Incentives to Participate
Incentives are needed because it takes effort to participate in a focus group. The participant must reserve a time on his or her schedule and then promise to hold that time open for the group. For individuals whose lives are unpredictable or who are subject to the wishes of others, this can be a big promise. Furthermore, the participants typically incur financial and emotional expenses to participate-child care, travel, having to leave their kids when they feel like they don't spend enough time with them anyway, having to be inside on a beautiful day, having to leave home after they have just settled into their favorite chair, or the apprehension of talking about something dear or personal to them. Finally, the participant spends a designated amount of time in the focus group. This level of individual contribution exceeds that needed for other forms of data gathering. The mail-out survey and the telephone interview are conducted in the participant's home or office, and no travel is necessary. With the mail-out survey and, to a lesser extent, the telephone interview, the participant has some choice about when he or she will respond. Furthermore, surveys and telephone interviews rarely take two hours. Individual interviews come closest to the focus group in terms of the investment the participant must make. However, with individual interviews, the participant is a partner in setting the time and location of the interview, usually within the home or office of the interviewee at a time convenient for him or her.
Focus groups are unique from other data-gathering processes in terms of the investment that must be made by the individual. It is therefore no surprise that a tradition has been established to provide an incentive for participation. From a practical aspect, it would be next to impossible to conduct focus groups without incentives in some situations.

The incentive is not a reward and not really an honorarium or salary. It is an incentive! It serves as a stimulus to attend the session. The primary function of the incentive is to get the participants to show up for the focus group-and to show up on time. The motivational influence of the incentive hasn't worked if the participants are surprised when they receive it. Imagine yourself coming home from a hard day's work, "fou're tired. You're hungry. Your day didn't go well. You're looking forward to a relaxing evening at home. But you promised someone a couple of weeks ago that you would go to a small group discussion tonight. Now this is one of the times when the incentive kicks in. You recall what was promised if you attend, and you decide that it will be worth the effort to go. Another way the incentive works is to encourage participants to hold open the time of the scheduled focus group. Some people will receive a number of last-minute requests for the same time period. The incentive serves to protect the promised time slot from being preempted. The third function of the incentive is to communicate to the participants that the focus group is important. By far the most common type of incentive is money. Money has several advantages. Its value is immediately recognized and understood by the participants, it is portable, it will fit into small spaces, and, most important, it works. We give each participant an envelope with cash in it at the conclusion of the group. We have each person sign a form with the date and name of the sponsoring organization that says something such as, "I received $50 for participating in a discussion about nature areas." Immediate payment in cash is preferred. The promise of a check in the mail within a few weeks will be a disappointment. The amount of the payment can and should vary-but not within the same focus group. Each person within a particular group and sometimes within the total study should receive equivalent payment. You don't want to create the impression that some people's opinions are worth more than others' opinions. When considering the amount of payment, the researcher should be mindful of the workable range. At the lower end of the range, the researcher risks insulting the participants with a payment that is too small. Although this will vary, promises of payments in the range of $10 to $15 may be too low and be a detriment to the project. When time and travel are considered, it may be below minimum wage and just not enough to be taken seriously. Better to be creative and come up with another type of incentive. At the upper end of the range, the researcher will find that the study can quickly get too expensive, and the participants may feel awkward receiving what they perceive to be an excessive payment-especially from a public or nonprofit organization.
Generally, as the payment approaches the ceiling, the time needed to recruit is reduced. In some studies, it may be more efficient to pay more for incentives and thereby reduce the recruiting time and the likelihood that people won't show up. At the time of this writing, amounts of $25 to $50 usually work for public and nonprofit studies. As the amount approaches $50, an interesting phenomenon begins to occur. If the participant has a last-minute conflict, he or she is more likely to call the moderator and offer to send a replacement in his or her absence. When working with elite categories of focus group participants, the amounts may need to be adjusted upward. Focus groups with engineers, physicians, attorneys, upper management, and similar categories may require amounts in the $100 to $200+ range.
When asked why they participate in focus groups, 66% of those surveyed indicated compensation as the main motivator based on a study by Rodgers Marketing Research in Canton, Ohio ("Money Not the Only Motivation," 1991, p. 17). Money is not the only incentive that works, and in some cases, it can be inappropriate or illegal. Employees released from work to attend a focus group are already being compensated, and financial incentives are usually deemed inappropriate, if not illegal.
EXAMPLE
An Effective Nonfinancial Incentive
This doesn't come from a focus group study, but it is a good example of providing a gift that doesn't cost much but that people treasure. Several years ago, a researcher was sending out a burdensome survey to private forest landowners. Because the survey was lengthy, the research team was concerned that the respondents would not reply. Considerable discussion was given to an incentive to participate. A number of items were suggested and rejected. Finally one of the team members had a clever idea. "Up at the Forestry School, we have a garbage can full of tree seeds. But not just any seeds. Back a number of years ago we were experimenting with hybrid spruce trees. We interbred a red, white, and blue spruce, and the result was called the 'All American Spruce," The new tree didn't possess the features we wanted, and as a result, we couldn't commercially market the tree. We have lots of the seed, and we could put this seed in small envelopes along with a note describing the development. Maybe the forest owners would consider it interesting." The comment was a, huge understatement. Inadvertently, we discovered that we had given the forest owners an object of major value. It reinforced their values and couldn't be obtained anywhere else at any cost. The respondents wrote back and asked for more seeds. They put the packets on their coffee tables. Some even framed the seeds. The seeds were about to be dumped out because they were considered garbage by the researchers, but to those receiving the seeds, they were a gift beyond value.
The incentive is symbolic, and other symbols may be worthy substitutes. Food, which can range from light snacks to a full meal, can be effective. Gifts can work well, but they must be adequately described in advance to avoid disappointment when they are presented. Sometimes gifts can be of limited financial value but have significant emotional or psychological value.
A positive and upbeat invitation, the opportunity to share opinions, meals or refreshments, and tangible gifts are all incentives we've used. So is a convenient, comfortable, and easy-to-find meeting location. For some target audiences, it is important to know they will be participating in a research project in which their opinions will be of particular value. They feel honored when they are asked to provide opinions for a research project. Finally, people are more likely to attend a focus group if the invitation builds on some existing community, social, or personal relationship. Thus, an invitation might mention the connection between the study and a local organization, social cause, or respected individual.