HOW DOES THE SYSTEM WORK

There are two different research organizations involved in most focus groups...

...The research company who is responsible to a client for carrying out a project.

...The focus group facility

The focus group facility is the one you are interested in. They act as sub-contractors to the research company. Focus group facilities have the one way mirrors and conference rooms and are usually responsible for recruiting respondents to come to the groups.


WHO GETS CALLED

In the past respondents were recruited through random telephone calls -- a very expensive way of recruiting.

Today many facilities have large data bases of potential respondents. These data bases contain a considerable amount of information about each potential respondent.

Not only do they have the usual demographics : age, sex, income etc., but such areas as pet ownership, stores shopped at, car makes and models and literally hundreds of other bits of information about the respondent.

The information requested from potential respondents varies widely between focus groups facilities.

If your name is selected, you'll get a call from the facility. They will ask you some questions that you filled out on the questionnaire. That's just to confirm the validity of the answer. Then they may ask some questions that were not on the questionnaire but will identify you as potential fit for their client's group.

The research company might call the focus group facility and request a group consisting: of women, ages 35 - 45, college graduates, who have cats. The specification could just as easily have all the same items but specify" do NOT have cats".

The focus facility goes to it's data base, selects the appropriate segments and calls them. If they don't have enough of the appropriate sample they will random telephone enough people until they fill the group.


WHAT IS THE BEST STRATEGY TO GET CALLED

There is no best strategy to get called. Patience is really a virtue. Focus facilities don't like to have participants who have been to a group recently.

Someone with the same pet that you have, may get dropped from a group about pets because they were recently in a soap group.

In many cities there are clearing houses that list all participants in all groups. Facilities that use them, can be certain they are not recruiting someone who has recently participated in another session.


HOW DO I SIGN UP

Facilities have no idea what requests will be coming in from day to day.

It is a mistake to call a facility. They do not want to be bothered by potential respondents. Many facilities have "DO NOT CALL" lists. People who call and ask to be put on groups are automatically excluded from any future contact.

The main way to sign up is to go to the focus facility's web site and look to see if they have a section for people interested in participating. Many of them do.

When you go to that section you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire. Be absolutely honest. For example: it doesn't make sense to say you shop at a certain pet store because the recruiting specifications may want respondents who DON'T shop at that pet store. You can never tell


SIGN UP ONLY ONCE.

Go to the Focus Group Facilities section. Click on your city. Look at the list of facilities for your city. Some of the clicks will take you right to their web sites. Other listings will tell you the web address.

When you get there you can see if they have a place for you to register. If they don't move on to the next one. Don't call them to ask.

It costs nothing to register for a facility. If someone wants to charge and claims that they can get you into groups, ask how they do it.

Our experience is that they sell your name and data to focus facilities, but really have no control over your getting called. Ask them before you spend money.


CAN THIS WEB SITE HELP

Sign up for the National Focus Group Recruiting Database .

These records will be available for facilities wishing to conduct national or local studies. There is no charge for this.

Finally, as you can see from the above, you won't get rich doing focus groups or have a steady income. You will have fun. You'll learn about new products and ideas that are on their way or being considered for the market place.

Your ideas are important.