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Market Research and Focus Groups
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Beer tasting for money?! Say it isn’t so! It IS truly possible!
Don’t mind being a corporate guinea pig? Want to get paid for your opinions about products and services? Believe it or not, companies are willing to pay you for your feedback on their products, services, locations and events. For every legitimate market research company, however, there are half a dozen companies that will try to scam you or just want to sell your personal info to the highest bidder. Keep reading to learn more and to find out how to separate the good from the bad.
To participate in a focus group, you need to live in or near a city with a market research company. If you live in a small town miles away from the nearest city, then I’m sorry, but this post probably isn’t for you. There are online surveys and focus groups that you can participate in, but I’ll save that for another post.
To get started, head over to:
Choose to search by location, and enter your city. This site is a directory for businesses looking to do market research, so the resulting websites will probably tout how great their facilities are and detail the types of research they offer. Some of these sites will be dead ends, but others will have a link where you can join their database.
The company that I found on Greenbook, and have the most personal experience with is Plaza Research.
Plaza research has offices in several metropolitan cities throughout the country and does research for many major companies in the United States, and I have personally been paid by them several times last year alone.
Here are some of the studies that my associates and I have participated in:
- A major clothing manufacturer asking about their new bra line. This was very interesting. Bras and underwear were passed around the table and they wanted our opinion on material as well as designs. That was an easy $100 for 1 1/2 hours.
- A cell phone company wanting opinions about the marketing material accompanying their new Bluetooth headsets. We had to try out the different blue tooth models and make phone calls to our friends using the Bluetooth and then rate them accordingly. I basically got $75 for calling my friends and talking to them on their cell phones and their devices. Not too bad!
- A beer company wanted to know what we thought of their new radio and television advertising campaign. We told the moderator what we liked about the campaign and what we didn’t, then we helped choose the elements that would be in future commercials. An hour and a half of work for $85. *I have also seen postings for several beer tasting studies. They even give you cab fare home! These fill up soon, so when you see them, call…quick!
- An internet tablet manufacturer – This one was fun! We got to take home a competitors internet tablet for a week and then come back and tell them what we liked about it and what we didn’t like about it. A two hour discussion and a week of using the device was worth $200!
- A telephone study for 1 hour about my career and a software that would relate to my job. I got paid $150 for never leaving my house and talking on the phone for an hour about what I do for a living.
Once you sign up with Plaza Research (or a similar company), you will receive emails from them occasionally showing which focus groups they currently offering as well as the amount they are paying for each study. You will then need to call or email if you would like to be considered for a study. There are usually limited spots available so you should make sure to call or email as soon as you find a study you want to participate in. If there is space in a study, you will then be asked some qualifying questions to make sure you are the type of person they are looking for. If you pass the screening, you will be given a place and time to show up to participate in the study. From there, just show up, participate, and pick up your check as you leave. Plaza Research usually overbooks for studies, and if you are lucky then you will be randomly chosen to go home without participating and still get paid!
Make sure that you show up and answer questions honestly. You won’t qualify for every study, but they are a nice way to earn a little cash and get a sneak peek at some items hitting the marketplace.
Hold the phone! I’ve got one more website for you.
I just found it and have been researching it all week. At first I thought it was a scam, but after looking into it and talking to the webmaster, I believe it could be very useful.
It is very simple, just select your city from the drop down menu and you are presented a list of all focus groups in your area that are looking for participants. There is even a button that you can flag a listing as expired. I was a little skeptical when I found the site, so I contacted webmaster asking for information on his listings and how he weeds out the scams. He was very open with me and gave me some of hit criteria and tips for weeding out the junk. Here they are along with a few of my own:
- Legitimate companies will usually include a company name, contact email or phone number, a date and time for the study, and a link to qualify for the study.
- Use common sense when selecting a study, and NEVER give away your social security number.
- Avoid listings that have vague descriptions of who they are looking for.
- Avoid listings that promise big paychecks or quick cash, or anything that requires you to pay
- Always remember, If it sounds too good to be true… It is.
Hopefully this will get you started with finding a focus group to participate in. Just like everything else on this site, you won’t get rich doing it, but every penny helps. Let me know about your experiences with focus groups, I’d love to hear about it and post it on the site. I will post any new information I find as well as any studies that I participate in. Thanks for reading!
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I have compiled a list of legitimate market research companies throughtout the United States. You can view it at: http://www.frugalparentsonline.com/Focus_Groups.html.
Links are included to make it easy to register with the companies.