Working in a small team, select a product or service to research—for example, your college’s food service or bookstore or a new item you would like to see stocked in your local grocery store.

To provide marketing managers with information about consumer reactions to a particular product or service, business researchers often conduct focus groups. The participants in these groups are representative of the target market for the product or service under study. The leader poses questions and lets members of the group express their feelings and ideas about the product or service. The ideas are recorded, transcribed, and analyzed.