ICh. 3 Understanding Consumers

Project description
ICh. 3 Understanding Consumers

Assignment: Read the document below and chapter 3 of your textbook before this assignment.
Suppose your professor ask you to submit a focus group research proposal to find out reasons why students might or might not sign up for his or her courses. Submit a minimum of 3-page research proposal highlighting at least 3 key questions intended for the target consumer (students) segment. Of course, like any other research project, you should search online for models of how to write a research proposal, as long as you properly credit your sources.
If you are uncertain about the design of a research proposal, start with this bare-bones model and expand it with your material:
1. The topic
2. The target consumer segment (students) demographics and psychographics see
chapter 3 for help)
3. The process of selecting the target segment
4. The discussion questions for target segment and why the questions
5. The process of conducting the focus group
6. The analysis of data collected from focus group discussion (quantitative,
qualitative)
8. The discussion, conclusion and recommendation to the professor
__________________________________________________________________________
Focus Group Research Method for Understanding Consumers

One of the major research methods used for understanding consumers is focus group.
Simply defined, a focus group is a collection of consumers, usually 8 to 12, that represents a particular target consumer segment. They spend about 1.5 to 2 hours with a moderator (sometimes called a facilitator) who leads them through a focused set of questions related to a particular product or service. Unlike a survey, a focus group is not concerned with statistical accuracy; rather, it is used to uncover the range and depth of feelings and emotions about the product/service. A focus group is often used to identify areas for questions in a formal survey by uncovering salient issues of that particular target consumer segment or sub consumer group. It is also often used to uncover anomalies in survey data after the survey has been conducted. A frequent use of focus groups is to develop and test messages that will be used in an advertising campaign.