FAQ’s

Who do I recruit

The target segment generally is people who have recently made the decision in question; I.e., to buy or buy-in. Or who considered but did not buy or buy-in. This group may have demographic characteristics in the sense that you are, for example, after young people, parents, particular voters, etc. Every respondent should be from the target group.

You will want to segment the target group by significant differences within the target group; such as, gender, location, user/non-user, etc. You may have reason to want to do male alone and females alone; you may have reasons to mix them. Mix and match will be a game of carving your target group into significant segments based on how they tend to interact in your decision need. Don’t over-do the slicing and dicing; it drives up recruiting costs and creates an illusion of coverage. In fact, this is a convenient sample; not a random probability sample. So one left-handed, married housewife from the rural counties cannot be considered representative of anything; not left-handedness, marriage nor rural life.

You just want a mix that draws from and resembles your target group.

How many groups do I do?

One more than is needed. That’s a clever way of saying ideally you would do groups until you don’t hear anything new.

In practice, you should never do just one group because any group can, for a variety of reasons, bond into a primary group which will make riskier decisions than any one of them would as an individual and also can talk themselves into a false agreement given their enjoyment of the group.

If you have a small set of segments within your target, you can do three groups. You will know if that is satisfactory at the end of three. The groups themselves will provide the evidence you need for a decision to stop or go further.

If you have major differences in segments; for example, major regional differences, you may want to do two or three groups in each region.

Three groups allows you to get reactions to your start position, explore options and even pursue directional planning considerations as the groups evolve.

What’s a discussion guideline and how do we create one?

I draft the discussion guideline out of our preliminary design meetings and work with you and your people to refine it.

People often think a discussion guideline is a form of questionnaire. This is wrong. A focus group is deliberately an unstructured interviewing method that is intended to allow group dynamics to play naturally into the evolving response. There are ways to elicit reactions to each other. The moderator skill is to use the natural flow of each group while still retaining focus. I develop a discussion guideline with the client to make sure we have an exhaustive list of everything that is important to cover in the sessions; then I use it in the groups as they evolve to make sure we get adequate responses to each major point of client concern or interest.

You can structure the guideline to move from the particular to the general or the other way. I sometimes do one group one way, then next the other. The point for the moderator is keep focus while widening or narrowing the shot.

What about facilities??

You need a place that is comfortable for the number of people attending: 12-14 plus yourself and observers. There should be no distractions. Provision of coffee, water, tea, cookies, sandwiches, etc is normal.

A major issue is what influence does the choice of a facility have on the respondents; does it intimidate; does it threaten; does it alter in any way how they might respond? E.g.; doing employee focus groups in the company boardroom is probably not a good idea; a normal meeting room is better; and an off-site hotel conference room may be even better.

You can do focus groups in living rooms, meeting rooms, boardrooms, hotel conference rooms.

My favorite is the focus group facility with the one-way viewing mirror. This is the moderator’s home territory and thus effectively neutral for the respondent. It is comfortable and focuses people on the group. Recording is unobtrusive. All the details are professionally handled and people are made comfortable with the place, the process and each other. The trade-off may be expense. And there may not be a facility convenient to the respondents.

My favorite recruiter once fixed me up with a series of executive hotel suites, each endowed with a large and comfortable living room appropriate to host a group. The suites costs less than booking a conference room plus moderator’s hotel room. Worked for me.

How do we recruit??

I use Justason Marketing Intelligence for recruiting. They are professional and reliable. They work from referral files of people recommended by previous respondents; they can recruit as part of a survey; they have a data base of respondents; they can recruit from lists provided; and they can cold recruit using a variety of media.

The key is to give them enough time to recruit and schedule the respondents. You don’t want to get too far ahead however because respondents need to reliably commit to a specific date and time – this cuts down on no-shows.

I have had clients recruit from their own membership and I have had internal corporate recruiting but only when we have a large organization where respondents will be outside their work group; and only where supervisors can be reliably counted on not to stack the groups.

Do we pay respondents and, if so, how much?

We always pay a co-op fee to respondents that will cover any costs associated with attending and some left–over. But not so much that they think we are asking them to step outside their role as respondent and make professional judgments for us. Typical co-op fees are $50 - 100; depending. Professional groups may involve higher fees but no more than $150. Sometimes an employer does groups on company time or gives time-off in lieu of fees. Some member organizations don’t pay on grounds that members should volunteer their time; and that seems to work.

What does it cost??

Costing is usually done on a per group basis. Depending on the amount of preparation time and reporting time required; I usually charge a moderator’s professional fee of $1,500 - $2,000 per group. Then I simply run the costs through directly to the client without mark-up.

Recruiting, facility and co-op fees can add another $1,500 – $2,500 a group.

Total costs are typically around $3,000 - 4,000 a group for the full meal deal.

Sometimes, for internal groups when the client recruits, hosts and pays no fee, it will only be my fee per group.

Of course, GST applies.

How long will the whole process take?

The whole process should take 3 – 6 weeks; depending on the your ability to respond to preparation needs.

What kinds of reports can I have??

Clients in a hurry can have a top-line report in days; and a full written reporting in 7 – 10 days. If full transcripts are required (which they seldom are) add another two weeks. Follow-up verbal presentations including discussions with major client groups