Online Focus Groups
Online focus groups are virtual discussions where participants share their opinions and feedback on products, services, or marketing strategies. These groups are conducted through online platforms, allowing for a geographically diverse pool of participants. They provide marketers with valuable insights into consumer preferences and behaviors, helping to inform strategic decision-making and campaign development.
8 Key excerpts on "Online Focus Groups"
eBook - ePub- Catherine Dawson(Author)
- 2019(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...CHAPTER 39 Online Focus Groups Overview Online Focus Groups are a collection of interacting individuals, with common characteristics or interests, holding an online discussion (verbal or text-based) on a particular topic that is introduced and led by a moderator. This can be through live chat rooms, video interaction, web cams, text-based forums, instant messaging or bulletin boards, for example. It is also possible to conduct focus groups in virtual worlds (Stewart and Shamdasani, 2017). Online Focus Groups are used as a research method within a variety of qualitative methodologies, including action research, grounded theory and ethnography, and in mixed methods approaches to help explain statistics that have been gathered in survey research, for example. Online Focus Groups can be used in the preliminary or planning stages of a research project, perhaps to help inform and develop a questionnaire, or they can be used as the sole data collection method in a research project (de Lange et al., 2018 and Fox et al., 2007 provide examples of research projects that use Online Focus Groups as their only data collection method). The aim of an online focus group is not to reach consensus: instead, it is to gain a greater understanding of attitudes, opinions, beliefs, behaviour, perceptions and/or reactions to stimuli. There are two types of online focus group: synchronous Online Focus Groups take place in real-time by video, web conferencing or in a chat room, for example. Participants are able to communicate with each other, and with the moderator, listening, reacting, commenting and adding to the discussion as it unfolds (Fox et al., 2007). Asynchronous Online Focus Groups (or bulletin board focus groups), on the other hand, take place over several days. Questions are posted at intervals and participants can log in over a period of time to answer questions and contribute to the discussion. The moderator does not have to be online for the duration of the focus group...
eBook - ePub- Bonita M. Kolb(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Digital methods of communication are now also being used to conduct qualitative research, such as interviews and focus groups. In fact, when holding focus groups to discuss the benefits of digital products or the effectiveness of social media promotion, online might be the preferred option. People targeted with digital products and promotion will already be comfortable interacting using technology. They might view the necessity of all being in the same physical location at the same time to share opinions as unnecessarily constricting. These digital methods of conducting focus groups using website chat rooms of existing groups or links created expressly for the occasion take the place of in-person communication. When using this approach, the research and subject can communicate in real time or the researcher can leave the questions for participants to answer at a time of their convenience. By using webcams or other video technology, people will be able to see and interact with each other and the researcher. Asynchronous Online Focus Groups are sometimes referred to as bulletin board focus groups. The advantage is that the participants and group moderator do not need to present at the same time. Using methods such as Google Hangouts, the moderator posts questions, to which the focus group members respond (Stewart and Shamdasani 2017). The members also respond to the comments of others, duplicating the interaction that would take place when conducting a focus group in person. Online Focus Groups can also be conducted synchronously using Skype or some other form of video chat program. This has the advantage of enabling people to see each other body language. The disadvantage is that if the focus group participants live in different time zones, scheduling can be difficult. These methods try to replicate as closely as possible the personal interaction that takes place face to face. There are advantages to using online methods for focus groups and interviews...
eBook - ePub- Monique Hennink, Inge Hutter, Ajay Bailey(Authors)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...Virtual focus groups offer relative anonymity to participants compared to in-person groups, and allow greater comfort and convenience as participants can join from their own location, all of which may increase participation in the group. Participants in a virtual focus group may be less likely to dominate a discussion, thereby improving group dynamics (Barbour, 2007). Virtual groups are also cost effective as they eliminate costs for participant travel, venue rental and refreshments, and can be quickly reconvened if needed without added expense to a study. Online groups involve participants writing their responses, so they have the added advantage of generating an immediate transcript of the discussion, reducing the time and cost of transcription (Mann and Stewart, 2000). Virtual focus groups have important limitations due to their use of technology to conduct a discussion. Virtual groups require participants to have access to certain technology and familiarity on how to use it; they may also be disrupted by technical failure such as losing an internet connection. These issues are particularly relevant for studies in resource poor settings or amongst low literacy populations. Online Focus Groups often lack visual contact with participants, making moderation more challenging than in-person groups. A moderator is less able to gauge participants’ interest without seeing their facial expressions or body language, making it more difficult to encourage participant contributions, facilitate interaction and promote a discussion between participants. As a result, virtual focus groups may be shorter than in-person groups, potentially influencing data quality (Ross et al., 2006). Participants in virtual focus groups may also be more prone to distraction and disengagement from the discussion, as they are able to conduct other activities simultaneously. Strengths and limitations The strengths and limitations of focus group discussions are summarized in Table 8.1...
