Focus Groups

Focus groups are an important research method for information gathering regarding new test concepts. Merchant Mechanics conducts focus groups to address research questions that require a depth of exploratory understanding regarding pretesting and phenomenology that may be difficult to ascertain through quantitative methods alone. Our focus groups work to gather background information, diagnose problems, stimulate new ideas or identify new relationships, generate hypotheses or evaluate products, plan-o-grams or promotional campaign elements.

Merchant Mechanics' veteran moderators are psychologist by training and are adept at maintaining the focal point of discussion topics while simultaneously fostering the flow of relevant, novel comments and concepts. Our moderators ensure that all participants have ample opportunity to contribute their respective voices to the creative exchange.

We often follow-up the concept testing of focus groups with both behavioral and attitudinal tests of prototype design elements within real world settings. The combination of knowledge gained from the focus groups, together with learnings from early execution of prototype designs within a commercial environment, act synergistically to provide a holistic picture of current effectiveness and new opportunities for optimization.