Market research helps reduce risks for new product launches by identifying consumer needs and wants. Kellogg's uses both qualitative and quantitative research. Qualitative research involves open-ended questions to understand opinions, while quantitative research uses closed-ended questions of large groups to analyze responses statistically. This informs product development and identifies promising ideas. Market research forecasts future trends and reduces risks by testing concepts and products to ensure they fulfill consumer demand before a full launch. It provides insights into how to design, price, advertise and manage products for success.
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Case study on kellogg
1. CASE STUDY ON KELLOGG’S
Q1. Describe the purpose of Market Research?
A. Market research is a specific area of marketing that informs
businesses like Kellogg’s about the things consumers need, how best to
design products to answer those needs and how to advertise those
products to consumers. Market research goes beyond finding out what
consumers are thinking today. It can identify what consumers might
want in the future. In this way market research helps a business to
make more informed choices. This reduces the risks for any new
product development. It also increases the likelihood that products will
be well received by consumers when they are launched.
Many organizations are Market Oriented. This means that the whole
organisation focuses on the needs of its consumers. It is therefore
essential that it identifies and anticipates changing consumer needs
before the development of new products. Market research adds value
to businesses like Kellogg’s by identifying consumers’ needs. It helps
Kellogg’s to plan ahead, for example, looking at what products or
extensions it should develop and for whom. It focuses the business on
the needs of its consumers. An organisation that does this can improve
its competitive advantage.
Gain a more detailed understanding of consumers’ needs –
marketing research can help firms to discover consumers’
opinions on a huge range of issues, e.g., views on products’
prices, packaging, recent advertising campaigns
Reduce the risk of product/business failure – there is no
guarantee that any new idea will be a commercial success, but
accurate and up-to-date information on the market can help a
business make informed decisions, hopefully leading to products
2. that consumers want in sufficient numbers to achieve commercial
success.
Forecast future trends – marketing research can not only provide
information regarding the current state of the market but it can
also be used to anticipate future customer needs. Firms can then
make the necessary adjustments to their product portfolios and
levels of output in order to remain successful.
Ad Tracking - periodic or continuous in-market research
to monitor a brand's performance using measures such
as brand awareness, brand preference, and product
usage. (Young, 2005)
Advertising Research - used to predict copy testing or
track the efficacy of advertisements for any medium,
measured by the ad's ability to get attention,
communicate the message, build the brand's image, and
motivate the consumer to purchase the product or
service. (Young, 2005)
Brand equity research - how favorably do consumers
view the brand?
Brand name testing - what do consumers feel about the
names of the products?
Commercial eye tracking research - examine
advertisements, package designs, websites, etc by
analyzing visual behavior of the consumer
Concept testing - to test the acceptance of a concept by
target consumers
Coolhunting - to make observations and predictions in
changes of new or existing cultural trends in areas such
as fashion, music, films, television, youth culture and
lifestyle
3. Buyer decision processes research - to determine what
motivates people to buy and what decision-making
process they use
Q2. Explain the differences between the Primary
research and Secondary research.
A. Primary research consists of the collection of original
primary data. It is often undertaken after the researcher has
gained some insight into the issue by reviewing secondary
research or by analyzing previously collected primary data.
It can be accomplished through various methods, including
questionnaires and telephone interviews in market research,
or experiments and direct observations amongst others.
B. Primary marketing research is collected for
the first time. It is original and collected for a
specific purpose, or to solve a specific
problem. It is expensive, and time consuming,
but is more focused than secondary research.
There are many ways to conduct primary
research. We consider some of them:
Advantages:
Addresses specific research issues as the researcher controls the
search design to fit their needs
Great control; not only does primary research enable the
marketer to focus on specific subjects, it also enables the
researcher to have a higher control over how the information is
collected. Taking this into account, the researcher can decide on
such requirements as size of project, time frame and goal.
Disadvantages:
4. Compared to secondary research, primary data may be very
expensive in preparing and carrying out the research. Costs can
be incurred in producing the paper for questionnaires or the
equipment for an experiment of some sort.
In order to be done properly, primary data collection requires the
development and execution of a research plan. It takes longer to
undertake primary research than to acquire secondary data.
By the time the research is complete it may be out of date.
Low response rate has to be expected.
Secondary research involves the summary of existing research rather
than primary research.
In most cases this means finding information from third-party sources
such as marketing research reports, company websites, magazine
articles, and other sources. But in actuality any information previously
gathered, whether from sources external to the marketer or from
internal sources, such as accessing material from previous market
research carried out by the marketer’s organization, old sales reports,
accounting records and many others, falls under the heading of
secondary research.
