At Grove Insight, we know how to listen. Our focus groups often reveal the underlying causes of existing attitudes – something that only happens with a well-trained moderator. That’s why we rarely outsource our focus group moderation. Our firm’s principals and analysts are our focus group moderators, and are graduates of the RIVA Training Institute, considered the “gold standard” in the qualitative research industry.
Information is elicited from focus groups respondents in a variety of ways. In some instances, direct open-ended questions are employed. At other points in the discussion, projective techniques will be used.
While these discussions will generally follow an agreed upon guide and our moderators are skilled at keeping the discussion relevant, to work best the groups must be free-flowing. By following participants' thought patterns on their own terms, instead of forcing them into a predetermined framework, we are able to utilize our focus groups as organic “idea generators.” Our approach of giving the voters (or other target group) a seat at the table early in the process has reaped tremendous benefits for our clients. By stepping outside the “echo chamber” of those on the inside of a project, we often learn invaluable information about how the topic is seen by our audience and discover new message angles to explore.
