Kent Dussair
CDS Community Development Strategies

Everyone involved in marketing is at least somewhat familiar with Focus Group research. The idea of quickly gaining valuable insights from a small group of individuals is almost too good to be true. What could be easier than having a friendly discussion with a bunch of nice people? Well not so fast... there are a few important details that are often overlooked. 

In my mind there are two classifications of Focus Groups; those that are professionally managed and those that are thrown together haphazardly. The former often yields valuable results—while the latter may produce a false sense of confidence in your conclusions. Here are three basic suggestions:

Link to article.  PDF of article. 

The Houston Parks Board is asking for public input at open house meetings on a case study examining ways to implement the Cypress Creek Greenway... Meredith Dang, land use transportation coordinator for the Houston-Galveston Area Council, said the case study is part of a larger grant to study regional sustainable development. The larger study is focused on the 13-county region. "One of the components of that is we are looking at ways to promote (sustainability) at the local level," Dang said.

...Steven Spillette, president of CDS Market Research, has been involved in the information-gathering process with the Houston Parks Board and Marsh Darcy Partners since December 2012.

"We've been doing a lot of background work to compile demographics and economics in the area, the status of governance … and developing a public outreach strategy," Spillette said. "In many ways, the core of this effort is having very extensive dialog with the community in the Cypress Creek corridor."

Since then, CDS Market Research - an urban consulting and market research group - has conducted numerous small group meetings.

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