Focus groups are used by manufacturers and marketers of all sorts of different consumer goods. Focus groups usually revolve around new and upcoming products, and participants will be screened beforehand for their interest in the product type and their likelihood to purchase the product in the future. While focus groups most commonly attempt to gauge consumer interest among the demographics that the manufacturer or marketer is trying to reach, focus groups also are sometimes used to help select a name for a new product, or simply for the design of the product’s packaging.
The city of San Francisco has two consumer research centers that regularly conduct focus groups and who are always actively seeking new participants. These two groups are Plaza Research and Fleischman Field Research, both located downtown very close to Union Square. Both companies run similar types of focus groups and look for all sorts of different participants.
Plaza Research is located at 55 Stockton Street in Suite 400. This company is a nationwide operation that also has branches in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Phoenix, San Diego, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Tampa, Ft. Lauterdale, Philadelphia and New York, so if you are in any of those cities look them up in the phone directory for contact information. For those seeking to participate in focus groups in San Francisco, the first step is to visit http://www.iopinion.com/, where you fill out a registration form with basic contact information and some basic personal preferences and consumption habits. You can opt to have notification of new focus groups that you qualify for delivered to you either by email or via phone call.
Fleischman Field Research is located on 250 Sutter Street, on the second floor of the building. They are more of a local operation but the registration process is mostly the same, and they seem to get a similar amount of offers as Plaza Research does. Interested participants should first visit http://www.ffrsf.com/joindbintro.htm, where you’ll fill out a similar form with contact information and consumer preferences. Fleischman can also contact you via either email or phone according to your desires.
In either case, you just sit back and watch your email. From a year with these groups I’ve observed that they seem to send out offers for new studies usually weekly, and you can expect five to ten potential studies that you qualify for each month. Just because they notify you of a study that fits your criteria, however, doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically be selected. Once you get email notification of a new study available, you have to go and fill out a specific questionnaire for that study which is designed to screen you further for eligibility. If you are a good match after that screening, they’ll then call you within a couple days to confirm that you can make it. Even if you are a good match, certain popular studies or those that have broad criteria (like males 18-65 who like electronics) usually fill up fast and it’s often first come first served.
From what I’ve found, for each study you apply for, you might get called for as few as one in twenty. Thus, it may seem like kind of a waste of time to keep filling out their forms. However, both groups have a policy that once you’ve done a study, you can’t do another one with them for six months! So you might as well keep giving it a shot, because you can only get one every half a year anyway.
Finally, why are these studies worth the trouble? They usually pay a pretty high amount for what is usually just a few hours easy work! Studies vary widely, generally if it is done within one day you’ll get $125 to $175 for two or three hours of participation. Studies that go longer, or last two to three days, can pay out $200 to $350. Both groups also feed you prior to each study with sandwiches, soda, water, coffee, chips and candy. If you are in a long study, such as one that takes six hours, you’ll usually get fed again at a break midway through, possibly with some sort of delivered meal if it runs long enough through mealtimes. So it’s a free meal and what usually equates to about $50 per hour or so for some not-so-hard work.
So don’t expect to make a living off of focus groups, but it can be a nice little perk once or twice a year for only a little time and effort.
