Money isn't everything

Editor's note: Alice Rodgers is president of Rodgers Marketing Research, Canton, Ohio.

This article reports on the second phase of an ongoing research project about respondent motivation for participating in research, especially focus group sessions. The first phase (published in the May, 1990 issue of Quirk's Marketing Research Review) presented the tabulated results of questionnaires completed by 634 people who participated in a focus group session with Rodgers Marketing Research between March and December of 1989.

That research discovered that many people participate in focus group sessions because of the gratuity paid. However, that is not the only reason, and for some, it may not be the main reason. When respondents were asked, "Why did you accept this invitation to participate?" (and allowed to indicate more than one reason), there were some surprises. The results from this quantitative study by type of group:

These 634 people were also asked if they would participate in a focus group session on various topics without being paid. Less than half said they would not participate in a focus group without being paid on any subject. Note that between 20 and 30% for all subjects said they were not sure. Interestingly, between 25 and 64% (depending on the subject) said they would participate in a focus group session without being paid: 45% said they would participate in a group on public service issues without being paid and 44% said they would participate in a group on community issues without being paid.

Phase II

Intrigued by the expressed willingness of people to participate in a focus group without being paid, we decided to do two focus groups on community issues where one group of respondents would not be paid, while the other group would be paid.

Essentially this phase was to explore in more depth respondent reasons for participating in focus groups. Was money such an overriding consideration that people simply would not accept an invitation to a group unless they were paid? In addition, it was thought that if it is possible to do an unpaid group, it could provide an opportunity for moderators and facilities to work together on philanthropic projects. That is, moderators, facilities and respondents could donate time to do groups that otherwise would not be done on issues like homelessness, teenage pregnancy, etc.

Recruiting specifications

Nineteen facilities around the country were called and asked to bid on these groups. The specs were:

• Recruit for ten participants in each session - 6 and 8 PM.
• Recruit 4 men; 4 working women and 4 non-working women for each group.
• All to be 25 years and older (mix of ages).
• All to have household income of $15,000 or more (mix of incomes).
• Would like mix of education.
• No one to have done a focus group in the past year.
• Recruit two "virgins"(virgins refers to "virgin respondents"); and two people who have done 6 or more groups.

The subject was national issues of importance including:

• the environment;
• the savings and loan situation/budget deficit; and
• personal concerns, like cholesterol.

One group would be paid $30. The other group would not be paid.

Reactions from the field

Many of the facilities commented on recruiting people who have done six or more groups. Some comments of interest from the facilities:

• Just two virgins - sometimes we have all virgins.
• Six or more? That will give us a chance to use our "Dead Meat list" - the folks that we have on a list not to use!
• We will have to go look for the professionals!
• It will probably take us longer to get the ones who have done six or more to come for free than it takes to get all the rest. They are so used to being paid.

Nine of the facilities contacted bid on the project. Ten declined to bid. One facility in each of the following areas declined to bid: Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Michigan, Orlando, Canton, Ohio, New York, Cleveland and Chicago.

There were however, two facilities in Chicago which did bid and one in Cleveland also bid. In addition, one from each of the following areas also bid on this project: San Diego, Seattle, Tampa, Columbus, Akron, and Dallas.

Some reactions from the field services (negatives first, followed by the positives):

• I would not want to be held responsible if no one showed up for the unpaid group.
• There is no way we will do a group without paying them an incentive.
• Pay no gratuity to the group ? I would never get them here. I don't think people would come.
• I could bid on it, but it would be so expensive it would not be worth it. People have so little free time that I don't think they would do it unless they would be paid.
• I can't cost it. I don't know what the rate would be. I have no idea what the qualified refusal rate would be. We can't do it. I don't know what would happen.
• You are asking for two people who have done six or more, who know they are going to get paid - so why should they do it for nothing?
• I don't want to start it. Those people when they are contacted again will ask, why were they paid for one and not for the other? Did I pocket the money? It reflects back on me.
• That sounds like fun! This is real interesting.
• I think what will happen is that it will be easier to get people who have not participated. Can we have more than two people who have not participated?
• I will (gulp). OK - let's see if we can do it!
• We do personal interviews at their offices without their being paid and we do telephone interviews all the time without being paid, but having someone come and give two hours of their time without being paid. . . driving 20 miles or so. . . It will be interesting to see what happens though. . .I will take a shot at it. I figure if anybody can do it, we can. . .

Many of the field services raised some issues that are clearly a concern here. Just about everyone mentioned the probability of a high number of no-shows for the unpaid group. Some also made some suggestions to facilitate the project, including:

• Do the non-paid group at 6:00 p.m. and feed them.
• Do the non-paid group at 6:00, because many are already out and it is easier for them to come. Getting people to come out without being paid at 8 p.m. may be more difficult.
• Think about some way to thank participants: a t-shirt, coffee mug, etc.
• Need to be able to tell them something when you recruit, so they will be interested in coming. That will cut down on no-shows.

Since our original intent was to see if a group could be conducted without being paid, we did not offer any tangible thank-you. We did, however, hold the non-paid group at 6:00 p.m. and we did feed them. We also told them a bit about the subjects that were being discussed.

