Online Focus Groups: Two Ways to Better Insights
For as long as qualitative research has existed, focus groups have been the go-to methodology for researchers. In fact, a cottage industry has sprung up around them—focus group facilities, qualitative recruiting, moderating techniques and even M&M’s manufacturing (yes, the candy). While focus group studies still have their place in the world of qualitative research for certain projects, the vast majority can be moved online—with researchers benefitting from the convenience, time and cost savings, and more in-depth insights. There are two ways to conduct an online focus group:
• Bulletin Board Focus Group: Asynchronous (not real-time) text-based platforms that take place over three to five days (for most consumer studies) and allow participants to upload images, videos and even webcam responses. Questions are posted by the moderator and then at some time after that (a minute, an hour, a day), participants log in and answer.
• Webcam Interviewing: Real-time platforms where the moderator and participants gather online to have discussions and review stimuli while seeing and hearing each other, just as they would in a facility, but through the use of webcams. Everyone gathers at the same time, sessions last 1½ – 2 hours, and researchers can see and hear what the participants are saying (intonation, facial gestures, etc.).
For either platform, the obvious benefits are significant dollar and time savings—no facility rental, food and beverages, travel, lodgings or ground transportation (for moderators or clients), or time lost traveling from city to city. In addition, with an online focus group, the project has no geographical boundaries—you can find the best participants, not just those who are available at the right place and right time. Here are some additional benefits for each:
4 Reasons to Use Webcam Interviewing for Your Next Online Focus Group:
1. Webcam interviewing makes it easy to show stimuli of nearly any kind—static images, video, PowerPoint presentations and software; participants can even do collaborative mark-up.
2. Researchers can ask simple polling questions.
3. The participants (moderator and clients, too) can log in anywhere with a high-speed connection.
4. At the end of the online focus group, the researcher leaves with a link to a full video recording of the session.
3 Benefits of an Anytime Discussion
The bulletin board focus group is the most comprehensive—and most flexible—of all of the online research software platforms, mostly because of its asynchronous nature. The discussion is not in real time, which offers three huge benefits:
1. Convenience: Participants (and clients) log in when it is convenient for them. If they get stuck in traffic, have to stay late at the office or work the night shift at the plant, it doesn’t matter.
2. Democratic participation: Unlike an in-person focus group, in which one or two people usually answer a question, with the rest of the group nodding their heads in tacit approval, a bulletin board focus group gives every participant a chance to answer every question, because there is no fighting for “microphone time.”
3. Depth of insights: Unlike a live interview, where participants are pressed to respond immediately to a question, bulletin board focus group participants can take as much time as they want to think about their answers before they respond. Couple that benefit with the study being spread out over multiple days and it’s clear that the bulletin board focus group provides a level of depth that is simply unattainable with in-person groups.
Learn more about 20|20’s bulletin board focus group software, QualBoard, and QualMeeting, our webcam interviewing solution for an online focus group.
