DIGITAL LIBRARY
FOCUS GROUP: A PRACTICAL APPLICATION IN CLASSROOM
1 Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, CIAEGT-IPT & Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (PORTUGAL)
2 Aveiro Institute of Accounting and Administration, University of Aveiro (ISCA-UA) and GOVCOPP Research Unit on Governance, Competitiveness and Public (PORTUGAL)
3 Higher Institute of Fafe & Polytechnic Institute of Guarda (PORTUGAL)
4 Polytechnic Institute of Guarda UDI-IPG (PORTUGAL)
About this paper:
Appears in: EDULEARN19 Proceedings
Publication year: 2019
Pages: 5470-5473
ISBN: 978-84-09-12031-4
ISSN: 2340-1117
doi: 10.21125/edulearn.2019.1338
Conference name: 11th International Conference on Education and New Learning Technologies
Dates: 1-3 July, 2019
Location: Palma, Spain
Abstract:
The consumer behaviour is a complex field of investigation and an expensive type of research that requires a relative investment of resources and time. Besides, the consumer is increasingly informed and demanding. Changing of the market can influence the consumer behaviour, and vice-versa. So, the integrative process of training and forming people to study the human behaviour is a very complicated process. Teaching the theory is a relatively easy task but it is not enough. Students are able to understand the concept and the theory, and of course, to develop a unique reflection, but they have difficulty to apply the same content to a practical situation on the real context. To respond to this problem, the following general objective was defined: to apply the focus group’s technique with marketing master students.

The principal objective was divided into two parts:
i) the application of the focus group interview itself; and
ii) the qualitative analysis of the data. A content analysis was the technique chosen to data analysis.

Whereas the individual results are hard to measure, but it is not impossible to do, the main results are:
i) the collaborative teamwork;
ii) the practice of the methodology through a practical application of the technique, and
iii) a few skills were developed, which it needed to be developed to create a collaborative teamwork, and the student's motivations, able to participate in the discussion, were the most important results of the activity. The learning itself can be considered as an asset.
Keywords:
Focus Group, Content analysis, Behaviour Consumer, Teaching Methodology.