One of the crowd

Editor's note: Michele Holleran is president of Holleran Consulting, York, Pa.

Faced with focus groups on controversial and complex subjects? In many cases, an interactive response system can be an especially useful way to allow respondents to express themselves freely. Each participant is given a hand-held keypad with 10 large numbers on it. The facilitator explains that this technology is easy to use and allows every person in the room to anonymously register his/her opinion about the subject to be discussed. To prove the point, the facilitator even invites participants to switch keypads with one another if they have any lingering doubts about confidentiality.

Next, a series of "posture statements" are projected onto an overhead screen at the front of the room. Participants are asked to register their opinions by pushing the keypad button that most closely correlates to their level of agreement with the statement. For instance, a group of employees at a company might be asked to respond to this statement: "I feel management has made a genuine effort to hear the employee's point of view in the past." Employees can push any button numbered 1 through 7 (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree) to indicate their level of agreement with this statement. If appropriate, the facilitator can immediately show the results by projecting the opinion poll onto the screen, stimulating immediate discussion.

More comfort

The benefits of this interactive system are numerous. Not only do participants feel more comfort in expressing their true opinions, but the ice breaker effect is tremendous. Once participants see how everyone else in the room voted, they feel more comfortable discussing their view.

Two added benefits are provided to the facilitator and the client: (1) the majority, not the vociferous few, are heard from, eliminating some of the natural bias that can exist in a focus group session; and (2) the conversation stays on track because the question being discussed is on display for everyone to see.

The system isn't appropriate to use in every focus group, but its application is ideal for specific types of sessions.

Additionally, the system enhances focus group sessions where product and ad concepts are being tested by offering the facilitator a paired comparison analysis feature, whereby one concept is contrasted against another until the vote sequence is complete. This type of preference testing is popular among manufacturing clients who produce home fashions such as fabric, china, flatware and window treatments.

Business-to-business marketing efforts are enhanced by use of the response system in focus groups as well. Assessment of customer satisfaction can be carried out by having participants identify factors of importance, rating each factor on a scale of 1-10 (1 = least important, 10 = most important) and then cycling back through to vote on perceived performance on each factor. The result is a quadrant map instantaneously projected in front of the group with the factors plotted on two axes.
With the map up front, participants are asked to interpret it and bring out additional points of view regarding their satisfaction levels. With companies that have a smaller number of customers who participate at trade shows, the results become statistically valid after enough sessions are held because the data are continuously and automatically accumulated. Sub-group analysis can also be carried out. This approach is also useful to hospitals that wish to assess patient satisfaction levels after discharge.

More time to explore the "whys"

In a more traditional focus group setting, getting a group warmed up and expressing their opinions takes a chunk of time which could be better spent understanding the "whys." With interactive keypad technology, facilitators are able to quickly and accurately get each individual's "cards on the table" so that more time is spent discussing the reasons behind the opinions.
As an experiment, our firm conducted two groups with the same target consumers: recently engaged women. In one group, we used the interactive keypad technology; in the other, we did not. We asked the first group of women to tell us whether anyone in their lives would influence their decision on a china pattern. One woman immediately stated, "No one tells me what I like. I'm a woman of the '90s." The others, feeling put off by the statement, were reluctant to admit that their mothers and store bridal consultants would, in fact, greatly influence their decision. This fact emerged about 45 minutes into the session, and then we sought to understand why this was the case. With the second group, it was discovered within three minutes that most of the participants sought advice from mothers and bridal consultants. Consequently, the "whys" were addressed much sooner in the second session.

Not appropriate

Some researchers don't feel that audience response technology is appropriate in a focus group setting. They argue that it's too much like a poll or a statistical study in its approach, and that results may be misinterpreted as being projectable. However, they miss the point. The system is not attempting to quantify anything in the final analysis, but is simply focusing the conversation in a way that the most skilled of all facilitators is unable to match.

As consumers become more fragmented in their views and organizations dig deeper into controversial subject matter, interactive audience systems will become more popular as an enhancement to focus group research. Take the example of what is happening in the health care market. As states abandon Medicaid coverage, more at-risk populations are expected to seek care at hospitals, and the hospitals will be uncompensated for the care in many instances. It is, therefore, in their best interest to learn from these at-risk populations what their health risks are so that wellness intervention programs can be developed. Yet this population is untrusting of institutions and is not inclined to be candid in focus groups, afraid that their answers will incriminate them in some way. However, if the interactive technology is used by a trust-inspiring facilitator, participants realize they are free to reveal the truth without consequence.

This technique has revealed why people with multiple sex partners don't use condoms or get tested for HIV; why people with diabetes smoke, drink, and overeat when they know better; and why pregnant women put their unborn children at risk by using substances, such as crack and cocaine.

More from each group

As research dollars tighten up again in the future, it will be incumbent upon researchers to get more out of each focus group session held. Writing off a session or two due to untalkative or shy participants won't be acceptable. Audience interactive systems can help make very session count.