To effectively reach a multicultural audience, you need to understand it first. Thankfully through research, this understanding is easily attainable, allowing you to deliver an efficient multicultural communication campaign. Focus groups are a great way of conducting research within multicultural communities as they evoke real and honest responses about your product, service, or subject matter.
There are two main reasons for conducting focus group testing with CALD communities. Firstly, they enable you to gain market awareness, which in turn ensures your communication campaign is effective. For example, some CALD communities have particular information requirements and may or may not be aware of the concept of your campaign. You may also learn that your target community requires further education or awareness to understand your message. Secondly, focus group testing gives an indication of how successful your campaign will be. The participant’s reactions and engagement will suggest how your campaign will be received in the target community.
There are countless benefits of focus group testing for multicultural marketing, but here are our top 4:
1. Confidence
Focus groups give you the tools to confidently deliver a strong and effective communication campaign. They can reveal how cultural groups prefer to absorb their information, as every group is different. Some prefer getting their information from the radio, others from the Internet and some only take advice from people they trust. Essentially, focus groups identify information gaps, which in turn help you in designing and tweaking your message or delivery strategy so it’s as effective as possible.
2. Verification and Clarification
Old data doesn’t have to be old news! Focus groups enable you to verify if your old research data is still relevant today. Also, survey answers can be clarified and discussed between participants, adding a deeper element to your research.
3. A Human Element
A valuable outcome of focus group testing is the human element it adds. Whilst quantitative data is of course useful, focus groups add personal opinions that you may never discover otherwise. Gathering opinions from focus groups is the best way to gain an understanding of your target community.
4. Value for money
Focus groups are faster and more cost-effective than other qualitative research methods such as one-on-one interviews. Also, the group dynamic provides a synergy, resulting in more output than individual interviews. One focus group can host up to 12 participants over the space of 1-2 hours, which saves time and money.
