Question

Focus group interviewing is both a widely used and a widely criticized research technique in marketing. What are the advantages and disadvantages of focus groups? What are some kinds of questions that are appropriate for focus groups to investigate?

Answer 1

Ask your students to pick which side of this debate they stand on. Have each side prepare and present the advantages or disadvantages of using focus groups. Focus groups are advantageous in terms of being able to provide subjective feedback in a relatively non-structured way as compared to a questionnaire or an interview. The disadvantage is that if the members of a focus group are not selected carefully, the group may not represent the “feelings” or feedback of a larger customer base the company hopes to target through their product or service. Questions that are generally seeking qualitative information rather than quantitative information are best suited for focus groups.

• Advantages: Focus groups are fast and cheap; they are good for generating hypotheses when little is known about a situation; they reduce the distance between the respondent and the marketer who uses the research; they are flexible and can be adjusted while the discussion is underway, in response to an interesting or unanticipated point; interview respondents stimulate each other to say things they might not have revealed in a one-to-one interview; and the results are in a form that non research-oriented people can understand.

 

• Disadvantages: Focus groups should not be treated as representative of a population, but careless marketers sometimes act as if this is the case; they are not good for evaluating really new concepts that are outside the participants’ experience; the order of discussion can influence responses; and participants may not want to say things that they feel could embarrass the interviewer, so the focus group may give a one-sided view of what is being discussed.