Focus groups and one-on-ones
Get seven (or so) people in a room with a moderator to discuss their experiences and opinions of products and
you have a focus group. Focus groups are one of the most popular forms of primary, qualitative research because they are relatively cheap to set up and you are hearing from
a significant number of people. For this reason, most major manufacturers have consumer panel groups that are asked to comment regularly on everything a brand is doing.
On the other hand, the one-on-one in-depth interview approach can get into much greater depth about a brand than a focus group can – for a rounded view it can be useful to employ a combination of both techniques.