What is a Focus Group?

When a company want to test how their product will be received by the public, they often test it out on a small group of people in a controlled environment to see what the reaction is likely to be. Audience testing is important because:

• When you have worked on a product which you care about, it is easy to be biased yourself and a fresh perspective can often help to point out flaws which you didn't see yourself.

• You may be making a product designed for an audience which you do not belong to. This means that feedback from members of your target audience are more valuable as they understand the genre better.

Below are two focus groups from the TV show, The Apprentice.



This focus group is very efficiently executed.

• The leader of the group was friendly and nice.
• He asked open questions and didn't try to provoke a response.
• He accepted negative criticism.

This next focus group is rubbish.

• They tried to evoke a specific response.
• They ignore criticism and focus on only positive feedback.
• They explained to the audience how they want them to react.