Focus groups help businesses learn what their customers think, enabling strategic decision-making focused on their target market's true wants and needs.
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updated November 28, 2023 · 3min read
You may have designed the perfect product or found a unique market gap for your business, but does anyone want to buy it?
Of course, that is the critical question, and a focus group can help you understand what your customers want, why they want it, and how you can hone your product or messaging to help secure a sale.
Originating after World War II, focus groups were initially called "group depth interviews" because they bring together a group of people to probe a specific topic with a moderator's assistance.
That is the format they have taken ever since: up to 10 strangers in a room responding to questions for about 90 minutes while assessors watch out of sight, often on the other side of a one-way mirror.
Online focus groups can be video discussions or synchronous or asynchronous text-based conversations. Restrictions on group gatherings accelerated the increasing popularity of this format during the pandemic.
The purpose differs depending on a company's needs. Startups frequently use focus groups to find product-market fit. They seek to understand whether their proposed solution addresses their customers' problems and pain points.
"The best way to do that is to have an open-ended discussion," says Matt Foley, founder of FocusGroupIt. "You can do that one on one, but it's often more efficient to do it with a group."
Established businesses use focus groups to determine whether they are delivering on their promises, how they can improve customer experiences, the contours of the customer journey, and reactions to new features and functionality.
Focus groups give businesses valuable strategic insight into their customers or potential customers, which they can use to pursue promising ideas, spend smartly, and adjust course adroitly. Being able to operate with informed, strategic intent allows businesses to make decisions that favor growth and sustainability.
Laurie Tema-Lyn, founder and president of research firm Practical Imagination Enterprises, recalls a multiday study she conducted for a manufacturer of healthy snack foods, which helped the company zero in on a slate of new products to develop.
The focus groups "gave them a real-world look at their shoppers and the guidance for the new products that would be appealing to those segments," she says. "It was a very condensed, cost- and time-effective, and creative process for the client."
Here are some ways that focus groups help companies enable smart growth.
Running a focus group isn't free—organizing one typically runs from $4,000 to $12,000—but think of that as a worthy investment in your business' strategic growth.
The sooner you can learn what your target market wants, the sooner you'll be on the path to greater success.
by Katherine Gustafson
Katherine Gustafson is a full-time freelance writer specializing in creating content related to tech, business, fina...
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