How to Use Focus Groups in Marketing Research

Focus groups are a form of qualitative research that is commonly used in product marketing and marketing research, but it is a popular method within sociology as well. During a focus group, a group of individuals—usually 6-12 people—is brought together in a room to engage in a guided discussion of a topic. Lets say youre beginning a research project on the popularity of Apple products. Perhaps you want to conduct in-depth interviews with Apple consumers, but before doing that, you want to get a feel for what kinds of questions and topics will work in an interview, and also see if consumers might bring up topics that you wouldnt think to include in your list of questions. A focus group would be a great option for you to talk casually with Apple consumers about what they like and dont like about the companys products, and how they use the products in their lives. The participants of a focus group are selected based on their relevance and relationship to the topic under study. They are not typically chosen through rigorous, probability sampling methods, which means that they do not statistically represent any meaningful population. Rather, participants are chosen through word-of-mouth, advertising, or  snowball sampling, depending on the type of person and characteristics the researcher is looking to include. Advantages of Focus Groups There are many advantages of a focus group: As a socially oriented research method, it captures real-life data in a social setting.It is flexible.It has high face validity, meaning that it measures what it is intended to measure.It generates quick results.It costs little to conduct.Group dynamics often bring out aspects of the topic or reveal information about the subject that may not have been anticipated by the researcher or emerged from individual interviews. Disadvantages of Focus Groups On the downside: The researcher has less control over the session than he or she does in individual interviews.Data can sometimes be difficult to analyze.Moderators require certain skills.Differences between groups can be troublesome.Groups can often be difficult to pull together.The discussion must be conducted in a conducive environment. Basic Steps In Conducting a Focus Group Some basic steps should be involved when conducting a focus group, from preparation to data analysis. Preparing For the Focus Group: Identify the main objective of the focus group.Carefully develop your focus group questions. Your focus group should generally last 1 to 1 1/2  hours, which is usually enough time to cover 5 or 6 questions.Call potential participants to invite them to the meeting. Focus groups generally consist of six to 12 participants who have some similar characteristic (e.g., age group, status in a program, etc.). Select participants who are likely to participate in discussions and who don’t all know each other.Send a follow-up invitation with a proposed agenda, questions up for discussion, and time/location details.Three days before the focus group, call each participant to remind them of the meeting. Planning the Session: Schedule a time that is convenient for most people. Plan the focus group to take between 1 and 1 1/2 hours. Lunchtime or dinnertime is usually a good time for people, and if you serve food, they are more likely to attend.Find a good setting, such as a conference room, with good airflow and lighting. Configure the room so that all members can see each other. Provide nametags as well as refreshments. If your focus group is at lunch or dinnertime, be sure to provide food as well.Set some ground rules for the participants that help foster participation and keep the session moving along appropriately. For example- 1. Stay focused on the subject/question, 2. Keep the momentum of the conversation going, and 3. Get closure on each question.Make an agenda for the focus group. Consider the following: Welcome, review of agenda, review of the goal of the meeting, review of ground rules, introductions, questions and answers, and wrap up.Don’t count on your memory for information shared at the focus group. Plan to record the session with either an audio or video recorder. If this isn’t possible, involve a co-facilitator who takes good notes. Facilitating the Session: Introduce yourself and your co-facilitator, if you have one.Explain your need and reason for recording the focus group discussion.Carry out the agenda.Carefully word each question to the group. Before a group discussion, allow everyone a few minutes to carefully record his or her responses or answers. Then, facilitate discussion around the answers to each question, one at a time.After the discussion of each question, reflect back to the group a summary of what you just heard. If you have a note-taker/co-facilitator, he or she may do this.Ensure even participation among the group. If a few people are dominating the conversation, then call on others. Also, consider a round-table approach in which you go in one direction around the table, giving each person a chance to answer the question.Close the session by thanking the participants and telling them that they will receive a copy of the report generated as a result of the discussion. Immediately After the Session: Verify that the audio or video recorder worked throughout the entire session (if one was used).Make any additional notes on your written notes that you need.Write down any observations you made during the session, such as the nature of participation in the group, any surprises of the session, where and when the session was held, etc. Updated  by Nicki Lisa Cole, Ph.D.