Results

Given the scope of this project, only one location was to be chosen and it needed to be within easy driving distance for the author. Accordingly, Quality Controlled Services in Columbus, Ohio, was chosen to do the work. It was somewhat of a biased selection, because our firm has been repeatedly impressed with the overall quality of their work, their attention to detail, and their willingness to try a difficult recruit.

The groups were done on Tuesday, June 26. Absolutely no extra efforts were made and recruiting was done as it usually is. A list of people in the Columbus area who had indicated on the questionnaire from Phase I that they would be willing to do a group on community issues without being paid was given to the facility. They were asked to recruit some people from these lists. They were also asked to try especially to recruit two people who had done six or more groups for the unpaid group.

Otherwise, the only difference in the invitation for the two groups was:

6:00 group only - May we include you in this discussion? Please try to arrive by 5:45 so that you can enjoy a light buffet.

8:00 group only - May we include you in this discussion? As a token of our appreciation each participant will be paid $30.

Those recruited for the 6:00 group who asked were told that there would be no gratuity paid for this session. If necessary, the facility was allowed to tell people in the unpaid group that they were being called because they had indicated a willingness to participate in a group on community issues without being paid.

The screener included questions about their feelings regarding the environment, the savings and loan/deficit situation, and health concerns. A sheet which had a list of questions for them to consider before the group was to be included with their reminder letter. There were five questions:

• one about the environment and their personal concerns;
• one about how their taxes are spent;
• one about the census;
• one about their personal health concerns - cholesterol, etc.; and
• one about participating in surveys - telephone as well as round table.

Unfortunately, this sheet was inadvertently not included with the letter. When this was discovered, the facility notified us. We jointly decided that the best thing to do was for the facility to call all the people who were coming to the session and ask if they could read them the questions over the phone. If anyone said there was too much to write down, the sheet was hand delivered to them (only a couple requested delivery).

Report on recruiting from the facility

The person in charge of recruiting was asked to submit a report on their experiences with this project. The report:

"When recruiting from the 6:00 p.m. group, the majority of the respondents who qualified and refused did so because of other time commitments. Often I was asked if the session was being held on another date because it sounded so interesting. One woman reluctantly refused at the conclusion because she felt she needed the money she could get from being in a paid group. She was later recruited for the 8:00 p.m. group. One woman went through the study and then had to have me recall her to confirm her availability. She had to rearrange a dinner party. She knew the group was not being paid but was willing to do this if I thought she was qualified enough on the topics. I only had one woman who initially asked me what date the session was on and how much it paid. When I told her that it did not pay anything she was very upset and stated that her time and opinion were worth money. I did have two other people - one woman and one man refuse because of no money.

The 8:00 PM group was easy to recruit. The majority of the people were initially hesitant in that they felt that they were not equally informed or knowledgeable about all three topics. Once reassured that they qualified they were eager to participate. Again in this group, the majority of qualified refusals were due to other time commitments.

The actual time on the phone was easy. Everyone had some opinions on all of the topics. What did take some time was to try to get the cross representation that was needed in the group. It was a challenging group to recruit and actually went quite fast. "

Actual session

Nine people came to the unpaid session; eleven came to the paid session. For the unpaid session there were some cancellations. One woman cancelled because she was going to be out of town; one cancelled because she an opportunity to work and since the group was not paid, she chose to work; one cancelled because she could not get a baby sitter. A total of eleven people were expected. There were two no shows: one of whom had done at least six groups in the past (and was on their "dead meat" list.)

For the paid session, twelve were confirmed. The woman who did not attend had been in an accident earlier in the day and totaled her car. She called and said she would still try to come, but she did not make it.

Three people were recruited from the lists provided and two people participated in each of the sessions. Other demographics of the two groups:

It appears that there is a greater propensity to participate in an unpaid group among those who are 45 and over. It may be that these people have less time pressures and they may be more likely to want to "give back." Note that there are quite a few retirees who participated in the unpaid session. (Phase III will examine willingness to participate in groups without being paid by age and other demographics.)

Not surprisingly, the more groups participants had done, the less likely they were to participate in a focus group without being paid. In fact, none of the unpaid people had participated in more than 4 groups previously. This substantiates the quantitative findings of Phase I.

There was some concern that the paid group would be a better group as compared to the unpaid group. However, there was no real difference in the quality of the two groups. In both groups, people came primarily because of the topics being discussed. Both sessions lasted nearly two hours each. Items discussed included:

• the environment;
• savings & loan situation;
• health concerns (cholesterol)/ labeling, etc.
• surveys in general and then specifically: the census, telephone surveys, mail surveys, mall surveys and focus groups.

Since some of these topics could be of interest to the media, all of the participants were asked to sign releases at the end of the session. These releases gave permission for them to be quoted by name in the media. Interestingly, all of the people in the unpaid group signed. Eight of the people in the paid session signed, one signed with a restriction about quoting anything about her health or her son and two did not sign.

