Focus Groups and In-Depth Interviews
Moderated discussion and one to one interviewing for when the number tells you what happened but not why.
What are focus groups and in-depth interviews, and does QGM run them in Oman?
Focus groups are moderated discussions with recruited participants, and in-depth interviews are one to one conversations following the same purpose: to understand why people behave the way the numbers say they do. Quantum Gulf Marketing recruits, moderates and reports qualitative research across Oman in Arabic and English, including large in-depth interview programmes for banking clients in the Sultanate. Participants are screened against a written specification before invitation, and sessions are run by moderators working in the language and dialect of the group.
- Formats
- Focus groups, in-depth interviews, paired depths, accompanied visits
- Languages
- Arabic and English moderation
- Recruitment
- Written screener, history-checked participants
- Observation
- In person or live stream, with consent
- Delivered
- Analysis against the decision, plus verbatim evidence
Four ways to hear the reason.
Focus groups
Six to eight participants, moderated against a guide. Best where reaction is social, or where you want to hear the vocabulary customers actually use.
In-depth interviews
One to one, longer, and the right choice for sensitive categories, for senior B2B respondents, and where group dynamics would distort the answer.
Paired depths
Two respondents who decide together, interviewed together. Useful in categories where the household or the business makes a joint decision.
Accompanied shopping
Watching the decision happen in the aisle, then debriefing it immediately, which surfaces the reasons people cannot recall an hour later.
From guide to grounded finding.
Agree the question
Qualitative work fails when the brief is a topic rather than a decision. We start by writing down what you will do differently depending on the answer.
Screen and recruit
A written screener, applied before invitation, with participation history checked so you are not hearing from the same people every time.
Moderate
In the language of the group, against a guide that leaves room for the thing you did not think to ask about.
Analyse against the decision
Findings organised around what you have to decide, with verbatim evidence attached so you can see where a conclusion came from.
Common questions
What is a focus group?
How many groups do we need?
How are participants recruited?
Can groups be moderated in Arabic?
Can we observe?
When is a focus group the wrong tool?
Tell us the question.
We will tell you how to measure it.
Send us the business decision you are stuck on. You will get a straight answer on whether research can settle it, what it would take, and what it would cost.
