The
WJSchroer Co. offers the ability to host and conduct Focus Group
Discussions as an integral part of its research service offerings.
Group
Room
The focus group room is professionally designed and maintained to represent
a standard for attention to detail and excellence in service.
- The group
room is located in the Two West Michigan office building. This
building is under WJSchroer ownership and full access to the
building is assured to meet focus group discussion requirements.
- Two West
Michigan is located on the main intersection in the heart of
downtown Battle Creek, across the street from the W.K.Kellogg
Foundation, making the location easy to access. A large number
of available parking spaces are located conveniently in the
rear of the building in the State Street parking lot.
The Company
utilizes a modern group room with a full complement of support
materials:
- The group
room is neutral in color with one large conference table comfortably
seating 12 in the center of the room. There are “board” rails
around the room so ad campaign boards, posters, or product
mock-ups may be set up around the room. There is a white board,
easel and flipchart and 4x5 foot screen for slides or movies
mounted at the front. Lights are provided from both “can” and
track lights to provide spot lighting on materials along the
wall or highlight the respondents.
- The observation
room seats seven in tiered seating with comfortable viewing
of all parts of the group room.
- The technology
supporting the focus group includes stereo recording on digital
audio tape, with high speed dubbing capabilities. Video recording
is done via Mitsubishi color camera recording directly to separate ½" VHS
video tape recorders.
There is a
comfortable waiting area for respondents and clients enter the
observation area through a separate door.
Staff at WJSchroer
Co. have been thoroughly trained in providing seamless, courteous
service to client staff and respondents.
Moderation
For those clients who need the support of an expert moderator, a key difference
to the WJSchroer Focus Group experience is the training, background and ability
of the moderator.
As most focus
group literature emphasizes, the skills needed to bring the most
candid and engaged responses are a function of an empathic, intuitive
moderator who can quickly “read” a group and use
the combination of tools at his/her disposal to bring out the
innermost feelings and attitudes of the respondents in a casual
and engaging fashion.
Coupling that
unique ability to get the most out of a group of respondents
with an unusual sense of analytical ability to extract the most
meaningful and relevant information yields a research product
of unusual quality and maximum information value to the client
team.
Bill Schroer
has been conducting groups on subjects as diverse as food, government,
medical, mental health, funeral services, retirement, school
reform, and library use for over 15 years. His insights, ability
to draw out reluctant contributors and constrain the effusive,
all while insuring the material is fully covered and respondents
are fully enjoying themselves, is a finely honed skill used to
advantage by clients from across the state of Michigan.
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| Focus
group discussions are a formal research method with a history of
successful use in almost every sector of business, consumer products,
services and public sector environments. Nevertheless, focus groups
are a qualitative research instrument, used to build an understanding
of the reasons why respondents feel the way they do. These reactions
may be very helpful in understanding what lies beyond the rating
or score a respondent might provide in a quantitative study. The
results of focus groups are not projectible and findings must be
interpreted with care. In doing so, however, focus groups may provide
exceptionally insightful information for marketers and management
teams.
The focus group is an in-depth group interview, normally comprised
of from 8-12 individuals led by a trained moderator. Small or mini-groups
of around 6 individuals have gained favor in recent years as the
complexity of many products or services combined with the life experience
many respondents have with a product or service makes it difficult
to tie together 10-12 stories into a meaningful amount of information
in the limited time available. Groups normally meet for two hours,
although there has been some variation from that with some groups
meeting for an hour or one and one half hours.
The concept of a focus group is derived from group therapy techniques.
In the development of these techniques psychologists posited individuals
who have a common problem/interest will be more willing to discuss
it among others with a similar interest/problem. Using a trained
moderator to assist in guiding a discussion along the lines of inquiry
while allowing respondents to develop a natural discussion dynamic
yielded rich, heartfelt views and attitudes which were delivered
without political correctness or the tendency to equivocate or balance
views as happens in more formal conversation.
The focus group is a research tool used for a variety of meaningful
research purposes. These include:
- New product development work
- Positioning studies
- Habits and Usage Studies
- Packaging Assessments
- Attitude Studies
- Advertising Copy Evaluations
- Promotion Evaluation
- Idea Generation
- Employee Attitude and Motivation
Studies
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