Need Focus Groups? How many are enough? Part 2

PART 2 - How many groups are enough?

Do you need geographic diversity because opinions or product uses are likely to differ by where people live?

Do you need understanding of age, ethnic or demographic differences?

 

Do you have a huge budget that has to be spent before the end of the year or you lose it, thus diminishing your clout within your organization?

These are the kinds of situations that suggest more than one group may be needed. (I'm KIDDING about the budget question! That NEVER happens!) ;)

Some things to consider:

You should almost always do more than one group - one set of information is never enough, and many times the learning from the first group makes for a fantastic experience with the next group. 

If you do need diversity of opinion and you have a small budget, don’t fall into the trap of having only one group but making it as diverse as possible - doing this will guarantee you get nothing of value, and that your boss will conclude that you are a bozo and that focus groups are a worthless methodology for collecting useful information. 

Generally speaking, homogeneity is better than diversity when you are setting up a single group. You can dive deeper regarding the recreational needs of seniors if every one in your group is over the age of 60. And you will emerge with a better understanding of what ethnic segments want and need and respond to if your participants are separated by ethnicity. In a group that is very diverse, much of the conversation is diluted, and you never know what perspective might be attributable to which segment. Confusion results!

You may want to separate participants by gender if any of the issues may be gender-sensitive. A few years ago we did groups of men’s underwear purchasers, and separated the participants by gender. Turns out the women exclaimed MUCH more excited about

 the packaging (and more likely to buy the underwear) if the models on the picture had abs that looked as if they were chiseled from stone - and since 65% of all men’s underwear is purchased by women, too bad if the guys wanted pictures of Tiger Woods.

If you’re a grocery store thinking about groups with female shoppers, there may be no reason to segment shoppers by age. Recruit participants from all age groups and watch the fun as they interact with each other. You’ll learn a lot about how women view their shopping experience.

But if you’re a health care provider looking to offer specialized services for women, and 

you know the needs are likely to differ by age, you may want to have two groups: one with older women and one with younger ones. 

How many groups you do depends should be driven by the following issues:

Whom are you going to be targeting with the resulting marketing? The broader the market, the more likely you might benefit by breaking it down into segments. (If your target segment is “men”, you would be well served breaking that down into categories such as “men under 35”, or “men from the midwest”. )

Does one market segment have different needs or have a very different perspective than other segments? (ATV users in Michigan as opposed to those in Texas; cooks of different ethnicity and cultural heritage)

So, in conclusion, do as few groups as possible to get the answers you need, from a geographically and demographically diverse group of participants. And do as many as your budget can swing. Just be sure that with each group you give yourself the opportunity to get the information with a slightly different twist!

How many should be in each group?

• “Diads” have two people
  
• Triads have three people
  
• Small Group interviews have four to five people
  
• Focus Groups may have from six to twelve people
  

The optimal size for a focus group is eight to nine people. If you have more than that, introverted participants may not talk, and the conversation can get to be unwieldy and hard to manage. This will limit the amount of ground you can cover in the group, and can frustrate the participants into stony, unproductive silence. 

With eight to nine participants, the group is not so large that introverts can hide - and it is small enough to permit in-depth discussion of the meatiest issues. Everyone can fully participate, and participate at a high level of involvement. It cuts down on the “surface” answers, and will let a moderator probe deeply for additional insight. 

Next, we'll think about who should be recruited for the groups, and who should do the recruiting! (Hint: it's NOT your interns.)