Experiences of digital marketers on the online communication strategy of it companies using focus-group

• Author: Loredana Patrutiu-Baltes
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 143-152

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 9 (58) No. 2 - 2016

EXPERIENCES OF DIGITAL MARKETERS

ON THE ONLINE COMMUNICATION

STRATEGY OF IT COMPANIES USING

FOCUS-GROUP

Loredana PATRUTIU-BALTES1

Abstract: The IT field, by its nature and evolution, requires a special

attention to the online communication strategy. If for most IT companies, the

marketing strategy is customized according to their product, customers,

marketing objectives, budget, marketing team size, etc., there is a common

perception of the digital communication strategy. Therefore, this article,

which is based on two Focus-group research projects, aims to present the

attitudes, experiences and opinions of online marketers related to the digital

communication strategy of the IT companies based in Romania.

Key words: online communication strategy, IT field.

1. Introduction - Why Focus-Group?

The Focus-group provides relevant information compared to other research methods

and it is designed to create and exploit a group’s dynamics, in order to facilitate data

collection of the digital marketing specialists within IT companies, while retaining their

individual preferences. Thus, this method allows them to gather in-depth information as

well as the opinions and attitudes of the participants. The advantages of this method are:

 it allows to generate a large amount of information about a specific topic;

 relatively low cost;

 it permits to obtain immediate reactions.

2. Size and setting of a sample

Given that the ideal sample specific to the focus-group method is 8 to 12 people, it was

considered to have chosen 8 participants (an optimum number for shaping the analyzed

broad theme and for enabling everyone to present his/ her views and opinions). The

criteria for selecting the 16 participants of the two focus groups were:

- working in the online marketing field within an IT company in Romania;

- parity between the sex of the respondents;

- similar ages;

- no participation in a panel discussion on the topic for the last 6 months.

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, lore_baltes@yahoo.com