NHTSA 2010 Consumer Education Program for Fuel Economy_Part B

Supporting Statement for Consumer Education Program for Fuel Economy; GHG, Other Emissions, and Alternative Fuels

Section B: Recruitment Procedures

Focus Group Recruitment

Focus groups for the Fuel Economy, GHG, Other Emissions, and Alternative Fuels Education Program
will be held utilizing the Fieldwork Network of focus group facilities. This company has 25 years experience in qualitative research and currently runs 17 focus group facilities in various cities. Fieldwork also has partners in other locations around the country that can be utilized depending on the location of these focus groups.

For any focus group research, recruitment can be executed using one or a mix of the following methods:

1. A list of potential respondents is provided to the focus group facility. This method is generally used when participants must meet specific and unique criteria or when the group is to be made up of a specific population for which a list of members exists.

2. A database of potential local respondents is compiled by facilities over time. These are people who have agreed in advance to participate in focus groups, if they qualify. The focus group facility maintains this database and adheres to the Marketing Research Association’s code of ethics on data collection in keeping personal information private.

3. An advertisement looking for participants can be included in the local newspaper, on a local website, or through some other channel to attract potential participants.

Since the first methodology does not apply to this program, participants for this research will be recruited using the latter methods.

Potential participants will be screened of various criteria and the sample for these discussion groups will be built in the following way:

1. First, participants must qualify as an adult over the age of 18.

2. Next, participants will be identified for inclusion in either the male or female focus group.

3. Next, participants will be asked if they or any of their family members work or have worked in the automotive, ethanol and alternative fuel, or marketing and market research industries. Those answering ‘yes’ will not qualify.

4. Next, participants must qualify as a licensed driver.

5. Next, participants must qualify as an owner or lessee of a vehicle.

6. Finally, participants must qualify as the primary or shared decision maker for vehicle purchases i.

The screener used for the focus groups is included as Appendix D of this package.

Focus groups will be homogenous by gender as past experience has demonstrated that in mixed groups that discuss vehicle-related issues, women generally defer to male opinions rather than providing their own, well-thought out perspectives. Therefore, we will seek out an even number of males and females in each city in order to hold one female group and one male group.

We will also look to have a generally even mix of average driving distance and type of vehicle owned (i.e. large SUV, sedan, etc.) within each group. This will help us to receive perspective from a variety of driving and fuel economy mindsets; however, we do not intend to impose hard quotas for these.