st Century Focus Group--A New, Improved Old Friend.

The Focus Group has long been an important market research tool. When developing new consumer products, it is used at every step in the process—to test the idea, the name, the way it tastes or feels, the packaging, even the taste or performance of the final product before it goes to market.

Traditional focus groups had inherent problems that go back to fourth-grade group dynamics:

• Someone wants to dominate the conversation
• Someone has really good ideas but is afraid to speak up
• Someone else just agrees with everything everyone else says.

Beginning in the 1990’s Tim O’Neil began conducting focus groups using a “blind” computer method. The participants were all seated at different computers and typed their responses, which then appeared on one big screen that everyone could see. No one knew who was at which computer, so no one knew who said what—unless of course the respondant wanted to be identified. This really helped eliminate the group dynamic.

Tim then updated the blind focus group for web use and added it to the services offered by the SurveyRoom. There are several ways an online focus group can be conducted. To find out more, call us at 1-800-962-3219 or e-mail: info@surveyroom.com