Marketing Research Case Study Essay Sample free essay sample

The market for women’s hair shampoos has become extremely specialised and segmented. In recent old ages a big figure of particular purpose shampoos have appeared on the market. each promising to supply assorted hair attention benefits to the possible user. The Syd Company is diversified maker of consumer packaged goods. At this clip the house has no women’s shampoo in its merchandise line. The company’s selling research forces met late with a little research house. FC Associates. and discussed the possibility of survey of immature female grownups populating in Bombay. The Syd company had established—through a series of late completed interviews with a little group of adult females consumers—that â€Å"body† ( seemingly implying hair thickness or comprehensiveness ) in a hair shampoo was often mentioned as a coveted feature. Armed with this instead unelaborated information refering the desirableness of â€Å"body† in a shampoo. the firm’s research lab forces had set to work on developing some archetypal compounds that appeared potentially capable of presenting this characteristic to a greater extent than trade names presently in the market. During the initial conversation between Syd and FC Associates. the undermentioned managerial jobs came to the visible radiation: 1. Assuming that research lab forces could bring forth a women’s shampoo with superior â€Å"body† . is the market for this merchandise big plenty to warrant its commercialisation? 2. What benefits in add-on to â€Å"body† should be incorporated into the new shampoo? 3. What are the characteristics—product use. hair type. demographics—of people who are peculiarly attracted to a shampoo with â€Å"body† ? ( Knowledge of these features would be desirable in specifying the mark section for the new product. ) 4. How would the construct of â€Å"body† in shampoo be communicated ; what does the consumer mean by â€Å"body’ in shampoo? ( Knowledge of the intensions of â€Å"body† would be valuable in design of promotional messages and point of purchase materials. ) Since Syd had no entry in the shampoo market. the company had small to travel on in the manner of secondary beginnings of information. While assorted market statistics could be obtained for the bing trade names. the house was chiefly interested in features appropriate for a comparatively new construct in the market place—a shampoo that emphasized â€Å"body† . PROBLEM STRUCTURING Although formal statistical determination analysis was non applied in this instance. it became evident that the house faced three primary classs of action: 1. Continue the proficient development of a new shampoo that delivers the consumer benefit: â€Å"body† . 2. End proficient development related to this characteristic and exchange attempts to some other shampoo benefit. 3. Discontinue all the attempts in women’s shampoo merchandises. Continuance of proficient development on â€Å"body† . in bend. is based on two considerations: 1. that new merchandise can be developed successfully from a proficient point of view 2. And that the new merchandise can be sold in sufficient measures to warrant future development spendings. start-up disbursal. on-going production and selling costs. plus gaining an appropriate return on invested financess. Informal analysis indicated a high chance of proficient success during the resulting 12 months with comparatively modest extra spendings in proficient resources. The major job appeared to be one of market potential—more specifically. whether a mark section of sufficient size was available to justify proficient development and eventual commercialisation. Cost AND VALUE OF MARKETING RESEARCH Current uncertainnesss about the possible demand for the new merchandise suggested the desirableness of carry oning selling research beyond the preliminary consumer group interviews that had been late conducted by the house. Crude estimations of the cost versus value of extra information ( including such facets as the costs of go oning proficient development and start-up. the chance of proficient and selling ‘success† . and likelihood that study consequences would right place the appropriate province of nature ) clearly indicated the advisability of farther selling research. The job was non whether marketing research could be justified—the quickest and crudest estimations demonstrated its possible value—but instead. what sort of research should be done that seemed more likely to reply management’s inquiries. Indeed the chief intent of marketing personnel’s visit to FC Associates was to discourse an exploratory survey that could be helpful in pl aning the chief survey that would finally be conducted on national footing. chance based sample. What should be the chief survey screen? How could management’s inquiries be translated into a research design? What extra inquiries should be raised? Agreement was reached that FC would make the exploratory survey. RESEARCH DESIGN Given the explorative character of the research. inquiry of equal sample size and representative cape were non of primary importance. What was germane to the pilot research was the demand for FC to interpret management’s inquiry into operational footings and. in the procedure. to develop extra inquiries of relevancy to the design of the chief piece of the research that would be undertaken after the pilot consequences were analyzed. The chief focal point of the explorative research was to be on shampoobenefits. In the class of carry oning preliminary consumer group interviews the client’s selling research forces had assembled a list of about 30 benefits that either had been advertised or were thought by at least some consumers to be relevant in the pick of a hair shampoo. Not surprisingly. many of the benefit description were excess ; hence. the first measure was to pare down the list to a smaller set. The tabular array 1 shows the 16 benefits that emerged from the culling procedure. The preliminary research seemed to bespeak that the first 10 benefits were likely the most of import of the 16. Table: 1 THE LIST OF HAIR SHAMPOO BENEFITS USED IN QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Hair stay clean a long clip2. Hair stays free of dandruff or flaking3. Hair that looks feels natural4. Hair that has a organic structure5. Manageable hair that goes where you want it6. Hair with shininess or lustre7. Hair with no split ends8. Hair with adequate protein9. Hair that doesn’t acquire oily fast10. Hair that’s non excessively dry11. Hair with comprehensiveness12. Hair that’s non frizzy13. Hair that holds a set14. Hair with a texture15. Hair that’s easy to comb when it dries16. Hair that looks free and insouciant Indeed the preliminary research suggested that the first six benefits likely constituted the â€Å"CORE SET†Ã¢â‚¬â€ i. e. . those benefits of truly primary importance to consumer pick. A 2nd affair of importance concerned the nature of respondents to be interviewed. The study’s patron suggested a purposive sample of immature female adults—aged 18 through 30— with an approximative 60-40 split between married and individual. Merely the consumers who shampooed their hair at least twice a month. on the norm. were to be interviewed. In brief. the sample was to be aimed at a specific age group of comparatively active users of shampoo. KEY RESEARCH QUESTIONS Given the accent placed on merchandise benefit penchants. peculiarly the benefit of â€Å"body† . a figure of accessory research inquiries were developed from the preliminary 1s indicated by the client: 1. How do consumers of hair shampoo perceive assorted benefits as normally ( or seldom ) available in shampoos presently on the market? 2. Given the freedom to do up her ain †ideal† shampoo. what â€Å"bundles† of benefits do consumers desire? Specifically. how frequently is â€Å"body† included in their ideal benefit packages? 3. Assuming that a consumer desired and could acquire a shampoo that delivered â€Å"body. † what other benefits are besides desired in the same trade name? 4. What is conjured up by the phrase â€Å"shampoo body† and its assorted connotations—that is. what words are elicited on a free association footing? 5. How do penchants for â€Å"body† in the shampoo relate to a. Frequency of hair shampooing ( i. e. . heavy vs. light users of shampoos ) ? B. Percept of its handiness in current shampoos? c. Preference to other benefits in add-on to â€Å"body’ ? d. Hair physiology and have oning manner? e. Demographics ( i. e. . age. matrimonial position. instruction etc. ) ? These inquiries set the phase for FC Associates to develop the questionnaire. Administration The questionnaire was first pre-tested. Following this. the questionnaire was administered on a personal. in-the-home footing by the interviewers. The respondents were drawn from the metropolis on a purposive footing. Interview clip averaged approximately half an hr ; all informations were collected over a span of one hebdomad. Assume that you are the R A ; D director for the SYD Company: a. How would you knock the survey in footings of its utility to you? b. If you had the chance to plan the pilot undertaking from your point of view. what inquiries would you like to include in the questionnaire?