A focus group is an organised discussion, usually made up of 6-8 people, typically lasting between 1-2 hours.  

Participants are selected to take part in specific focus groups, based on a set of criteria relevant to the research. This could include a selection of age groups, gender, family life stages, product usage, etc - all of which is relevant to the project.

At the group you will get involved in a discussion led by a trained moderator. You will be expected to engage fully in the group discussion and share your views and opinions on the subject.  The feedback will then be forwarded to the client in order to help them in a whole range of areas; including new product developments, advertising and marketing campaigns, branding and packaging and other related services.

Many groups are held in a viewing facility with an observation mirror and may be video/audio recorded, others may be held in a hotel or other suitable venue.  

Focus groups are fun, lively and rely on people’s opinions; therefore it is important that you feel comfortable and happy about getting involved before you decide to register with us.

Focus groups are usually held at a specific time and location. It is therefore important that you are able to travel to that location, and are available for the duration of the discussion, before you agree to take part.

If you are interested in giving your opinions, and playing a part in current and future development of leading company products and services, please complete our online registration form by going to 'Sign Up' above.  On full completion of the 'Sign Up' form, and once you have agreed with our terms and conditions, you will be a member of our panel of market research respondents. 

When completing the joining questionnaire (and any other project related questions if you decide to become a member) it is vital that you provide true, accurate, current and complete information and that you maintain and promptly update your information as necessary. This will give us a better idea of what discussions we should contact you for and also gives you a greater chance of being contacted. Recruitment criteria is always specific to the particular project so the more info we have about you the more chance you have of being selected.

Once you have registered your details with us these will be stored on our secure database. Informed Opinions is registered with the ICO as a Data Controller. We handle data responsibly and in accordance with the Data Protection Act. We respect our members privacy and guarantee that any information given will only be used to select specific members to attend genuine market research projects.  Your personal details are held in the strictest confidence and will never be divulged or sold on to a third party.

As soon as a suitable research project becomes available for you, we will contact you by email with brief details.  If you are interested in taking part, and will be available on the date and time specified, you will need to let us know by replying to the email.  We then contact all of those interested and go through a brief screener over the phone with you.  This is to ensure you meet all of the criteria required for the particular market research project. If you fit the criteria you will be invited to take part in the research and sent an invitation/confirmation, containing the time, location and duration of the discussion.

Focus groups are recruited on a first come first serve basis, so it is important that once you have registered with Informed Opinions, you check your emails regularly to ensure you have a greater chance of getting back to us first.  It is important to keep your profile up to date and let us know if your email address changes. 

You are free to leave Informed Opinions at any time simply by logging into your account and clicking on the unsubscribe link

Please note, if you cannot attend a research event which you have been confirmed to attend, you will need to let us know as far in advance as possible. Simply not turning up for a research event could affect the likelihood of you being contacted for future discussions.  We will need as much time as possible to replace you before the date of the research.  It is important to us to ensure that we have good attendance and the best results for our clients.  This way we get more projects to offer you.

Your individual views and opinions are very important to companies and therefore as a thank you, you could be given anything between £30 and £100 depending on the location, the duration and the complexity of the discussion. Payment is usually given in cash on the day of the group discussion, unless you are informed otherwise. Payment will be decided and supplied by our client and not by Informed Opinions. The incentive on offer will always be made clear at registration stage and, unless stated otherwise, will include any extra expenses such as travel, childcare etc.  Incentives are non-negotiable.

Late arrival (more than 5 minutes) may result in non payment of the incentive.  If you are, or think you are going to arrive more than 5 minutes late you should let the venue or our staff know well in advance.  They may decide your arrival will be too late for you to be included in the group.

As a member of our respondent panel you are not an employee.  Informed Opinions is not responsible for payment of any income tax, National Insurance contributions of any other losses incurred when taking part in a market research session.

As much as we value your opinion, it is important that you do not attend more than 1 focus group every 6 months, and you will never be asked to attend a discussion on the same subject as one you have attended in the past. Some clients/researchers are happy for participants to take part in research projects sooner than this, but this is always project specific. 

These are guidelines set out by the MRS (Market Research Society) in their code of conduct, to ensure new respondents get a chance to attend a focus group and have their say. This also ensures that companies are continuously exposed to fresh views and opinions, and are listening to a larger and much more representative sample of the population

If, after reading the information above, market research focus groups/interviews are something you would be interested in becoming a part of, all you have to do is click on our ‘Sign Up’ link above and follow the instructions.  You need to agree with our 4 pre-conditions and have read and agreed with the terms and conditions of joining the panel and being a panel member.  Then you will be asked to provide personal details and information about yourself which will allow us to find suitable research projects to suit your profile and to contact you about.

You will be asked to provide us with information such as your age, gender, occupation, lifestyle and ethnicity. This is needed and used statistically to enable us to achieve an accurate and representative balance within groups.

If you have stated that you have a disability, this information may be used on an individual basis to meet your needs, for example we may need to contact you and ask if you require any assistance of any kind to attend and participate in a group.  We intend to be completely inclusive to get the range of views we require.

Your personal details can only be accessed via your username and password. It is important that you do not reveal your Informed Opinions user name and password to anyone else.  Informed Opinions is not responsible for any access to data should this information be passed on.  If you think somebody may be aware of your access details you should contact Informed Opinions as soon as possible to change your password

Informed Opinions is a data controller and registered with the Information Commissioners Office. We will never sell your personal details onto another person/company.

Informed Opinions is also solely responsible for handling your personal information, none of which will not be passed on to any other person/company without prior consent by you.  We only pass on to our research clients  details which are relevant to the research project you have been selected to attend for them.  This is so they know why you have been recruited to attend the project.  

In accordance with our terms of business, our clients must destroy all respondent personal details provided by us on completion of the Market Research.  They should not contact you directly in any way.  This would be a breach of our terms of business so please do alert us instantly if this happens to you.

It is important that we send the right people along to take part in the research for our clients. For example, there is not much point in asking you to attend a group to talk about weed killer if you do not have a garden and have never used weed killer!

If we send the wrong people along to a discussion we are not paid by the client so the screening process is absolutely vital.  It is also therefore extremely important that you are completely honest when answering the screening questions.  Any errors in recruitment are always picked out in the group discussion.

The screening process is thorough for every project we work on. It is our reputation which is on the line when we do not meet the brief.

We do not store any additional personal details taken from you during the screening process. These are always project specific and of no use to us after the project is completed.

As a members of our panel you protected by the Market Research Society's code of conduct, and are fully compliant with the strict confidentiality of the information that you may be party to when participating in market research projects and associated activities.  To view the MRS's code of conduct please click on this link http://www.mrs.org.uk/standards/codeconduct.htm

Some projects require participants to sign a confidentiality agreement, particularly projects working on new products and designs.  If you attend a project for which you are required to do this you will be informed when first contacted regarding the project or as soon as we are made aware by our client.  It is accepted by Informed Opinions that by enrolling with us you are in agreement with signing any such agreements.