Using Focus Groups In Market Research - Part 1 of 2
Despite their recent shunt into the public eye over the past decade, focus groups are nothing new. Within the social sciences, they can be found detailed in the literature as far back as the 1920’s. This non-directive approach increased in appeal in the 1930s and 1940s as many sociologists were looking for alternative ways of conducting interviews as the traditional closed response choice questionnaires were being questioned. Paul Lazersfeld, an academic also involved in marketing,used and documented the approach in evaluating audience responses to stimulus material such as films, radio and written manuals. Robert Merton, himself a Sociologist was introduced to the focus group technique by his colleague Lazersfeld, and he pioneered the approach with his work during World War II exploring morale in the US military for the War Department (Merton & Kendall 1946).
Today’s podcast, written by B2B International Director Carol-Ann Morgan, is part one of our two part podcast on ‘Using Focus Groups In Market Research’. The second part of the podcast will be published next Monday (2nd Oct).
Part One covers the following issues:
- HISTORY OF THE FOCUS GROUP
- WHAT IS THE FOCUS GROUP?
- WHEN DO YOU USE FOCUS GROUPS?
- AREAS OF SPECIAL CONSIDERATION:
- Culture
- Sensitivity of the Focus Topic
- The Effect of the Group Hierarchy
- Difficulties with Disclosure
- Match of Moderator
For more information on this area or for more white papers, please visit our company website at www.b2binternational.com. Visit our b2b-blog for more audio content, free eBook, and much more.This podcast is brought to you by Business 2 Business Market Research Specialists
Why not subscribe to our podcast using 
Using Focus Groups In Market Research - Part 1 of 2 [16:43m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
September 25th, 2006 at 9:47 am
[...] This week’s podcast (available at http://www.themarketresearchpodcast.com - B2B International’s new podcast website) is called “Using Focus Groups In Market Research”. This podcast is part one of two - the second part will be published next Monday - 2nd Oct. [...]
October 2nd, 2006 at 9:54 am
[...] Today’s podcast, written by B2B International Director Carol-Ann Morgan, is the second and final part of our podcast on ‘Using Focus Groups In Market Research’. You can hear the first part of the podcast by clicking here or by subscribing to the podcast. This Podcast covers the following topics: [...]
October 2nd, 2006 at 10:03 am
[...] This week’s podcast (available at http://www.themarketresearchpodcast.com - B2B International’s new podcast website) is called “Using Focus Groups In Market Research”. This podcast is the second and final part - the first part was published last week, and can be found here. [...]