Focus Insite

  Conducting a successful focus group is both an art and a science. Think about cooking. Just because you have a recipe, doesn’t mean you’ll have a successful outcome. Good cooks know how to account and respond to variables. The same holds true for moderators and market research recruitment consultants . Focus groups are effective for probing the ‘why’ and ‘how’ that drives consumer opinions and behaviors. Moderators seek a balance between structure and free-form: too much structure, and you limit opportunities for uncovering deeper insights; too little structure, and you end up with a rambling conversation that also limits insights. Let’s explore the framework that helps moderators find the ‘sweet spot’ for getting the most out of a focus group. 1. Bigger isn’t better. Focus groups that have between six to ten participants work best. Staying within this range allows all participants to engage and gives the moderator a chance to probe responses that yield richer insight...

When companies want to find answers to B2B questions, the instinct is to create a survey and blast it out to as many B2B customers as possible. For any company that has tried this, it is likely they were disappointed when survey responses were low, or the survey didn’t answer the questions they were hoping to find answers to. The problem isn’t the survey, per se, but in trying to use a quantitative study to answer B2B questions that would be more effectively answered with a qualitative research study. While you can’t extrapolate the findings from a qualitative study to a broader population, it’s a great compromise in that you’ll be able to answer many questions you were hoping to better understand, and you can confidently trust the results. An added bonus by conducting a qualitative study (which often involves focus groups and in-depth interviews) is that you’ll often discover many more insights to questions that you didn’t even think to ask. Insite research is a great w...

Market researchers routinely mention that one of their biggest challenges is finding quality participants. There is no shortage of professionally embarrassing stories that researchers can share about inappropriate and unqualified research participants. It makes one wonder if there are fundamental flaws in the way market research recruitment is conducted. There is no simple yes or no answer to this question, but we can provide insight as to why this issue persists. One reason we know that researchers are frustrated by some of the participants who show up (or don’t show up--a whole other issue) to participate in market research studies, is that many of these researchers have contacted us to manage recruitment for them, once they realize how challenging and time intensive recruiting can be. Without a dedicated team focused on recruiting, nationwide qualitative research firms know that outsourcing recruitment to a qualified, participant recruitment agency saves time...

When companies decide to conduct market research, they sometimes forego hiring a nationwide qualitative research firms , and instead try and manage the study internally. On numerous occasions, we’ve been asked how many additional participants should be recruited for a study. While each study is different, depending on the research methodology used, there is a commonality that all market research shares: you will always need a buffer when it comes to recruiting. We’ve had some pushback to this advice, as it can increase the costs of the project, but it’s rare to have a study where all the recruits required are able to see his/her commitment through. It’s much easier to replace a few study participants if you have a few extras ‘waiting in the wings.’ How many Extra Recruits do I need for Focus Groups? Most focus group recruitment agency is small to begin with. The ideal number for focus groups is between 6-7 participants. If fewer than this number show up for the ...

Nationwide qualitative research firms are often hired to conduct market research for the healthcare industry. Healthcare is a big umbrella and qualitative research consultants can be tasked with anything from studying people with specific health conditions to medical professional’s experience with Health Information Exchange (HIE) Systems. Recruiting can be especially challenging when conducting market research for the healthcare industry, which is why many research firms partner with a nationwide recruitment agency to manage the recruitment. Market research recruiting firms provide good value to market research because professional recruiters are experienced with outreach, screening, and management. These skills are especially appreciated by qualitative research consultants when it comes to healthcare or medical studies. Here are three reasons why hiring a participant recruitment agency for a market research healthcare study is important: 1. Familiarity —When...

Last week’s blog covered the basics of expert networks. This week we’ll focus on how expert networks can enhance qualitative research. It will come to no surprise to qualitative research consultants that market research is becoming more demanding, especially if the scope of the study requires executive-level or expert-level participation. Recruiting for such studies is much more challenging and often nationwide qualitative research firms will work with market research recruiting firms to help connect to hard-to-reach participants. Because of the challenge of getting a group of experts in a room for a focus group recruitment agency , some researchers design their studies to rely more on in-depth interviews, which can more easily accommodate demanding schedules. If it is so much trouble to get experts or executives to agree to participate in market research, you may wonder why bother. The short answer is including experts in certain market research studies can greatly enhan...