Most of the unpaid people in the session knew they were not being paid. Some had assumed that they would be paid. However, there were no complaints from anyone.

The people in the paid group were given an opportunity to not be paid for the session, but all of the participants decided to accept the gratuity.

Participants in both sessions discussed how they felt about participating in focus groups:

- I like to hear what other people think and hope a lot of them think the same way I do . . . I enjoy it a lot.

- It is very stimulating.

- I think it makes us feel good that someone wants to know what our thoughts are.

- Gives a sense of self-importance because everyone wants their opinions to be important. Something like this that you are getting paid to be here for can really validate that sense of self-importance. My opinion is so important they paid me to be here.

Reasons for coming to session:

- It was the topic, because when I was called she just gave me a run down of the things we would discuss and when she asked about the savings and loan, I just started talking. . . I was so opinionated.

- This is the third one that I have attended here and I enjoyed the previous two. The previous ones were quite a bit different, but I am happy that I came this evening.

- Because I have participated in perhaps eight or ten of them before. They have all been very interesting. I go home with a sense of maybe I have contributed something. These topics are so high profile today in the newspapers, television. They got my attention immediately. . . I am retired and it is a change of pace. I am close.

- I like discussions like this. That was my main reason. I like people.

- Money.

- I know how valuable the information is to the people who use it. I feel that every time that I have the chance to participate, I should. I know that agencies like yours go to a lot of trouble to find people who can express their opinions and go through these things. I will tell everybody here that I guarantee that they will all listen to everything that is said here.

Participants were asked how to get people to come to focus group sessions:

- We were kind of skeptical at first. I know the first time I was invited to come, I didn't come. I guess partly I wasn't sure they were legit; you have that concern in the back of your mind.

- Exactly who is doing this? Is this really okay to be doing this? Is it legal ? At that point it was - "Come on this night and we will pay you so much money in cash. . . " Are you allowed to do that? ... I knew it was in Worthington, but I wasn't sure, was it some back door, garage?

- It always helps if you mention money.

- The one I came to was about mayonnaise and I wouldn't come to discuss mayonnaise for nothing. I wouldn't leave my family. My husband works quite a bit and our time together is very valuable and in order to get me to come to discuss mayonnaise, you are going to have to reward me for that. Tonight, I thought it was more the topic; I felt it was important and I was glad someone was finally going to ask my opinion.

The people in these groups were told that often people who have participated in quite a few focus group sessions were often screened out of focus groups. Some reactions:

- They would probably get a better discussion from people who have been here before, because they are not going to be afraid to voice their opinions.

- I don't see how anyone could become professional. Unless it was once every week, then you would really get a knack.

Participants in the unpaid session were asked what they thought about participating in a session without being paid:

- I think it is real nice and can't see if anybody had the time why they wouldn't do it because I think it is interesting and fun and nice. I would do it again.

- Well, I would think twice before coming down knowing that I wouldn't get paid, but it would depend on my schedule, if I could work it in and if I knew the material was about the same we talked about that affects federal and state governments maybe where I needed to get my two cents in. It all depends on the situation.

Summary

To summarize, it is possible to do a focus group without paying respondents. However, willingness to participate without being paid is probably topic related. It can be expected then, that few people would be willing to come to a session without being paid unless the topic is one in which they are quite interested.

Clearly, it is probably wise to do just about all focus groups with paid respondents. The risks of no-shows, etc. are too high. However, this experience does offer some potential for moderators and facilities to cooperate to do low cost research on issues of importance which would not otherwise be done. That is, a moderator and a facility could donate time and effort to a project (maybe community issues or homelessness, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, or education issues) and recruit respondents who would not be paid. This gives all of us-moderators, facilities and respondents-an opportunity to participate in philanthropic projects. Naturally, this research must not take the place of research that would ordinarily be paid!

Most importantly, from the viewpoint of moderators and facilities alike, is the finding that while money is an important consideration, it is not everything. This is especially good news for researchers. After all, many of us have long hoped that people are sharing their opinions with us not just because they are being paid.

Given concerns about increasing research costs, this finding can be especially helpful. While it is important to offer a remuneration to get people to come to a group, there are other "hooks" that can be included. The subject matter, previous experiences and interest in participating in research definitely contribute to a person's willingness to be part of a session.

It is information like this (from Phases I and II) which can help in setting the costs of incentive fees. It can also be an aid in recruiting. Additional phases of this research will continue to investigate respondents' motivations and the focus group experience.

Phase III is scheduled to start in 1991 and will be a larger survey of focus group participants. It will be a quantitative study to determine (and/or confirm) the reasons people decide to participate in research. Companies which are interested in participating in this study or which have comments or suggestions should contact the author at Rodgers Marketing Research, 4575 Edwin Drive, NW, Canton, OH 44718, or at 216-492-8880.

The author wishes to thank the Field Committee of the Qualitative Research Consultants Association for their strong support and encouragement during this research and Bob Harris of JRH Marketing for his comments and suggestions. This research was made possible, in part, by a grant from the Qualitative Research Consultants Association (QRCA).