Is Human Cloning Ethical or Not - 551 Words

Introduction /â€Å"A human clone is really just a time-delayed identical twin of another person. What is Cloning? Although there have been no confirmed cases of cloned human beings, cloning in theory allows scientists to create a genetic copy of another human individual. The clone would not be an exact physical copy and he/she would have his/her own individual personality and unique fingers prints and toe prints in spite of sharing DNA with the person from whom he/she was cloned. The issue of human cloning can be seen as either ethical or un-ethical, depending on who is being questioned; Secular Humanists would not mind human cloning because it would be the rational thing to do and Collectivists would base their decision on what benefits society most by comparing the benefits and negatives that would occur from the procedure both of these perspectives will be viewed as well as the Roman Catholic Church’s view on this controversial issue. Secular humanists can be described as those who think for themselves, they do not need a greater power to make decisions for them. Dolly The Sheep Dolly a Finn –Dorset ewe, was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell. Dolly was formed by talking a cell from the udder of her biological mother. Her embryo was created by talking the cell and inserting in into a sheep ovum, The embryo was them then placed inside a female sheep that went through a normal pregnancy. She was cloned at the Roslin Institute is ScotlandShow MoreRelatedHuman Cloning And Its Ethical Issues1194 Words   |  5 Pagesarguments in the world about human cloning and its ethical issues. In an issue there will always be pros and cons, but the question is, is this experiment right for humanity? This paper will give in detail about what is cloning, human cloning and how it is done. It will provide my point of view in this topic and two other different arguments from both sides of the issue and finally determine which ones are great arguments. I present my argument with we all are humans and deserve to be exemplifiedRead MoreThe Ethical Implications Of Human Cloning1305 Words   |  6 Pagesbe duplicated. Cloning sheep and other nonhuman animals seemed more ethically benign to some than potentially cloning people. In response to such concerns in the United States, President Clinton signed a five-year moratorium on federal funding for human cloning the same year of Dolly s arrival [source: Lamb]. Human cloning has become one of the most debated topics among people in the world regarding the ethical implications. In past polls by TIME magazine (The Ethics of Cloning, 1998), it was shownRead MoreWhat Are the Ethical Issues of Human Cloning1463 Words   |  6 Pagesregarding the issue of human cloning in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia which have made attempts or have done research in reproductive cloning. Countries like Australia have prohibited human cloning in 2006. (NHMRC, 200 7) Advocates who involve congress members, editorial writers, fertility specialists...and so on gave benefits of human cloning, yet not enough to justify the moral and ethical issues underlying the controversy. Human cloning refers to the creationRead More The Medical and Ethical Perspectives of Human Cloning Essay1807 Words   |  8 Pagesand Ethical Perspectives of Human Cloning      Ã‚  Ã‚   In our modern day world, the technology of genetic engineering and human cloning for the use of asexual reproduction has reached a point to where we must ask ourselves if it is a good practice for medical purposes, or if it presents issues of ethical and moral concern.   Human cloning is a very cmplex process; it is very multilayered in the promises and threats that are suggested by scientists (Kolata 8).   In the basic definition, cloning is accomplishedRead More The Ethical and Theological Implications of Human Cloning Essay4880 Words   |  20 PagesThe Ethical and Theological Implications of Human Cloning Introduction Advances in science and technology have often caused revolutionary changes in the way society views the world. When computers were first invented, they were used to calculate ballistics tables; today they perform a myriad of functions unimagined at their conception. Space travel changed the way mankind viewed itself in terms of a larger context, the universe. In 1978, the first test tube baby was born in England makingRead More Human Cloning is an Ethical Nightmare Essay examples3115 Words   |  13 Pagesidea of human cloning. The fantasy that some people had about having clones of themselves or of animals a few years ago is not a fantasy anymore; it is a reality. With the recent cloning of a sheep named Dolly by scientists in Scotland, the powers of cloning are becoming more prevalent. As daunting as this may seem, the human race must now face all the issues related to human cloning, and the one question that comes up amidst all of the relative confusion about the issue is t his: Is human cloningRead MoreEssay about Ethical Issues of Human Cloning2729 Words   |  11 PagesThe word cloning is commonly used in everyday communication to mean many different technological procedures. Cloning is more specifically defined as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Simply explained by Glenn McGee in his article Primer on Ethics and Human Cloning as the starvation and subsequent implantation of DNA from one organism (e.g., cells specialized to make that organisms hair or milk) into an egg whose DNA nucleus has been removed. The resulting egg and nucleus are shocked or chemicallyRead More Animal and Human Cloning: Moral, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues2517 Words   |  11 PagesAnimal and Human Cloning: Moral, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues Dolly, woolly, innocent, and sweet, strongly contrasts with the severity of the issues that she has raised. Ever since the news surfaced that Dr. Ian Wilmut had succeeded in cloning a sheep, people around the world have been participating in a frenzied debate over the morality of cloning animals, and more importantly human beings. The cloning of animals and humans could