Focus Groups for Product Testing

Focus group describes a marketing research technique employed to unravel the thoughts of a target market through opinions pertaining a product or marketing campaign. I would use a focus group to test a new brand of coffee that awaits introduction into the market. I would design a group of three different focus groups to get the potential customer’s honest opinions regarding aspects such as coffee taste, price, quality and feedback on possible varying flavours that can be incorporated. I would select a group of potential participants and offer a nominal amount as an incentive for participation. I would then chose a moderator, collect data using questionnaires having both open ended and closed questions pertaining the participants feedback on the new brand of coffee. I would also video tape the participants as they partake the coffee to capture body language for further clues about potential customer’s reactions. I would incorporate the focus group’s opinions on for example coffee pricing strategy, likely flavours and any other necessary changes. 

I would use focus group since the market research tool easily measures potential customer’s reactions towards the new brand of coffee and other marketing strategies. Focus groups provide immediate propositions for improvement of a product. I would rely on a focus group since the method offers end user product requirements and other needs that potential customers would wish be incorporated that are not addressed by the company. As Carey and Asbury (2016) assert, focus groups are crucial in saving time, money and other resources relative to using interviews. The market research technique would offer diverse audience and views which would otherwise not be measurable through other methods such as over the phone. Focus groups would offer a window into potential customer’s heads concerning what they think about the new brand of coffee by giving opinions, perspectives and first hand data for seamless launching of the product. 

References 

Carey, M. A., & Asbury, J. E. (2016).  Focus group research . Routledge.