Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Research with Rob: When is a Panel Better Than a Focus Group?


The following is a post by Rob Beachy, Axiom's Market Research Expert. This is the first "Research with Rob" post, which will be a weekly series of posts about different issues involved with market research.

What is your goal with market research? If you have a product or service that has or could have a diverse demographic, and you want more than a two hour snapshot, then panels are the best alternative to long term market success.

Panels come in all sizes and types from in-person to online but it is imperative to understand the benefits of a panel.
  1. Panels provide insight over a longer span of time providing the end-user more time to understand the product or service, its features and benefits, as well as providing the ability of the participant for more detailed likes, dislikes and new ways to use and improve your product or service.
  2. They are a living conduit of information and feedback from quality to maintenance, warranty and service information.
  3. They allow the marketing and technical teams more “time” to ask questions, potentially observe their product or service in use, and make changes or adjustments in the product or service to measure the end-user reactions.
  4. They can provide all the qualitative benefits of a focus group and more.
  5. Provides a larger, more diverse and often statistically significant sample to make better marketing and business decisions.

Costs per respondent are often the same a focus groups, but the value is much greater. If you are serious about gaining more insight into the use of your product or service, email or call us at (952) 224-2939.