Skip to main content icon/video/no-internet
icon backReturn to Entries

Focus Group

A focus group is a qualitative research method in which a trained moderator conducts a collective interview of typically six to eight participants from similar backgrounds, similar demographic characteristics, or both. Focus groups create open lines of communication across individuals and rely on the dynamic interaction between participants to yield data that would be impossible to gather via other approaches, such as one-on-one interviewing. When done well, focus groups offer powerful insights into people's feelings and thoughts and thus a more detailed, nuanced, and richer understanding of their perspectives on ideas, products, and policies.

This entry begins by describing the historical background of focus groups. The entry then discusses issues that researchers might consider in choosing to use focus groups, including their strengths and limitations. Next, the entry describes the types of focus groups; the steps taken to prepare for focus groups; and the analysis of, and reports pertaining to, the data gathered. Finally, the entry addresses some ethical considerations in relation to focus groups.

Background

Focus groups first appeared in academic research in the 1920s. At that time, scholars such as Walter Thurstone used group interviews to develop survey instruments. During World War II, Robert Merton and Paul Lazarsfeld used them to develop propaganda and other war time materials for the U.S. government. Between the 1950s and 1980s, focus groups became increasingly prominent in marketing and yet were rarely used in academic research. Marketers began to refer to them as group depth interviews, in which professionals trained in probing sources of behavior could work to uncover customers' psychological motivations.

In the 1980s, focus groups became more prominent in scholarly circles. This renewed attention was due both to work in social marketing (researching public health concerns) and the emergence of scholarly articles and books on focus groups as a method in the mid-1980s and 1990s by David Morgan, Richard Krueger, and others. Today, focus groups are common for academic research, product marketing, evaluation research, and quality improvement. In these arenas, they are used to help identify problems, to assist in the planning process, to aid the implementation of ideas and programs, and to assess data and outcomes.

Considerations for Choosing Focus Croups

Focus groups thrive in marketing because they provide a useful format to learn about people's reactions to concepts. These group conversations are most appropriate when participants, as a group, are asked to respond to stimuli and then share and compare their responses with and against others in the group. Focus groups provide insight into individuals, such as how they think and feel (as well as how often and deeply they think and feel) about ideas or products, when and under what conditions their thoughts and feelings lead to behaviors, when complicated or contradictory thoughts and behaviors emerge in response to topics or products, and how diverse groups view a specific idea or product. Moreover, this method allows researchers to assess more subtle feelings people may harbor about topics, to test pilot ideas, to shed light on previously collected data, and to aid in the construction of future large scale quantitative survey studies. In all of these instances, it is important to allow data to “emerge” freely from participants and to listen for the deeper understanding of the range of ideas.

...

  • Loading...
locked icon

Sign in to access this content

Get a 30 day FREE TRIAL

  • Watch videos from a variety of sources bringing classroom topics to life
  • Read modern, diverse business cases
  • Explore hundreds of books and reference titles

Read next

More like this

Sage Recommends

We found other relevant content for you on other Sage platforms.

close

Have you created a personal profile? Login or create a profile so that you can save clips, playlists and searches

close
close
close Signed In to profile You are signed in as:
close
Logged in Institution Institution