Online Focus Groups

Online Focus Groups

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Focus Groups: So does online really work?
Marketers face many difficulties while marketing research is concerned. Marketing research is a necessity when marketers need an answer for anything that is of concern to the product or the service, such as new product development. Marketers have many ways in which they gather information in order to reach a decision that is crucial for the company. One of the best ways for marketers to obtain good and reliable information is by conducting focus groups with people relevant to the problem and are considered men and women who use or are familiar with the product/service. But the issue here is the conduction of online focus groups. Are these as reliable? Do they provide good and useful information?

Such information can be gathered in many different ways and one of the most crucial requirements needed is for the information to be reliable. The first step is to define the problem that will be researched. A vital step that everyone seems to forget is to identify any previous research done on that subject. If there is research already conducted, this might help you distinguish any controversies one might face when researching and it can also give the researcher a head start with the problem.

One has to narrow down the audience of concern and knowingly the researcher will need to lower the amount of people in the population. This is called a sample where a smaller amount of people will be used to gather information. Once the sample is clearly defined the researcher then has the job to reach a conclusion/solution to the problem. One way of doing this very effectively is by conducting a focus group. This is defined as a session of about 8-20 people and they discuss issues and answer questions that are posed by a moderator. This session is geared to get feedback at all the scenarios that the audience is put in and different type of information is obtained.

Not only information directly said by the audience, also gestures and non-verbal signs are analyzed in the process. Now with the Internet, we face a problem. Focus Groups are being held through the Internet and reliability is at stake. “For online focus groups we generally invite 8 to 10 people to join us for a specified period of time (90 minutes to two hours) in one of our specialized chat rooms. Our controlled environment allows participants to view text, graphics, sounds/jingles, video or multimedia for evaluation and testing.”

To qualify for a focus group either online or normal, you need to meet the requirements that the company is searching for. The questions that the moderator makes are already tested in order to enhance the focus group experience and obtain the best information needed for the study. For online focus groups, there are two moderators to ease the process of control among the respondents. When one compares a focus group to a survey, the person testes is limited on a survey to respond to the questions that are asked right in front of them and are limited to asking anything else.

In a real focus group you can test items, show them pictures, and videos and the researcher will get immediate responses. As for online focus groups the respondents are limited to feeling a product and touching it. They only have the sense of sight by seeing things that are sent to them online or shown by a camera. As for real focus groups you can touch, smell, feel, hear everything without limitations.

Confidentiality is a huge problem that online focus groups face. It is virtually impossible to keep the session confidential because you never know who is watching on the other side of the connection of the session. Thus the researcher has to be very careful with what is shown and things that are sent for contribution. Here on the distinction of the strengths of live focus groups will be cleared and my reasoning of this matter will be explained.

In live focus groups the respondents have the ability to interact with each other making the information gathered a more useful tool. With constant interaction among the respondents they can bring out facts and relevant information that might not have come out if there were no interaction. “The Internet focus group does not enable the moderator to use this aspect of human communications as an input in the process.” (http://www.groupsplus.com/pages/qmr0601.htm) This means that the moderator cannot send his non-verbal signs to the respondents via the Internet and the respondents might not reveal these important non-verbal signs. The moderator figure looses their real responsibility. The moderator is there to encourage all of the participants to participate and give input to the discussion. In online focus group the moderator changes his/her role to a more “police” type person. The moderator is there also to minimize the influence from one participant to another.

Identification is never secure with online focus groups because one never knows if the person that was invited is really him/her. In contrast, in the live sessions photo identification is needed in order to enter the room as a participant. Typing skills are needed in order to participate in the online session, which that discriminates those who could contribute but cannot type as fast on the computer.

Another factor that is considered in the online session is the absence of the client and having direct connection with the moderator. The client won’t be able to see and analyze the reactions of the participants and the client won’t be able to moderate the questions according to reactions and non-verbal signs. It is also expected that the participants are suppose to stay on the computer for the full two hours and are not to be interrupted by anything. It very hard to control this and if there is an interruption then the participant might miss some crucial information.

The Internet has many positive sides to it and can be a useful tool to find information that will be useful for the research. The Internet will open many doors to many sites that are filled with relevant information. The Internet also provides with ways to communicate with people very quickly through e-mails and chat rooms. Survey, which is another tool for marketing research, is something you send to your participant and you will receive the information already organized in an easy way for the researcher to analyze it. All in all, the Internet is a useful tool that is of great help.

Online focus groups give the comfort of the participant to stay home or at the office to participate in the session. This allows the participant to have all the commodities they might want. But these commodities also act as a distraction to the participant. The surrounding environment of the participant at his home is not a very stimulating environment as for when the session is live, the environment stimulates all the participants to engage in the conversation. At home the participant can get easily distracted.

In conclusion, the idea of online focus groups has emerged and is a great possibility for expansion. There is no way to improve certain things such as the advantage of actually touching secondary sources and vivid non-verbal signs between the participant and the moderator. But certainly there are ways in which this has improved. Faster Internet connection makes this process a much faster one and digital cameras makes the process a more vivid one. Many marketers are using this method, but many yet prefer the old fashioned way that is more effective and reliable information.

Disclaimer

The above essay merely states opinions by a college student. However, if you feel strong about responding to the opinions stated, please write to articles@directorym.com and express your concerns.



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