Focus Groups

One of the really cool things that I like about Purdue is how much emphasis is put on research. Even the book stores want to make sure that they’re looking into the opinions and thoughts of their students/consumers.

This past semester I went to a few focus groups that were hosted by University Book Store. Set up into a girls group and a boys group, representatives from different companies came to see what young adults were prone to buy. We got to see different clothing, hats, sports gear, and Turvis cups. It was really neat to be free to talk about what we liked and didn’t like about the items we see in the book stores for sale. Some of the topics we discussed were how much we’d be willing to pay for an item, if it mattered what the material was, how it was washed, or if it was made in the United States, and on what occasions we would wear such items. Some of us even went down to the detail of the cuts of sleeves, length of shirts, and some of the products we got to try on. I would have easily done this focus group for free but as luck had it, every focus group I went to I was rewarded with some kind of product: a hat, a tshirt voucher at the book store, and a free Turvis mug. It was definitely worth me time!

-- Kathryn Stwalley