Abstract:

This paper describes both technical conditions and qualitative aspects of telephonic group-discussions after three years of experience with this tool. Collecting different subscribers by telephone in a way that they can communicate freely together is possible in different countries. For the use of mar- ket research groups the number of members should not exceed eight. They can easily combine people spread all over a country or people who are very difficult to group around a table, such as small minorities or specialists of any type or even people participating in a group during their working time. The experience shows that discussions in these groups are extremely free and intense; and often members express their views more pointedly than facing each other.