FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION

Topic: To find out if McDonalds should add pasta into its menu

Participants:
1. People who are frequent visitors of QSRs (Quick Service Restaurants)
2. 5-10 customers in the focus groups

Environment: Comfortable, round seating arrangement and tape recorded

Moderator: Professionally trained and experienced in group discussions

Outline of the discussion

1 Moderator introduces himself along with the assistant

2 Reasons for selection of the group members are mentioned
3 The process of the discussion and guidelines are explained accordingly- No right or
wrong answers, point of view is what matters. One person speaking at a time. How
everyone must be called (communication on first name basis). Cellular phones to be
kept on silent mode (in case of an emergency the member is requested to go out, talk
and return for the discussion as early as possible). Members must listen to each other
respectfully. They are notified about the whole discussion being recorded on tape.
4 The focus group discussion proceeds with the inaugural question:
How often do you eat fast-food in a week?

Questionnaire for the discussion

The group started with discussing the flow of the focus group discussion. We started
discussing probable questions and how to sequence them so that the discussion has a proper
structure. The questions that we came up with are as follows:

1. In a week, how often do you eat fast food?

2. What is your most preferred kind of food?
3. How much do you generally spend on fast food per week?
4. Which fast food outlet do you visit frequently?
5. Is price an important factor in choosing the QSR?
6. Do you prefer to take away your food or dine-in?
7. Are you brand conscious?
8. Do you eat pasta?
9. Which type of sauce do you prefer in pasta?
10. What do you generally eat or drink along with pasta?
11. At what time of the day do you eat pasta?
12. Do you eat pasta as a side dish or main course?
13. How much are you willing to spend for pasta in a week?
14. Do you prefer veg or non veg pasta?
15. Do you like pasta with little vegetables or a lot of vegetables?
16. Do you make pasta at home?
17. On what occasions do you generally eat pasta?
18. Given a choice would you prefer pasta over a burger at the same price?
19. If pasta is introduced at a QSR, are you willing to try it?
20. How much time are you willing to wait for your pasta after placing the order?
 21. Where do you prefer to eat pasta?
22. If pasta is introduced at a QSR which is predominantly into burgers, would you like to
eat there?

Summary of the discussion

We started with a general question to understand the frequency of visits of the consumers.
We got a variety of inputs with average being 4 times a week. The discussion was then
steered in the direction of eating habits of the consumers with questions like fast food
preference and where did pasta stand in their liking. As the group consisted of regular QSR
visitors, we found favorable inputs to the first one (burgers and wraps were the preferred
options) and also welcoming thoughts on the second (pasta was indeed appreciated by the
majority of the members). We then moved deeper into understanding the factors that favor
the consumption of pasta- intention being to include the preferences in our environment. Soft
drinks were favored by the majority to complement the pasta. Also, consumers showed
greater interests in having more vegetables and chicken in the pasta to make it a scrumptious
meal. We then tried to understand the intention of consumers to buy pasta when it was
offered at the same price as burgers. The response to that was angled more towards burgers.
Our concluding questions then tried to capture the final conversion of consumers in buying
pasta in a QSR, the response to which was a favorable one.