Course: SLF 130 Marketing Practices for the Small Business

Unit 6 Reading

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- Unit 6
- Table of Contents (Selected)
- Unit 6 Glossary (Selected)

Market Research Page 3

THE FOCUS GROUP PROCESS
A focus group is a group of consumers (or potential consumers) gathered together for the purpose of asking them questions. This can be a very sophisticated process for big businesses, but a small business owner can use the format to gather very helpful information. There is no specified size for a focus group; generally five to eight is a manageable size for a small business focus group.
Small Business Owners: How to set up a focus group

Think about family members, friends, students, or community members that would be willing to give you an hour of their time to discuss a business proposal. It is important that you do not invite only those individual who are already familiar with the new concept or type of business. Since a business will generally have to educate some prospects about a new value proposition to develop a substantial customer base, it is important to include informed participants as well as uninformed participants.

Ask the focus group members to join a group at a restaurant or coffee shop to simply talk about the business idea. It is important to have some planned questions, but, allowing the participants to talk freely, without intervention, is the most important benefit of a focus group. The moderator should sit back and discreetly take notes, or if possible, record the session for later review. (The participants should be told that their activity will be recorded and assured that the responses are going to be used ONLY by the small business for the purposes of start-up.)

Buying a simple meal or coffee for a small group is a very reasonable price for very valuable input!

Emphasize the fact that honest and truthful answers and opinions are needed. People generally answer in a way that is polite and encouraging to an aspiring entrepreneur; however, you need to hear the tough questions and comments!

The questions should be carefully thought out before the focus group session begins. Note that these questions could also be asked of customers through emails, but there is something special that develops when customers meet face to face and talk about products and how and why they buy and use them.

The most important rule about conducting a focus group is this -

LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN!

This is not a sales pitch, but a way to get honest and direct feedback from potential customers.

STOP AND REVIEW

A focus group is a group of consumers gathered together for the purpose of asking them questions about products, and why they buy them and how they use them. A focus group for a small business might have 5 to 8 participants.

A focus group should include both “informed” and “uninformed” participants. It is important to include consumers that might benefit from the product or service, but are not familiar with the concept.

The most important guideline that a focus group moderator must follow is this: listen, listen, listen.