Focus Group

Also known as: Focus Group, Group Discussion, Group Interview

Moderated group discussion with 6-10 consumers to explore attitudes, perceptions, and reactions to a topic or stimulus.

A Focus Group is a qualitative research technique where an expert moderator conducts a structured discussion with a group of 6-10 selected consumers to explore in depth their attitudes, perceptions, motivations, and reactions to a topic, product, concept, or communication campaign.

Strengths: interaction between participants generates insights that don't emerge in individual interviews, group dynamics can reveal tensions and contradictions in attitudes, and it is relatively efficient in time and cost for exploratory research.

Limitations: susceptibility to groupthink (social pressure for conformity), the most vocal participant can dominate the conversation, and the small sample doesn't allow statistical generalizations.

Atlantia conducts focus groups both in-person and online as part of its mixed research projects.