eBook - ePubMarket Research in Practice
An Introduction to Gaining Greater Market Insight
- Paul Hague(Author)
- 2021(Publication Date)
- Kogan Page(Publisher)
...06 Focus groups The focus group The focus group is a research tool used to collect data through group interaction on a topic. Essentially, it is a group experience comprising a small number of carefully selected people who are recruited to discuss a subject on the basis of their shared experience. Focus groups have four key characteristics: They actively involve people. The people attending the group have an experience or interest in common. They provide in-depth qualitative data. The discussion is focused to help us understand what is going on. Focus groups have traditionally taken place in a face-to-face environment, with all participants brought together in one location for a given period of time to discuss the research topic. However, technological advances have made it possible to bring groups together online, overcoming the barrier of participant proximity to the focus group venue. Online groups tend to adopt one of two styles: the ‘live chat’ forum or the ‘bulletin board’ group, which tends to remain open and live for several days but does not require participants to be logged in during the whole period. The people that make up a focus group Focus groups typically are made up of five to 10 people. The group needs to be small enough to allow everyone the opportunity to share insights, and yet large enough to provide group interaction and diversity of experience. Larger face-to-face groups inhibit discussion, as some delegates shy away from venturing opinions, while smaller groups may be limited in their pool of ideas. Bulletin style online groups afford the opportunity for a larger number of participants. Commonality of experience and interest Focus group participants have a degree of homogeneity, and this is important to the researcher...
eBook - ePubQualitative Research Practice
A Guide for Social Science Students and Researchers
- Jane Ritchie, Jane Lewis, Carol McNaughton Nicholls, Rachel Ormston(Authors)
- 2013(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...It might for example involve forecasting or predicting the likelihood of different scenarios. It is also particularly useful where it will be difficult to bring a group together physically (for example because of distance or time pressures), or where being together physically might constrain the open articulation of views. Views are gathered from panel or group members individually (through qualitative and/or quantitative questioning, online, by telephone or in writing), and then analysed, summarised and circulated within the group once more. The questions, or a variation on them, are repeated with each panel member able to revise their forecast or view based on the initial analysis. This process continues with further iterations of data collection and feedback until sufficient refinement in responses has been achieved – which in some studies would mean that consensus is reached or no further changes occur in the forecasts. Teleconferencing technology allows telephone groups to be conducted, particularly with less mobile, time-pressed or geographically dispersed populations (Krueger and Casey, 2009). Online Focus Groups are also being used more (Krueger and Casey, 2009). They may involve synchronous discussion, in which participants (and researchers) log on at the same time and exchange views in real time, using online chat software. Alternatively, discussion may be asynchronous with people logging on to make comments as and when they want to, and so not necessarily simultaneously. Clearly, here and in nominal groups the role of the researcher will be quite different from their moderation of a live group (Graffigna and Bosio, 2006; Hine, 2005). Online moderation techniques are discussed further at the end of the chapter. In summary, group-based research can take many different forms...
