National Analysts Worldwide Study #812
May/June, 2009
U.S. Mint 2nd Quarter 2009 Focus Group
Research
Discussion Guide
Customers and Non-Customers
I. INTRODUCTION
Ground Rules: Audio-taping, confidentiality, candor, cell phones, pagers, etc.
Background & Objectives: The purpose of today’s discussion is to learn about your collecting interests and to explore your perceptions of different products in the United States Mint’s product portfolio.
Introductions: First name, (Customers) types of coins that are especially liked and length of time collecting and/or buying U.S. coins, (Non-customers) types of items collected and/or recent special gifts purchased.
II. CURRENT COLLECTING/BUYING PRACTICES
(Non-Customers) What particular types of collectibles have special interest or appeal to you and what makes them attractive to you? Probe…
(Non-Customers) What types of special and/or collectible items have you purchased as gifts recently?
What types of occasions?
What drew you to this item (for this person/occasion)?
How did you think this gift reflected on you (i.e., what did it say about you) as a gift giver?
(Non-Customers) To what extent are you aware that the United States Mint sells collectible coins and sets that can be purchased?
(Customers) What types of coins and coin-related products have you bought from the United States Mint? Probe…
III. ASSESSMENT OF CURRENT COIN PRODUCTS AND NEW PRODUCT IDEAS
Overall, what are your impressions of the coin products that the United States Mint produces? Probe…
Which ones are best? Worst?
How about their artistry, appearance, etc.?
What about their packaging?
Explore other product interest/preference issues identified by United States Mint team
IV. FREE-FORM PRODUCT CATEGORIZATION
[Display full roster of United States Mint products on table. Invite participants to go up to table and look at products and jot a few notes down about things they like/dislike about the various products.]
[Give each participant a set of product cards and ask them to sort into categories. Then have respondents record their categorization scheme on categorization grid (and assign a label to each category).]
(Each participant) Describe the categories you used to distinguish the products
What was your rationale for choosing these categories?
Which products (if any) did you have difficulty assigning to a category?
Probe for necessary clarifications from the other participants (e.g., which products fit in which categories, etc.)
[If participant had a “miscellaneous” or “don’t know” category, encourage them to assign those items to others of their existing categories.]
[Ask participants to rate each other’s categorization scheme (privately) with respect to how “understandable” or “intuitive” it is to them.]
Discuss the broad categorization schemes and what types of groupings/categories that were discussed seem most appropriate
V. EVALUATION OF PRE-DEFINED PRODUCT CATEGORIZATION
[Display candidate United States Mint categorization scheme. Indicate that some products could go in multiple categories. For each product, identify which category you feel it fits with “best,” as well as which other categories it also (reasonably) fits into.]
How do you feel about the product categories that were listed?
Which, if any, were confusing?
Which categories, if any, are missing (or would you suggest adding)?
Which categories, if any, are unnecessary (or would you suggest removing/combining)?
In which categories did you place only a few products?
Should they be combined with others? Which ones?
In which categories did you place many (or too many) products?
Should these be subdivided in some way? How?
Are there any products that you found difficult to place in one of these categories?
Which ones? Why?
What could be added/changed to better clarify where you would find this product?
What other changes would you suggest for the categorization scheme and/or the labels in this candidate categorization scheme?
VI. MISCELLANY AND WRAP-UP
Probe additional issues identified by United States Mint; thank and conclude
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| File Type | application/msword |
| File Title | Normal Document |
| Author | Claire Robbins |
| Last Modified By | ypollard |
| File Modified | 2009-03-19 |
| File Created | 2009-03-19 |