Focus Groups

Focus groups are semi-structured group interviews with 6-12 homogeneous participants that last 1-3 hours and are moderated. They are used to explore attitudes, opinions, behaviors, beliefs, recommendations, define problems, gather reactions to solutions, and test messages and packaging among other uses. Advantages include being socially-oriented, allowing for probing of reactions, being relatively inexpensive and quick. Disadvantages include being difficult to control, having questionable reliability, being difficult to recruit for, and not being suitable for confrontational situations, statistical projections or when confidentiality cannot be ensured.