Concept in Definition ABC

A Focus group, as it is called in English, or Focus group, as it is called in the Spanish language, is a type of study technique used in social Sciences and in commercial work that allows knowing and studying the opinions and attitudes of a specific audience.

His methodology work consists of meeting of a group of between six and twelve people, plus a moderator who will be in charge of asking the questions and directing the meeting. For the Focus Group's work to be effective, the moderator should never allow the group to stray from the subject of study.

Once the issue is raised, the group will discuss the issue at hand, which can be political, economic or about the product or service, if it has a commercial purpose or advertising.

In the group interaction, the questions will be answered and others will arise, while the condition of Liberty Of opinion turns out to be fundamental so that everyone feels comfortable and free to express what they think.

At the behest of marketing, that of the focus group, is a widely used technique since it allows finding unsatisfied wants and needs regarding the products, for example, issues related to packaging, the tastes offered, in the case of a product nutritional. The information obtained from this will be essential when it comes to the success or failure of a brand.

Ideally, in the focus group sessions a script should be developed, which will serve to start and close the discussion. Although it is something recurrent that the participants are influenced by group pressure and therefore change any position or opinion Regarding a topic, such issue can be corrected through special strategies, for which the moderators must be prepared.

There are different ways of meeting the focus groups, such as: two-way sessions (the group discusses from the observation of the dynamics of another group), dual moderated sessions (there are two moderators with two different missions: smooth development of the session and full development of the session), sessions with opposing moderators (the moderators embody different points of view on the same topic), sessions with moderating participants (a participant will temporarily act as a moderator), session with integration from client(customer representatives are part of the group in an open or veiled way), mini sessions (made up of a maximum of five members), teleconference sessions (sessions in which the telephone network is used) and online sessions (the exchange is done through Internet).

In the case of the latter, they tend to have a greater number of advantages over the traditional ones, from cost savings, to possibility of bringing together geographically distant people, up to a greater disinhibition of the participants when participating in the discussion.