In recent times, a focus group has emerged as the most powerful technique to collect authentic details from the representatives of a market targeted by a company. Ethnic group research is also a part of the extensive marketing research. Any marketing research group, whether it features a larger concentration of respondents from ethnic communities or not, is guided by an expert moderator.
Ethnic Group & Its Moderator
An ethnic group moderator can offer valuable insights of how to encourage the participating candidates from the ethnic groups to speak their mind without any discomfort. The moderator conducting a marketing discussion needs to be more experienced and skilled at handling such groups. The person should have a clear idea of the customs, cultures, social values and ethics about the groups that will be involved in the discussion. Such discussions are arranged in order to elicit reliable details from the members taking part.
The set of questions should be prepared in such a way that it does not hurt religious or cultural sentiments of the respondents, and they can feel more comfortable to express themselves.
Objectives of Ethnic Focus Groups
A moderator works on behalf of a focus group services providing company that is, in turn, hired by other companies who are interested to know the opinions and suggestions of the potential audiences in regards to different products, services, brand as well as concepts. A marketing research company is usually not a bigger one, comprising only 8-10 people,carefully chosen from the target customers on the basis of commonality of experience.
An ethnic group has the members who share some common features in respect of social, religious, cultural or historical background. The members in the group can identify each other on the basis of their language, native country, culture, dress codes, cuisines, customs or any commonality of experience. These people are considered to be representing their communities, so their views help the companies understand what those ethnic groups think about the products/services or if they have anything to say regarding improvement of any particular product/service.
The groups members are encouraged to reveal their own views and share opinions with other members in the same group. The ideas are expressed and exchanged in a descriptive way. Such group discussions inspire the respondents to give a free reign to their thoughts and opinions.
Function of a Moderator
An ethnic moderator is just like a fulcrum of the group, who is in charge of conducting the discussion. He or she chooses the topic after consultingwith the company and prepares the guidelines to be followed by every member in the ethnic group.
An ethnic moderator will set the time within which the discussion must be complete. He or she must inform the participants about the rules and topic of the discussion. They should also give equal opportunity to let everyone speak. Charm, persona and skill of a moderator play important roles in creating an ambience that makes every respondent feel comfortable and they can easily express their ideas.
An ethnic group is just like any marketing research group, but has representations from only the ethnic communities that share similarities in terms of religion, language, cultures, historic background or anything else. The article describes the roles of an ethnic moderator.