Advantages:
Ease of Access.
The use of secondary data has allowed researchers access to
valuable information for little or no cost to acquire. Therefore,
this information is much less expensive then if the researchers
had to carry out the research themselves.
In many cases, the originators of secondary research include
details of how the information was collected. This may include
5. information detailing the procedures used in data collection and
difficulties encountered in conducting the primary research.
Disadvantages:
Quality of Research;the researcher needs to take sufficient steps
to critically evaluate the validity and reliability of the information
provided.
Incomplete Information;In many cases, researchers find
information that appears valuable and promising. The researcher
may not get the full version of the research to gain the full value
of the study.
Not Timely;When using secondary research, one must exercise
caution when using dated information from the past. With
companies competing in fast changing industries, an out-of-date
research reports many have little or no relevance to the current
market situation.
Q3. Analyse why an organisation like Kellogg’s would
use both qualitative and quantitative data.
A. Primary market data may involve qualitative research or quantitative
research. Both types of data are valuable in understanding what
consumers want or need. Qualitative data is concerned more about
opinions, feelings and attitudes. Quantitative data is in numerical form
and is usually gathered from a large sample of respondents.
Qualitative research establishes a conversation with consumers. It
prompts consumer reaction to, for example, a new product idea and
helps researchers understand what they think of it, how it makes them
feel, why they find it interesting or not.
Quantitative research may use questionnaires administered to large
numbers of respondents. This allows statistical analysis, such as the
calculation of a mean score or percentages. It aims to give a
6. representative picture of what consumers think of a new product idea
or a new (real)food.
As this research focuses on development of Crunchy Nut Bites, a more
recent extension to the Crunchy nuts brand.It was important for
Kellogg’s to conduct both Qualitative and Quantitative research
because by conducting qualitative research it was able to know the
demands of the consumer in terms of potential flavours and textures.
The results of the qualitative research allowed the Kellogg’s to discard
some ideas. Other ideas were appealing to consumers but needed
refining and further development.
Quantitative research was also important. As Kellogg’s came out with a
number of products to produce, these products were shown to a
number of large group of representative consumers in a quantitative
survey. They were asked to rate those ideas against a number of scales,
so Kellogg’s could identify which product ideas consumers liked best or
disliked.
Q4. Evaluate why market research can reduce the risks
of a new product launch.
A. Market research is a specific area of marketing that informs
businesses about the things consumers need, how best to design
products to answer those needs and how to advertise those products to
consumers. Market research goes beyond finding out what consumers
are thinking today. It can identify what consumers might want in the
future. In this way market research helps a business to make more
informed choices. This reduces the risks for any new product
development.
Market research enables the business to explore different types of
products that consumers may like. Screen those ideas by collecting
quantitative information from the consumers about their preferences.
Testing the product in the market and conducting the research on the
success of the product and finally launching the product in the market.
A complete research of the market before launching a product reduces
the risks of failure of the new product. Market research not only tells
7. todays needs of the consumers but also forecasts what will be the
situation in the future.
Product development is the lifeblood of any
business, yet it is one of the most complex, costly, and risky endeavors
your company will face.
With competition fierce and consumer understanding illusive, product
failure rates are notoriously high. So, the question becomes; is there
a way to increase the odds for product success
and/or reduce the risk of an unsuccessful launch.
The answer is yes, by utilizing marketing
research. At the heart of any product success is a
true understanding of consumer wants and
needs, and how your new product could fill those
needs in a meaningful way. How can you achieve
this understanding? Follow these four steps.
such as qualitative research, category assessment, and segmentation to
understand the competitive landscape, why consumers buy certain
products, how they use those products, and
what unmet needs they may have.
You then apply that insight in step two, concept development. Here
you use brainstorming,
concept testing, and volumetric forecasting to
generate new product ideas, identify areas for
improvement, and determine which products
are most promising.
Building on that knowledge, you move to step
three, product development. In this step marketing research tools such
as product testing,
packaging research, pricing research, and claim
substantiation help you understand how your
product performs in real-world conditions, how
it compares to competing products, and what
competitive claims you can make.
After product launch, you move to step four,
product management. Here you use tools such
8. as customer satisfaction research, tracking
research, and promotion assessment to determine key metrics related
to product awareness,
competitor comparisons, consumer usage, and
optimum marketing approaches.
While there’s no sure-fire way to ensure product success, marketing
research is crucial in providing the consumer understanding and
market
awareness necessary to make the best strategic
decisions during new product development.
Without that understanding, product failure
isn’t just a risk, it’s almost a guarantee