Triads

Triads are three person focus groups plus a moderator.

Triads last one hour to one and a half hours. More triads can be conducted in an evening or a day than focus group discussions. Typically, more triads are conducted in a triad research study than a focus group research study. This provides greater opportunity to carry learning from one session to the next.

More in-depth information can be obtained from each individual participant during a triad than during a focus group. Disruptive or unproductive respondents can be controlled more easily than in focus group discussions.

Triads more closely mirror the dynamics of human conversation, which takes place in groups of three or four rather than in traditional focus groups of eight to ten.

Most importantly, triads can very effectively be conducted in-situ, where normal eating, buying or visiting behaviour can be experienced rather than simulated. Research Dimensions has frequently conducted triads:

In restaurants - to help reposition or redesign the restaurant
To develop new restaurant concepts
In retail outlets - to help reposition or redesign the outlet
In grocery stores - to develop new products and product packaging
In bars/pubs - to develop new merchandising and event ideas
In-board aircraft - to develop new "products"
In auto mobiles - to determine the selling "hot buttons". (during test drives)