In an article I am reading, it says:
"Based on the responses from a 32 member college student focus group and a field test, a 19 item survey was used to assess energy drink consumption patterns of 496 randomly surveyed college students attending a state university in the Central Atlantic region of the United States."

It's just what the name of it says, a group put together to focus on one thing. At work, we formed a focus group on the proper clothing staff should wear (flip-flops, short skirts and how short, jeans, etc.) and then added the decisions to the staff manual. My hospital has a focus group that meets quarterly to assess patient complaints and how to improve hospital staff care.

I have a degree in Consumer Science. We used focus groups based on age, sex, and other criteria to do market research. For instance, the focus group might watch an assortment of commercials for a certain cereal. After each commercial is viewed, questions are asked. The one that many focus groups prefer will probably be the one chosen to air on TV.