Editor’s note: Karen M. Forcade is president of The Youth Research Company, Danbury, Conn.

When qualitative research is con-ducted with kids, new and ex-citing ideas, as well as a new understanding, can yield valuable insight into their market. The possibilities with children, preteens and teens are endless, which is one reason why focus groups make such an excellent research tool, especially when you’re dealing with this very complex market.

As a practitioner in children’s research, I have been able to identify the following five techniques that enable marketers who target children, preteens and teens to find the right product and offerings to gain the competitive advantage. For lack of better words, I call these techniques "setting the stage."

1. Get the kids relaxed. The kids will look to the moderator to make them comfortable and relaxed. Whether sitting cross-legged on the floor, standing around a test kitchen, or sitting around the conference table, it falls to the moderator to make the children feel relaxed as quickly as possible.

A good example is a research project on shoes that we conducted with eight- to ten-year-old children. Most kids have little to say about shoes. We asked the children to bring their favorite pair of leather shoes to the sessions and then we asked them to put the shoes on the table. "Now, tell me about your shoes," the moderator said. After a few moments, the kids smiled (after all, who puts shoes on the table?) and they relaxed and were ready to tell us what we needed to know.

We have used the same technique when talking with teen boys about shoes. We asked this group of boys, with their arms crossed over their chests, slouched down in their chairs, looking indifferent, to put their feet up on the conference table. They laughed, lightened up and we were able to learn why they loved their brand of sneakers.

2. Use stimuli. If the child can see an actual product, an idea, smell a fragrance or taste a new snack product or hear the music for a commercial, they will talk and talk.

3. Ask the right questions. Learn to ask the right questions and be willing to understand and explore the most relevant answers. Children will answer what you ask them, but if you don’t ask the right question, you won’t get the answers needed to continue with the research. Ask the question several different ways, several different times until finally you get the answer that will help you continue.

4. Be innovative. When you conduct research with pre-teens and/or teens, you need to be more flexible in your movement, more creative in your language than with adult groups. Ask the kids to help structure the group so that they will feel comfortable participating. It’s amazing how much cooperation you can get if you involve the kids.

5. Be up-front. Right at the beginning of the research, explain exactly what will be happening. Kids need to understand what we expect of them. Establish the parameters. Explain all the different goals you have for the group and the role you need them to play. Assure them that group discussions are not like a classroom - that there are no right or wrong answers.

Conducting the group

Imagine that you’re standing next to a group of freckled-faced, baseball-capped and pony-tailed ten-year-old kids. Six children all very busy speaking to one another and ignoring you.

Now further imagine that you are in a test kitchen. The counters are overflowing with brightly colored jars of all kinds of pasta shapes and every conceivable kind of vegetable. You need to bring this group to order. You need their attention and cooperation because today is the day that each of the kids will be creating their own favorite pasta product.

You are ready to go, ready to stay ahead of these freethinking kids. You need to take charge and ask them to identify the ingredients and product shapes to represent the "ideal" combination of a new pasta product. Amidst the chatter and excitement, you ask each one to fill an empty jar with his/her favorite pasta shapes and veggie combination. While the kids build their own product, you just watch and wait.

Finally, the kids are invited back into the meeting area holding their multi-colored jars filled with their favorite pasta shapes and veggies. Now the probing begins; the relentless questioning of why they chose what they did, and how they think it will taste. When would they eat it? Dinner? Snacks? How often? Finally, would they like Mom to buy it?

At the end of the session, the conference table is littered with pasta shapes, dried out vegetables and most important, ideas that have been generated, by kids for kids. The research confirmed that children do indeed have their "very own" opinions on what makes a product great. By stirring up and utilizing children’s creative thinking, offering them the right stimuli, asking them to interact with the product, they have in fact, developed their ideal product.

Concluding thoughts

Qualitative research with children is very different than groups with adults. There are several reasons.

  • Children are more skeptical than adults. They question the whys, the reasons, the choices. Children are completely sincere and will share their feelings and beliefs.
  • Children are more truthful. Although it takes more time to set the stage and get the kids to relax, they are indeed more truthful than adults. If they don’t like the idea or if they love it, children get very excited, completely animated. You can even hear their voices reach a higher pitch.
  • Children are not restrained. They are not inhibited by thoughts like "this might be a foolish idea" or "this idea could cost me too much money." Kids will talk, talk and talk. And when asked to stay within certain bounds of reality, they comply. They can do that too.

When kids feel that their opinions do count, they will speak freely and be extremely honest about what’s on their mind.

Through the process of group dynamics, we are able to gather true expressions of individual values and peer relationships along with attitudes and feelings toward many subjects and products that we might otherwise not be able to learn about or understand.

In addition to helping marketers develop or improve new and existing products, kids will speak out on changes in their lifestyle, in their thinking and even their expectations and wishes for the next century. Remember, "Out of the mouths of babes comes wisdom."