help the world in unprecedented ways, but could also give riseRead MoreEssay on Does Artificial Human Cloning Challenge Ethical Boundaries?2112 Words   |  9 PagesDoes Artificial Human Cloning Challenge Ethical Boundaries? Are you one of the millions of humans that take their individuality for granted? If so, adding a replica of a loved one no big deal. Or is it? Human cloning, will it be the wave of the future which will create a human being that will genetically superior or simple replace a loved one that died? What would a parent pay to replace a lost child $1000.00, $10,000.00, or as much as one million dollars, and if so would this be justifiable, moralRead MoreEthical Issues Related to the Cloning Debate1389 Words   |  6 PagesThe act of cloning a human being comes dangerously close to human beings acting as God. Do human beings have the right to tamper with nature in this way? This essay explores the various ethical issues related to the cloning debate, and seeks answers to this deep philosophical question at the heart of bioethics. As a student of genetic biology and future biologist, this question also has personal relevance. Our science is evolving at a rapid pace. As human cloning become s increasingly possible, it

Communicaton between animals and humans by Aisha A Essay Example For Students

Communicaton between animals and humans by Aisha A Essay l-suleimany (UniversINTRODUCTIONThe importance of communication between animals cannot be underestimated. Through communication, animals are able to concentrate on finding food, avoiding their enemies, mating and caring for their young. The study of communication between animals and humans is a never ending fascination and a way to learn more about ourselves. The development of human communication is what makes us exclusive to any living thing on this planet. The ways in which we communicate with one another is uniquely important in our everyday lives. Without its presence, the world would have no development, holding the same appearance as one million years ago. We would be lacking a sense of society and most probably be still in the Stone Age. The mystery of the development of human language constitutes how we are uniquely human from other animals. Human beings have a daily working vocabulary of 1000 words, and with our knowledge on how to use grammatical rules is what makes our sense of communication more sophisticated than any animal. Verbal communication between humans is the central, most relevant factor in a sophisticated society. People have evolved into expressive and capable members of society. The human language has been around for five thousand years and it is apparent that language has been complex long before that. The human language is quite problematic as grammar and syntax play a major role in defining language. Animals have an extremely primitive way of communicating compared to humans, and the way in which we communicate. Animals cannot verbally speak like us humans and studies verify this. HUMAN AND ANIMAL COMMUNICATIONIt is the existence of human communication that has made the world the place it is today. Through communication, human beings have created skyscrapers, long bridges to complicated forms of transportation. We have also had the ability to start world destruction and encourage world peace. It is through learning how to communicate with other humans for almost five thousand years that a persons way of thinking has expanded and information has been passed on from generation to generation. Without a well-advanced language system, we would not be able to function as a successful society that is constantly making advanced and technological developments. The ways in which we communicate to each other begins from the day we are born. A baby will communicate to us through cry, body gestures and play. For example, when an infant is tired, hungry, upset or uncomfortable, they will cry to let us know how they are feeling. When a baby needs our attention, they will automatically kick and move around until we pick them up or play with them. It is through a parents instinct that we are able to read these signs of baby communication. Through the babies first year of life, they will constantly use baby talk as a way of communicating. They learn to speak through babble, as they are beginning to expand on vowel sounds which form words. According to Preyer (1956), Sigismund had found, As the first articulate sounds made by a child from Thuringen, ma, ba, bu, appa, ange, anna, brrr, arrr : these were made about the middle of the first three months. Sigismund is of the opinion that this first lisping, or babbling consists in the production of syllables with only two sounds, of which the consonant is most often the first; that the first consonants distinctly pronounced are the labials.A child will imitate the words we use or sounds they hear and add them to their vocabulary. It may sound like babble to us, but this is the way in which a child gains an understanding 11/12/2002linguistic meanings, it still includes syllables and other word like sounds. A common example is Dink for drink, duce for juice and nana for banana . They seem to use alternative words that are easier to pronounce as their vowel sounds hasnt developed properly. In time, children will learn their grammatical skills from nursery rhymes or playing with other children. The American linguist Noam Chomsky exclaimed that, Human language is a special faculty that has a specific biological basis and that has evolved only in humans. Language arose because the brain passed a threshold in

Principle of Utmost Good Faith Essay Example

