Small Business Marketing Ideas: Your DIY Focus Group

The term ‘focus group’ is almost synonymous with big business and big marketing budgets, but it’s a smart marketing idea for small business owners as well.

By creating a focus group based on the social networks of your friends, relatives and friend-of-friends—and following the same basic principles as the Fortune 500 companies—you’ll reap the same rewards: key information for developing new products and services and valuable insight about the needs of your target market.

WHY CREATE A FOCUS GROUP?
If two heads are better than one, then 6-12 are better than two—especially when it comes to understanding the needs of a group (i.e., your market.)  When you sit down to develop a new product or service, a focus group can help you isolate features that might make it especially attractive to your target market, while revealing those hidden ‘dealbreakers’ that could sink your concept before it even gets started.

You can use a focus group to develop a new product or service, and a “concept test” (see Jane Out of the Box, “Marketing Strategies—The #1 Mistake in Small Business Marketing”) to finalize it.  Or, if you don’t have the time or resources for a concept test (typically involving 50-200 people), you can use a focus group as a low-cost, stand-alone market research alternative.

Either way, you’ll be miles ahead of the entrepreneur who launches his or her new product or service on nothing but a wing and a prayer.

THE DO-IT-YOURSELF FOCUS GROUP
The first thing you’ll want to do is to develop a written statement about the product or service you want to create. If you’re still in the most basic planning stages, you might talk about the ideas you have for addressing a particular need or desire of your target market. If your concept is further along, you’ll want to include more detailed information on projected features and benefits.

Next, you’ll need to determine exactly what—and who—your target market is. As described in the article mentioned above, if your product is a new, all-natural diet soda, your target market might be health-conscious women ages 20-45. 

Once you know who your target market is, you will need to tap your friends, relatives and friends-of-friends for contacts who fit that description. Depending on how much feedback you want, anywhere from 6 to 12 people will work.

Typically, it’s easiest to get the people closest to you to participate, but those are also the people most likely to be worried about hurting your feelings by providing honest feedback. Your best bet is to offer some relatively inexpensive incentive—such as a gift certificate to a local coffee shop—and focus on members of your target market just outside your immediate social circle.

You’ll want to convene your focus group someplace where individuals can sit comfortably and talk without a lot of unnecessary interruption. This might be the conference or meeting room of a local restaurant or hotel, or it could be someone’s living room.

Once you’ve gotten your group together, hand out copies of the statement you created about your proposed product or service. Have everyone read through this statement and answer any basic questions they may have.

Then, it will be their turn to answer some questions.

• What do you like about this concept?
• What don’t you like about it?
• What do you think is a reasonable price to pay for this product/service?
• What is the maximum price you’d be willing to pay?
• How unique do you consider this concept?
• IF APPROPRIATE: Do you agree that this product/service would deliver the following benefits? (list benefits)

Remember, you’re not there to overcome objections or persuade anyone to adopt your point of view. In fact (other than answering any actual questions members of your focus group might have) your primary role is just to be “a sponge.” That’s why it’s important to listen closely and take detailed notes on your focus group discussion.

PUTTING THE DATA TO WORK
Once you’ve got information on these key areas, it’s time to go back to the drawing board and use it to strengthen the product or service in question.

You might use your market research to find a way to lower the cost of a product—or you might want to change the name of the service to more specifically address a desire expressed by your focus group.

However you approach your DIY focus group data, it’s sure to strengthen your concept—before you make that leap of marketplace faith!