Marketing Research and Focus Groups

Marketing Research and Focus Groups

Marketing research is an essential business strategy that depends on focus groups. Marketing research is the process of assessing target markets and learning individual perceptions, beliefs, and interests. It entails collecting groups of potential customers and getting information from them regarding a particular product or service (Twin, 2022). Consequently, such groups include focus groups. Market research focus groups comprise 5-10 individuals selected based on criteria like age, location, and/or socioeconomic status (Pollfish, n. d). The participants are wholly chosen to provide insight; hence, the presence of a facilitator who conducts discussions. In this paper, marketing research and focus groups are to be evaluated, thus the description of marketing research’s importance and how focus groups can be used for concept testing.

Importance of Marketing Research

For an organization, marketing research is vital because it instills focus on customer needs and demands, promotes business opportunities, and enhances an institution’s advertising efforts. Customer needs and demands are achievable through effective market research that places them at the center of all operations. Concurrently, marketing research provides one with insight that enables him to pay attention to details. Such details entail the minute dislikes that customers may project towards a product or service. For instance, high prices and/or culturally insensitive designs.

Business opportunities emerge with productive marketing research that pays close attention to the business environment. A business environment comprises external factors such as competitors. Thus, effective marketing research helps an emergent business recognize its competition and the kind of products offered by them. As a result, this can create partnerships wherein one can opt to produce different products and then jointly engage in promotions with the other business (Roque, 2020). Alternatively, by learning about the competitor’s products, marketing research can aid one in discovering the best product sales, enabling him/her to formulate upgrades that will enhance his/her competitive advantage.

Moreover, advertising efforts are enhanced through marketing research that projects the actual behavior of consumers (Twin, 2022). Consumer behavior tends to vary depending on factors like age or location. Consequently, an entity can study such factors through market research and tailor their advertisements. Hence, instead of advertising on Facebook while targeting teenagers, they can advertise on Instagram or Tiktok.

How Focus Groups can be used for Concept Testing

A new product can be illustrated through a concept statement, which provides a factual description of a product’s features. Description can include illustrations, images, or pictures, which a focus group can be provided to scrutinize (FocusGroupTips.com, n. d).

First, using the product statement, participating individuals can be tasked with circling aspects they are uncomfortable with. These can include sentences, words, or phrases that appear insensitive and appalling to the region’s culture, beliefs, and guiding principles. Secondly, the participants ought to place question marks on seemingly confusing illustrations. These can be followed by comments highlighting more appropriate words or images that should have been employed. The third use of focus groups is getting the group participants to provide ratings. On a scale- ranging from poor, average, good, and excellent- individuals have to provide the product’s ranking with further indications of how unique/different it is. Finally follows the price indication. Each participant in the group gets to issue an estimation of the product’s price and whether it is worth purchasing.

In summary, this essay has evaluated marketing research’s importance and how focus groups can be used for concept testing. The highlighted importance of marketing research includes more instilled customer needs and demands, promoted business opportunities, and enhanced advertising efforts. On the other hand, details on how focus groups can be used were based on a range of activities pertaining to circling, placing of question marks, provision of ratings, and price issuance.

References

FocusGroupTips.com. (n. d). Concept testing in qualitative marketing research. https://www.focusgrouptips.com/concept-testing.html

Pollfish. (n. d). What is a focus group, and how to use it in your market research. https://resources.pollfish.com/market-research/what-is-a-focus-group-and-how-to-use-it-in-your-market-research/

Roque, C. (2020). 7 Reasons why marketing research is important to a business. Evanto tuts+. https://business.tutsplus.com/articles/why-is-marketing-research-important–cms-31593

Twin, A. (2022). Researching the market: How to conduct market research, types, and example. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/market-research.asp