Gathering consumer terminology using focus groups—An example with beauty care

Abstract

Using consumer‐friendly terminology is essential for more impactful consumer research. As an example, focus groups are effective to gather emotional and attitudinal information in ways that surveys and questionnaires cannot. The objective of this study was to use situational exercises in focus groups to generate terminology about emotions and attitudes in beauty care. These terms can be used to aid the product development process and product communication. Women in the Kansas City area (N = 21), who use a variety of different beauty care products, were recruited for three focus groups of seven people each. The groups were divided by age group as follows: 18–35, 36–50, and 51+. Participants were asked questions regarding their behaviors behind their purchasing habits and use of beauty care products, both positive and negative. Women reported that when not using beauty care products, they felt tired, dirty, and self‐conscious. Contrarily, they reported feeling confident, clean, and beautiful when using products. They also mentioned the importance of ingredients. Women overwhelmingly wanted products to have more natural ingredients and to be created “cruelty‐free” (no animal testing). These qualitative techniques help understand the consumer so companies can better communicate with their target users. Practical Applications This article provides an example on the use of focus groups as a tool to rapidly gather relevant information about emotions and behaviors in the beauty care category. This technique is a fast way to gather rich information that could benefit a research and development team from two fronts: first, to a sensory or product development group to understand the relations between product characteristics and the emotional construct of consumers and perhaps provide a key into changing consumer behaviors and second, to a brand or marketing team to understand what their target users are saying so they can think about better ways to reach the consumer and communicate with them, in this case, within the beauty care industry.

Consumer-Led Adaptation of the EsSense Profile® for Herbal Infusions

“…In fact, during Experiment I, authors found, through a consumer test ( n = 100), that some of the emotion terms from the 39-emotion list of the EsSense Profile ® were not relatable, nor did they contribute to the discrimination of the herbal infusion products. Other studies by Bhumiratana et al [ 51 ], Chaya, Eaton, Hewson, Vázquez, Fernández-Ruiz, Smart and Hort [ 13 ], Silva, Jager, van Bommel, van Zyl, Voss, Hogg, Pintado and de Graaf [ 14 ], Talavera and Sasse [ 52 ] reinforce the fact that the focus group methodology may be useful to define the final list of emotions. In fact, in this research, during the focus group sessions, participants mentioned that the EsSense Profile ® list was too extensive for herbal infusion products.…”

Generating consumer terminology to describe emotions in pet owners and their pets

“…/ medication and leaving their cats/putting cats back in kennel; and Group 2: Cleaning house/ vacuuming and health/ hygiene (e.g., vet., check‐up, medication, and bathing). Using situational exercises have been used in the past to generate consumer terminology related to emotions in focus groups (Talavera & Sasse, 2019).…”

Exploration of the food‐related guilt concept

“…The focus group procedure provides a way to obtain qualitative data on various aspects of consumer choice (Chambers IV & Smith, 1991). In addition, it is a commonly used technique that allows researchers to probe and gain insight into the motivations for choice behavior and word meanings (Kumar & Chambers IV, 2019; Pires, de Noronha, & Trindade, 2019; Talavera & Sasse, 2019). Flexibility in understanding different concepts through discussion can facilitate the depth and breadth of the output.…”