Question

Discussion: Focus Groups

Question One: Next week, we will simulate an in-class focus group to attempt to better understand consumer behavior of the target market consisting of college students between the ages of 17 and 25. In order to do so, market researchers must better understand this target market's attitudes, values, interests, perceptions, motivation, and preferences in the marketplace. The client for which our class is conducting this focus group is the management team that oversees the strategic marketing of Eastland Mall located in Bloomington. Your task is to craft a minimum of fifteen qualitative questions for our in-class focus group to answer the research problem: How can Eastland Mall generate more traffic from our predesignated target market? (During class, we will break into groups, share these questions with elected moderators, and conduct a focus group to better understand buyer behavior).

Question Two: In your opinion, what are the challenge(s) of conducting an effective focus group? Please respond using a minimum of three full paragraphs to this discussion forum.

Answer 1

F O C U S G R O U P – questionnaire

1. what do you think about the mall in general (Attitude)
2. what are the things that come to mind when you think about the mall(brand associations)
3. if the mall were a person how would it be (brand personality)
4. why would you prefer this to other malls (Values)
5. what are the things you find interesting satisfying happy (Interest)
6. Do you think the mal has good quality service (Perceptions)?

Motivation-

1. why do you go to a mall in general
2. why would you visits the mall again
3. Would you recommend the mall to your friends/ relatives? If so for what(to understand the strengths and differentiating factor)?

Preferences

1. What would like to buy/ avail from a mall?
2. What are the first three things when you think about this mall?
3. what are you favorite malls and why
4. why would you prefer one mall to another
5. What are the problems the mall has?
6. What changes could be made to the mall

Challenge of conducting an effective focus group

The moderator introduces the topic for god discussion. He explains the topic and participates in the discussion and helps to direct the discussion. He also helps in clarifying things

Too many participants can be problems in terms of regulation and focus. Keeping the participants to focus on the topic is a common challenge. Also getting the participants to understand the situation or questions correctly can consumer a lot of time. Language and communication styles are also very important for a moderator. It is difficult to get answers   for questions especially to find emotional needs and social needs. Participants may not reveal everything and may not Be outspoken

Trying to understand the actual behavior may be tricky because consumers may not do what they actually say and can be misleading. One or more persons may dominate and the group may tend to fall into group think. This will affect espscially people in the group who are introverts. Participants may be discussing more about sensational topics leaving out others

Participant selection in terms of number, diversity and quality is also a problem. Sample sizes may be ineffective and it may not be able to generalize the sample results. The artificial environment created in a focus group in which participants are being watched constantly influences participant’s behavior heavily