eBook - ePub- Gwen Bouvier, Joel Rasmussen(Authors)
- 2022(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...Doing interviews at a distance implies new opportunities that did not exist when you, for practical reasons, were tied to a physical place for selection of informants and implementation of the method. When using online focus group interviews, there is a growing stream of research to draw lessons from (Abrams and Gaiser, 2017; Lobe, 2017; Parmentier and Rolland, 2013; Thrul et al., 2017). Both the recruitment of informants through social media and the conduct of focus group interviews online are topics that are explained in this chapter. Thus, this chapter addresses some of these developments and opportunities online. Although some aspects of conducting focus groups are new in the digital era, if social media or other online tools are utilized, the basis of the craft of planning and implementing focus groups is still about more timeless things such as proper construction and organization of interview questions. Knowing how to interview – without directing the conversation too much or too little – is a great advantage and indeed is needed when conducting focus groups. Thus, any overview of focus groups needs to address some of the knowledge required to formulate a breadth of questions that cover the topic and arranging them in a suitable succession, with regard to common human reactions, and being sensitive to the informants’ statements so that important follow-up questions do not go amiss. This is also an area that is addressed in the chapter. In the following, a section is provided on the historical background of focus group interviews as well as a brief literature review of recent studies researching social media using focus groups. Subsequently, the chapter addresses the planning and implementation of focus group interviews. Social media is brought to the fore partly in that the examples provided comprise studies of social media, partly through explanations of how projects can utilize social media for recruitment of informants and also conduct focus groups online...
eBook - ePubQualitative Methods in Business Research
A Practical Guide to Social Research
- Päivi Eriksson, Anne Kovalainen(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications Ltd(Publisher)
...14 Focus Group Research This chapter will provide information on: What focus group research means How to organize and conduct focus groups How to analyze focus group data How to write and evaluate focus group studies. What is focus group research? The term focus group derives from ‘focused group discussion’. This means that a group of people is ‘focused’ on discussing a selected topic or an issue. Focus groups were used in the USA before and during World War II to study the reception of war propaganda broadcast on radio. Some of the key procedures of focus group research were refined in the 1950s by Robert Merton and his colleagues (Kamberelis and Dimitriadis, 2014). Since then, focus groups have been adapted into social science research and psychology as well as practical market and consumer research (Stewart and Shamdasani, 2014). Focus groups are widely used in academic marketing research to study consumer behaviour, including attitudes, needs, perceptions, preferences and choices. In addition, focus groups have been adopted in business-to-business marketing research, which addresses topics such as industrial buying, development of competition, and business relationships and networks. Besides marketing, business researchers can use focus groups in all sub-fields of business research, varying from human resource management and workplace studies (Claes and Heymans, 2008) to accounting (Gammie, et al. 2003), and SME studies (Bøllingtoft, 2012). The aims of focus group research in business research include collecting empirical data on lay people’s, experts’ and managers’ viewpoints, beliefs, experiences and, most importantly, on their spontaneous interaction (Edmunds, 2000). Focus groups work for all these purposes because of the interaction taking place among the participants. Studying interaction provides an insight into how individuals are influenced by and draw on others’ viewpoints in a group situation (Stewart and Shamdasani, 2014)...
eBook - ePub- David L. Morgan(Author)
- 1997(Publication Date)
- SAGE Publications, Inc(Publisher)
...Rather than generalizing to larger populations, you may need an in-depth understanding of a particular setting or circumstance. This is where focus groups and other qualitative methods excel. For example, when the research topic involves understanding the success or failure of a particular program in a specific setting, focus groups may well be the most efficient and effective tool for uncovering the reasons behind this outcome. Put simply, different methods have different strengths. For many purposes, the strengths of focus groups will be entirely sufficient. Focus Groups Tell You How People Will Behave Focus groups, individual interviews, and surveys all rely on verbal reports. They tell you how people say they will behave. These data thus consist of attitudes. As social psychologists know all too well, predicting behavior from attitudes is a tricky business. Often, no matter how sincerely people believe they will do something, when it comes right down to it, they do something else. Survey researchers have had to deal with this myth for years—carefully explaining that the kinds of attitudes that surveys capture may not be strong predictors of actual behavior. The same problem occurs with focus groups. In fact, this myth may be even stronger for focus groups, since you can actually witness people saying what they will do. Not only do you get to hear people talk about their likely behavior, you can watch the group validate these statements as everyone nods and murmurs agreement. This is indeed evidence about how people will behave, and it can be quite compelling evidence, but it is far from conclusive. The naive acceptance of what people say in focus groups can be quite costly. For example, in a needs assessment project, people may swear up and down that a program is essential, and then, after you go to all the trouble and expense to provide that program, they fail to use it...
