Market research projects come in all shapes and sizes. While one organization may be looking for a multi-dimensional qualitative and quantitative study with many moving parts, another may only utilize a market research firm for qualitative recruitment.
For example, Our qualitative recruitment firm receives this question a lot.
“Does Drive Research offer qualitative recruitment services, even if my organization will not be using your focus group facility?”
Of course we do! While we love utilizing our brand new focus group facility with our clients, we understand businesses are not always able to host this type of project in Upstate New York. There are plenty of times businesses come to Drive Research in order to execute the recruiting of a niche market or audience to later participate in market research conducted in-house.
In fact, we just completed a qualitative recruitment project for a leading manufacturer of an over the counter cold product. In this blog post, we’ll discuss an overview of the project and our process for recruiting participants for qualitative market research studies.
Your approach to market research is set, but you can't track down your niche target audience. A qualitative recruiting firm can help! Learn about our recent qualitative recruiting project with a leading cold product manufacturer.
Qualitative Recruitment Objectives
An over the counter cold product manufacturer hired our market research company for a qualitative recruitment study for online focus groups. For this particular qualitative recruitment project, there were a total of 2 waves of 3 online focus group sessions.
Online focus groups are starting to pop up more and more, as opposed to traditional focus groups in a facility or conference room. Focus groups online are beneficial to organizations looking to save on travel costs, time, stipends, and facility costs.
Looking for a little more guidance on whether traditional focus groups or online focus groups are better for your business? We've got you covered.
Approach to the Online Focus Group Recruitment
Drive Research recruited a total of six participants per online focus group. This was achieved through reaching out to our in-house targeted panel of participants living in the United States. Drive Research also shared organic social media posts to attract interest from our thousands of followers. Those who participated in the online focus groups received a $75 stipend, processed by Drive Research, as a thank you for their time and insights.
Drive Research recruited participants who matched the target market according to the cold product manufacture. All participants were required to have used a cold product during the last cold season (October 2018 through March 2019). Each group were to consist of 4 females and 2 males, aged 35 to 54, and a mix of other demographics. The three online focus groups were also separated by those who were users or brand loyalists to (1) the sponsor of the online focus group (2) a competitor (3) a competitor.
In order to ensure participants matched the screening criteria, our qualitative recruitment firm created an online screener in the form of a survey. Those who qualified through the pre-screener survey were then rescreened by telephone to answer additional questions. From there, qualified participants received a confirmation email in the form of a calendar invite. Doing so, participants are asked to reply back “yes” as another form of confirmation.
Additionally, participants of the online focus group received a reminder call a day or two before the study was set to take place. Lastly, the day of the online focus group (both Monday and Wednesday) were sent a final reminder text message. Though what may seem as extremely thorough, this qualitative recruitment process of constant reminders helps our market research firm achieve a high participation rate.
Online Focus Group Process
The online focus groups were held on Monday, June 17 and again on Wednesday, June 19. The groups were held consecutively at 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30 p.m. ET on each evening. Each of the 2 focus groups lasted 30 minutes and participants were required to complete a 15 minute activity between the sessions.
In order to join the online focus group for the cold product, participants were required to use a meeting ID to sign into Zoom, a video communications company that provides remote conferencing services.
For this reason, participants needed to be on a device of sorts, whether it be a desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet with a webcam. Particularly participants using a smartphone or tablet needed to download a free app to take part in the focus group online.
Contact Drive Research
Drive Research is a market research company located in Syracuse, NY. Our team has the knowledge and tools to design a robust market research study, should it be the right fit for your business.
Interested in learning more about our market research services? Reach out through any of the four ways below.
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Email us at [email protected]
Call us at 888-725-DATA
Text us at 315-303-2040