How To Use Market Research Groups Successfully

A market research group (sometimes called a 'focus group') is a small continuous group of people used for ongoing market research.

There are six key factors that should be in place for a market research group to work successfully:

1) The group should be willing to be part of the group. Sounds obvious, but you need 110% buy in from the group. You may want to incentivise the group to encourage them to take part regularly.

2) You should aim for a group size of 6 to 8 participants. This means you will need an ongoing pool of between 15 and 20 participants. From this pool, you can get your final group. A larger pool means that you can run the group even if most of the group don't attend.

3) The market research needs to be consistent. The same structure and questions need to be asked each time. The aim is to build up a profile of how things have changed over a period of time. If you change the questions, you will not be able to make a comparison to previous research.

4) You need to ask open and closed questions. An open question often leads to discussion and new avenues being explored whereas closed questions keep things focused and allow comparison to previous research.

5) You should be running the market research groups regularly. Whatever time period you choose, make sure that the groups meet at this time. Don't let things slip.

6) Use an expert to run your market research groups. You need the groups to be run well and to be unbiased. Any hint of the research being biased will reduce the overall effectiveness.

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market research groups