Pre-testing direct mail using online focus groups

We have recently completed a project where we used t-groups (online focus groups) to test a direct mail campaign for a national loyalty scheme. It was very successful in terms of both methodology and output, and represents an excellent case history in support of t-groups as an innovative and highly time/cost effective qualitative market research tool.
If you haven’t heard of t-groups, they are a qualitative market research method based on web-conferencing. People meeting certain criteria in terms of their shopping habits were identified and approached to take part in the t-group session. Everyone dialled in on a conference call number and at the same time linked to the interviewer’s pc screen via the internet. The interviewer loaded the creative layouts for the direct mail materials on to the screen so everyone was able to see them really clearly, and then a conversation took place about the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed marketing ideas.
The big advantage to everyone was that there was no need for anyone to travel anywhere. This included the interviewer, respondents and also clients, who were able to observe the focus groups from wherever they happened to be. As well as the convenience aspect this saved an enormous amount of time and cost and effectively knocked hundreds of pounds off the research project.
The client was satisfied enough to give us another project using t-group online focus groups and it is without doubt a qualitative research method that we’ll be doing a lot more of.
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