Focus groups

As part of a Uni project I had to carry out research in the form of focus groups. They consisted of two group interviews: one with over 35’s, and the other with under 21’s. Both groups will be even in regards to gender split. To ensure for wider and more accurate results, secondary research will also be considered. Mintel, a website offering respectable consumer, media and market research, offers a much wider range of research, but not necessarily as accurate. Comparisons of both researches were made at the end. Below are detailed the research aims:

1. Identify who would be most likely to donate to CRU target market

2. Identify the most popular donation method

3. Identify what makes our target market donate.

Brassington’s Essentials of Marketing (EOM) describes focus group as an investigation into ‘…underlying attitudes and behaviors relevant to the market’ – and this very apparent in our own research, with discovering major differences in in gender and age, with suitable research into the consumer’s behaviors as well as the marketplace it self. Brasington describes the method as qualitative research, meaning although the results can be in-depth with honest answers (due to the small amount of participants and the open questions - encouraging conversation) they are unable to provide a full analysis of the entire market - so qualitative rather than quantitative.

‘…Group interviews are used to produce qualitative data that are not capable of generalization to the wider population…’ (Essentials Of Marketing, Pg.156)

Say, for instance, the construction of a quantitative research method was carried out, like a questionnaire filled out by several hundred people – this type of research would show wider results, but maybe not necessarily as honest results. So the focus groups encouraged open conversation leading people to open up more and give honest and in-depth answers, unlike questionnaire or surveys, but unfortunately do limit the amount of data that can be collected.

So I learnt from the focus groups we were able to find out more about the market, find out underlying values which effect purchases!