Principle of Utmost Good Faith Paper We are glad to submit it as part of completion f the requirements for our Insurance Risk Management (F-210) course with you. Insurance industry. Writing this report has been a great pleasure an interesting experience. This project helped us tremendously to understand the implication of theoretical knowledge in the practical field. It has also shaped some of our basic views like how to communicate carry ourselves in the world of business. We have tried our best to put up a good report with as much information as we could gather during the short time span allotted for writing this report. Thank you for your kind support and help throughout the course, we remain. We hope you will appreciate this sincere effort. Sincerely, Group: 13 Section: A Batch: 18th Roll Signature Generalissimos Similarities Farmland Circumnavigates Almighty ALLAH for giving us the opportunity to accomplish such an enjoyable task of preparing this report in time. We would like to pay our gratitude to all of the people who helped us a lot and for the completion of this report before, during, and after the working period. At first we would like to acknowledge the Almighty, who helped s every time and was with us and gave us moral support and strength every moment. We are especially grateful to our honorable course teacher Ms. Valetudinarianism giving us valuable suggestions and support to prepare this report. Without her advice and support, it would not be possible for us to prepare this report. Contents Page No. Concept of Principle Of Utmost Good Faith The Principle Of Utmost Good Faith A Brief History 10 The law relating to utmost good faith Material fact 12 Facts required to be disclosed not to be disclosed 13 Breach Of Duty 14 We will write a custom essay sample on Principle of Utmost Good Faith specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Principle of Utmost Good Faith specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Principle of Utmost Good Faith specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Principle of utmost good faith under life insurance 16 Principle of utmost good faith under the Marine Insurance 17 Analysis Of Insurance Company a) Sanding Life Insurance Company Company profile 19 Main Analysis 21 b) Statesmanship Corporation 26 Conclusion 29 utmost good faith for analyzing it make a comparative analysis between Sanding life insurance company limited Corporation about the application of this principle. We have tried our best to complete the report properly but because of our lack of enough experience to this work, there may have been some mistakes in the report. The duty of utmost good faith is implied into all insurance contracts by Section 13. It applies to both the insurers and to insured. A higher duty is expected from parties to an insurance contract than from parties to most other contracts in order to ensure the disclosure of all material facts so that the contract may accurately reflect the actual risk being undertaken. The basis of this rule can be found in the famous case of Carter v. Boone (1766) 3 Burr 1905, where L. Mansfield stated that Insurance is a contract of speculation. The duty of utmost good faith applies in both situation in pre intercultural post contractual stage. A failure to comply with the duty of utmost good faith on the part of policyholders may result in the refusal or reduction of a claim or cancellation of their policy. In this report the practical application of principle of utmost good faith of a life insurance company (Sanding Life Insurance Company limited) a general insurance company (Statesmanship Corporation) are described briefly. In case of general insurance company we took two types of policy fire insurance policy marine hull insurance policy and discuss about the covers under this types of policies. We also discuss what types of question generally asked by the insurance company to the proposes in time of effecting these policies to ensure principle of utmost good faith. Management (F-210). The Topic Principle of utmost good faith- a comparison between Shanghai life insurance company and Statesmanship corporation was assigned to us by our honorable course teacher Platitudinous. While preparing the report, we gave our best effort to incorporate all relevant aspects of the topic. The objectives of the report are as following: Enriching the knowledge about an insurance company by reviewing its company refill products offered by them. Enriching capability to interpret about a company by reviewing annual reports. Application of utmost good faith in insurance Industry. Knowing the basic difference Differences in application of utmost good faith. Primary: Visiting the company Internet Secondary: Public Survey to know the popularity of the insurance companies Interviewing some employees of insurance companies. There are some limitations of this study. Therefore the report may lack some crucial data. We couldnt find enough source of information for preparing the report. As a exult, we mainly had to depend on the internet and some business Journals for the The term paper was prepared within a very short time considering the topics related to report. So we cant describe all the parts of the report in detail. The officials had sometimes been unable to provide information because of their huge routine work. The assignment has encountered these limitations that may have hinder progress. But with constant effort, our goal was to minimize the negative efforts of these limitations. Insurance contracts are a special class of contracts which are guided by certain basic reminisces like those of utmost good faith, insurable interest, proximate cause, indemnity, subrogation and contribution. As such, an insurance contract is generally a combination of more than one of these principles and no single principle can be used at one time. The rest is dependent on the contract between the parties. These principles are mostly guided by common law principles from which they have developed. They have also been modified by principles of contract and by statutes as in the case of the Marine Insurance Act, 1963 which has to a certain extent relaxed he basic principles of insurance law. The most crucial principle of insurance is the principle of utmost good faith. The duty of good faith is central to and regulates all aspects of the contract of insurance, from inception through to the terms of the contract, to each partys responsibilities in the event of a claim under the contract of insurance. Information that is of vital importance is only known to one party to the contract. To make the dealings as fair as possible, the principle of utmost good faith was developed