Focus groups are an essential enabler that play an important role in assisting businesses to both understand their customers and better understanding how their product fits in the market. Additionally, these groups provide information that better assist the business in possibly making adjustments or realignments to their product to better suit the needs of their target market segment. In this paper, I will look at focus groups and all aspects related to both creation, structure, methods, logistics planning, and compensation for focus group participants. Additionally, I will share my experiences in attempting to conduct a focus group with family and friends to better understand the execution and resulting lessons learned from this experience. …show more content…
What qualities and features of craft beer do you not like? Understanding what information, you want to obtain from the focus group is important as you must begin this process with the end desired results in mind. The desired outcome from these focus groups is the perception of the new beer on its own characteristics and merits, how it stands against its closest competitors, and what characteristics are important in identification of the next beer to launch from the brewery. Compensation for focus group participants would be in the form of both free food and drink for focus group participants at the Area 41 Pizza Company. This compensation would be at minimal cost to the business and would encourage future participation in additional focus groups. Logistics would be at minimal cost to the business. The focus groups would be conducted in the tap room of the brewery. Solicitation for focus group members would be made both in the restaurant and on the restaurant’s social media platforms. In-room observers would record the focus group sessions, as well as video recordings to save archival copies for future viewing and reference. With full notification to the focus group participants, these recordings would be conducted with minimal intrusion of the group to enable the group to be more at ease (Carey, 1994). These considerations and planning processes will ensure that a cost efficient and effective product focus group process is emplaced for both current future …show more content…
As my identified product is a beer, there are many family and friends that are not alcoholic beverage consumers. This immediately reduced the available population for inclusion to the focus group. Another issue with formation of the focus groups is the geographical dispersion of friends and family to be included. Once group size is reduced based on those that consume alcoholic beverages, there are fewer friends and family to pick from that would genuinely be interested in the initial offerings of a local brewery. Interaction is another aspect to discuss with these focus