Millennium Marketing Research®

Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

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Focus Groups

Having been involved with many focus groups over the course of many years, first as observers then as  moderators, we've thought a lot about how to get the most out of them. Like most of you, we've often thought of focus groups (qualitative research) as research that is merely preliminary to the "real" research, i.e., quantitative research. But following the sage advice of Ivanovitch, the greatest mathematician to ever get chalk dust on his coat, we never let anyone else's work evade our eye. Some years ago, we observed a couple of focus group moderators who worked out of Vadnais Heights, Minnesota. Quite frankly, as moderators, they just weren't good. But they used focus groups in a most excellent fashion: to amplify already collected quantitative data.

At first, we told them that they were out of their collective minds. But we always at least listen to what others have to say. And they persuasively argued the merits of using qualitative research to amplify quantitative research. So taken were we by their thoughts, we expanded upon it, and now regularly use focus groups in that fashion. We even wrote an article about it, which was published in the professional literature:

Garee, M. L. & Schori, T. R. Focus groups illuminate quantitative research. Marketing News, 1996, Vol. 30, 4.

Of course, we don't conduct focus groups just to "illuminate quantitative research." We also use them to in the more traditional ways, e.g., for evaluating alternative ad copy, to test advertising campaign ideas, or to probe consumers understanding of some issue or another. Though a good proportion of the groups we conduct are with consumers, we also do groups where we focus on various issues of interest with business decision-makers.

Generally, Tom Schori & Mike Garee, Millennium Marketing®'s principals moderate the focus groups we conduct for clients. However, if it does not appear that Tom & Mike would be a good match for a given target market, we don't hesitate to bring in other moderators under contract. Recently, for example, we made arrangements for Spanish-speaking moderator (who is a Ph.D psychologist) to conduct focus groups in Mexico City. Of course, even when we bring in an outside moderator, Tom or Mike (at absolutely no extra cost to the client) will attend the sessions to ensure that everything goes exactly as planned.

We enjoy conducting focus groups. At the start of each session, we tell the participants that they're going to learn a lot and that they'll thoroughly enjoy the session. Tom, just being himself, always makes a point of shaking hands with every participant and thanking them for their participation. And he's yet to find an unhappy participant. Shortly, we will have some video clips, here at our site,  from past focus groups we've moderated so that you can see for yourself.