whereby the party possessing the knowledge owes a duty to disclose he material and relevant facts to the other party of the contract so that the other party can make an accurate assessment of what they are undertaking. In the insurance market, the doctrine of utmost good faith requires that the party seeking insurance discloses all relevant personal information. For example, if anyone is applying for life insurance, he/she is required to disclose any previous health problems he/she may have had. Likewise, the insurance agent selling anyone the coverage must disclose the critical information he/she needs to know about his/her contract and its terms. The Word-Bridesmaids : Sometimes seen in its genitive form bridesmaid is a Latin phrase meaning utmost good faith literally, most abundant faith. It is the name of a legal doctrine which governs insurance contracts. This means that all parties to an insurance contract must deal in good faith, making a full declaration of all material facts in the insurance proposal. This contrasts with the legal doctrine caveat emptor I. E. Let the buyer beware. Thus the insured must reveal the exact nature and potential of the risks that he transfers to the insurer, while at the same time the insurer must aka sure that the potential contract fits the needs of, and benefits, the assured. A higher duty is expected from parties to an insurance contract than from parties to most other contracts in order to ensure the disclosure of all material facts so that the contract may accurately reflect the actual risk being undertaken. The duty of utmost good faith is implied into all insurance contracts by Section 13. It applies to both the insurers and to insured. The duty covers all aspects of the insurance relationship and is additional to all other duties that the Act imposes. The principle of utmost DOD faith (beriberi fide) implies into each insurance contract a requirement to act with the highest degree of integrity towards the other party, to be full and frank in disclosure and to act with fairness. There must be no intention to mislead or to deceive. The courts have held that while innocent errors or mere carelessness will not be sufficient to demonstrate a lack of utmost good faith, reckless conduct is likely to do so. Conduct that is fraudulent or dishonest is a breach of duty of utmost good faith. Section 14 states that if the reliance by a party on any provision of the contract loud fail to be an act of good faith, then the party cannot rely on that provision. This is generally aimed at the insurer and is merely another way of saying that the insurer must have due regard to the insureds interests when the insurer is placed in a position of conflict such as deciding whether to pay out on a claim. A Brief History : At common law a contract of insurance is based on the principle that the insurer and insured act with the utmost good faith towards each other which is known as bridesmaids. A greater duty is cast on the assured to make known to the insurer ill the date of validity of the policy about all such material facts connected with the subject matter of the insurance which the insurer does not know or is not deemed to know. Evolution of the doctrine under Common Law : where the duty of disclosure lies on both the parties. A failure to disclose such fact, even if done innocently, will entitle the insurer to avoid the contract within a reasonable time period. The basis of this rule can be found in the famous case of Carter v. Boone (1766) 3 Burr 1905, where L. Mansfield stated that Insurance is a contract of speculation. The Renville was settled by the Judgment of Lord Mansfield in Carter v Boone (1766) Case. The principles underlying this rule were stated by Lord Mansfield in the leading and often quoted case of Carter v Boone Insurance is a contract of speculation The special facts upon which the contingent chance is to be computed lie most commonly in the knowledge of the assured only; the underwriter trusts to his representation and proceeds upon confidence that he does not keep back any circumstance in his knowledge to mislead the underwriter into a belief that the circumstances do not exist. The keeping back of such circumstances is fraud, and therefore the policy is void. Although the suppression should happen through mistake, without any fraudulent intention, yet still the underwriter is deceived and the policy is void; because the risk run is really different from the risk understood and intended to be run at the time of agreement. The policy would be equally void against the underwriter if he concealed. Good faith forbids either party; by concealing what he privately knows to draw the other into a bargain from his ignorance of the fact, and his believing the contrary. Clearly so, L. Mansfield here talks only about the obligation of the insured towards the insurer at the time of making of the contract. This statement fails to cover such disclosures as are ought to be made by the assured after the completion of the contract and during the validity of the policy. The statements of the principles governing non-disclosure by Lord Mansfield is to be considered as in the context of the inception of the contract of insurance. At common law the duty of utmost good faith applies after the inception of a contract and during its currency. The duty of principle of utmost good faith: The relationship between the assured and the insurer is one of bridesmaids, or of utmost good faith. In the event that either party does not observe utmost good faith, the innocent party may avoid the contract . The principle of utmost good faith implies into each insurance contract a requirement to act with the highest degree of integrity towards the other party, to be full and frank in disclosure and to act with fairness. There must be no intention to mislead or to deceive. A failure to comply with the duty f utmost good faith on the part of policyholders may result in the refusal or reduction of a claim, or in cancellation of their policies. If insurers breach their duty of utmost good faith to policyholders they may not be able to rely on particular provisions of their insurance contracts.