What are the theoretical assumptions of the focus group symposium and what is its role?

A group focus symposium is when a group of people provide information in an orderly manner following a prescribed procedure.

Since the 1950s, group focus groups have been used to solve a wide range of problems. In a group focus group, the facilitator guides a group of participants through an open and in-depth discussion, rather than simply asking questions and soliciting answers from the participants. When discussing issues related to new products, the facilitator focuses the group's discussion on a particular issue, either directly or phonetically. The group discussion typically has 8-14 participants, each of whom is inspired by the opinions of the other members of the group, and centers on the question of how to generalize or discover a new product idea that will meet the needs of the marketplace.

Focus groups are the most effective tool for companies and consultants to gain insights into the minds of consumers in a way that questionnaires and other methods cannot. Today, focus groups are widely used in studies of product concepts, product testing, product packaging testing, advertising concepts, customer satisfaction, and user buying behavior.

For example, a company interested in women's slippers got the concept of a new product through a focus group discussion. This panel consisted of 12 women from the Boston area with diverse socio-economic backgrounds. The final product overview was, "Warm, comfortable, and fits like an old floor shoe." The new product developed from this concept was very successful in sales. The basis for the fear of the message conveyed in the product's advertisement came from the opinions expressed by the members of the focus group symposium.

In addition to discovering new ideas, focus groups are a good way to sift through new ideas and concepts. Through a certain process, the results of the discussion can be analyzed in a more quantitative way, making the focus group an effective way to develop new product ideas.

The organization of a focus group

The secret of a good focus group is communication between the two parties, a clear plan of what you want to know, and a fun, tactful way to get questions answered. The effectiveness of a focus group survey depends greatly on the level and ability of the moderator. Therefore, the focus group symposium on the choice of moderator is very high, as a professional focus group symposium moderator's work, has a strong professionalism.

To do a good job in the group symposium, Huiran mainly in three aspects of the gatekeeper:

One is to do a good job in the organization and implementation of the symposium

Two is a professional moderator

Third is to master the qualitative research and analysis methods, and to be able to write a timely and high-quality qualitative research report

Advantages and disadvantages of the group focus group symposium

In contrast with the Compared with other methods of data collection, the method of group symposium has the following 10 advantages:

(1) Synergy: Putting a group of people together to discuss, compared with the private and confidential answers obtained by a single person to ask, the former can produce a wider range of information, in-depth understanding and views.

(2) Snowballing: In group discussions there is often a "snowballing" effect, where one person's comment initiates a cascade of responses from the participants.

(3) Stimulation: Often during a brief introduction, as the level of excitement in the group about the issue being talked about increases, so does the desire of the participants to express their views and feelings.

(4) Security: because participants feel similar to other members of the group, participants feel more comfortable and willing to express their opinions and feelings.

(5) Spontaneity: Since participants are not asked to answer a specific question, their responses can be spontaneous and unconventional, and therefore should be able to express their views accurately.

(6) Inspiration: Group discussions are more likely to inspire ideas than one-on-one interviews.

(7) Specialization: Because multiple respondents are to be involved at the same time, it is appropriate to hire an investigator (moderator) who is highly trained but expensive.

(8) Scientific Monitoring: Panel discussions allow for close monitoring of data collection, with observers able to watch the conversation in person and record the discussion for later analysis.

(9) Flexible structure: Group discussions can be flexible in terms of the topics covered and their depth.

(10) Speed: Since multiple respondents are interviewed at the same time, the data collection and analysis process is relatively fast.

There are five other possible disadvantages of group colloquia:

(1) Misuse: group colloquia are exploratory, but they can be misused and abused to treat the results as if they were conclusive.

(2) Misjudgment: the results of group colloquia are more susceptible to misjudgment than the results of other data collection methods. Panel discussions are particularly susceptible to client and researcher bias.

(3) Facilitation: Panel discussions are difficult to facilitate. Highly qualified moderators are rare. And the quality of the findings is very dependent on the skill of the moderator.

(4) Clutter: The unstructured nature of responses makes coding, analysis, and interpretation difficult. The data from the panel symposium were messy.

(5) Misrepresentation: the results of the panel colloquium are not representative of the population as a whole. Therefore, the results of panel discussions cannot be taken as the sole basis for decision-making.