Web Focus Groups
Web Focus Groups Overview
A Web Focus Group is simply a market research technique in which a group of people are recruited to come meet at a web site in order to discuss a topic, such as a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging. They typically start with an e-mail from a market research firm to a number of potential respondent. The e-mail will typically explain to the respondents what the incentive is (often putting their name in for a drawing or sometimes something like a Starbucks or Barnes & Noble gift certificate for a nominal amount). They will also include an estimate of the amount of time that the discussion will take (web focus groups are often two in duration) a serialized URL link will be included (the serial number will allow the research company to know who the e-mail was sent to originally). The list of potential respondents will often be purchased from a company that specializes in the sales of sample names and contact information and often includes basic information about the respondent such as: occupation, number of family members in house, zip code which indicates likely income and personal activities and possibly likely household income.
The Web Focus Groups
At the allotted time and date the respondents will sign on to the web site. The moderator will first ask a few questions screeners to verify that the potential respondent is qualified to be included in the survey, then there are typically a number of sensitizing questions to allow the respondents to feel comfortable with the topic to be discussed and to know something about the other respondents involved in the discussion. Once the respondents seem to feel comfortable with their environment the moderator will steer the discussion towards the topic at hand, and the remaining questions are usually on their typical behaviors, purchase intent and possibly some questions on a product concept. Visual aids such as workflow descriptions, product descriptions and an image of what the potential product may look like can be shown on the web site, allowing respondents to make comments.
Construction of a Web Focus Group
Putting together a Web Focus Groups is a lot like putting together a discussion guide for any other medium, although you have the benefit of being able to add visual aids where necessary.
Web Focus Groups Pros
- The cost of conducting a series of web focus groups is often significantly lower than most other forms of focus groups.
- Web focus groups have the capability of including people from all over the country or even the world into on web-conversation which can allow for a richer breadth of respondents from different areas and often from different industries.
- The web allows a great deal more anonymity than having people sitting together in the same room, so they may be willing to discuss certain sensitive topics with more candor than they would with other methodologies.
- There is also a phenomenon called "focus group talk" where an attractive woman might motivate a man to claim to make purchases that he actually wouldn't be willing or able to purchase in the real world - and that tendency tends to be minimized in online research.
Web Focus Groups Cons
- With web surveys there is always the fear that you're not really sure who is taking the survey, although questions can be added to weed out respondents that lack fundamental knowledge about a topic.
- Web focus groups are not yet a good option in all countries, as the penetration of high speed internet access is still very low in some countries (often depending on the level of the employee in the company, or the financial situation of the family)
- Complex visual aids can be difficult when PC monitor types and resolutions vary dramatically - sometimes if the product industrial design is a critical factor, showing printouts or physical models provides more consistent results.
- Web Focus Groups require that respondents have uninterrupted access to high speed web access for two hours or more. (this often depends on the country in which they are located or on their socioeconomic position).
Web Focus Group Timing
Web focus groups are one of the fastest types of market research. If there are not a great deal of visual aids to be produced and the research team is well aligned on the business issues to be addressed and the research objectives - it's not impossible to complete a single language study in only 3 or 4 weeks - from planning to results. (web focus groups take slightly longer to plan than simple web questionnaires, because you have to get a number of potential respondents who are available for the same 2 hour block of time.)
