A focus group is a combination of an interview, discussion, and conversation, and it usually requires a studio or a specially equipped facility isolated from the environment for the duration of the focus group. A group of seven–eight representatives of the Consumer discuss a subject that is the focus of the research. There is another participant – the moderator, who is a representative of the research agency; it is a specialist who knows the goal and objectives of the research. His task is to make the discussion focus on the value sensitive construction (topic, problem, thing or image) by using different methods and techniques. If the moderator does everything correctly, there comes the effect of group dynamics. The group begins working out collective reactions and we can observe the appearance of typical collective motivations, opinions, and affects.
The main part of the information is received via the respondents’ answers to the questions or verbal reactions to certain stimuli. However, a considerable part of individual or collective reactions is non-verbal. It is proxemics, kinetics, gestures, and mimicry, i.e. what is unconsciously perceived by the participants in the discussion, first of all, visually. The share of the non-verbal component in emotional reactions is very considerable. Since this component is very important, group discussions are observed from outside. It is possible to watch the course of the discussion on a video monitor. It is also common practice to equip studios with special viewing rooms separated from the facility where the discussion is held with a one-way mirror. Through it, the Client observes the reactions of his consumers. The Client can make an immediate business decision right in the viewing room (based on what he has seen).

The standard set for holding group discussions contains different techniques for both revealing the existing opinions and forming the new ones. Focus groups are often used for studying the deep motivations for something people believe they do “for no reason at all”.
Certain techniques are used when there is reason to expect censorship or blocking of certain opinions, which are imposed by the culture or subculture. In this case a wide range of projective techniques are used which are in that or other way based on the transfer (metaphor) of collective attitudes and opinions from one object, which is protected by taboos, to another, which has no such protection. 
During focus groups the respondents are often asked to switch to the modality of a game – it is also an effective way of avoiding social control, which may be an important barrier for expressing an opinion which might not be quite socially acceptable.
It should be emphasized that if the focus group is a success, the respondents experience mutual influence and mutual stimulation during the group. The time they spend in the group has an unusual structure. The people get close, form a community and its collective opinion unusually soon, which never happens in other situations. One of the greatest impressions for a competent observer is seeing “with his own eyes” the formation of a public opinion (attitude) that did not exist before, with all the necessary attributes: compulsion and obviousness. Another strong impression comes after seeing a number of focus groups, when it becomes evident that absolutely different people, when they find themselves in the same conditions, generate the same collective semantic constructions.