UNIT 12:
INTRODUCTION:
* In order to complete this unit, Market Research course work, I will need to explore the principles of Marketing Research. To do this effectively I will need to select a product and appropriate method of data collection and plan research for the product I have selected.
* I need to carry out a survey on both primary and secondary research with the use of an identifiable sampling method.
* I also need to interpret the findings on my own research and present them clearly verbally, with use of diagrams and in writing.
* I also need to analyze the effectiveness of types of Market Research, including an appropriate collection of data and sampling methods.
* And lastly I will analyze and evaluate on my research findings and make a conclusion on the application of selected research methods and make recommendations for improvements with regards to the research methods of the product I have selected.
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING RESEARCH
Market research is the process of researching customers and market. Market research enables a company to minimize its risks and entering a new market always involves risk because it means entering the unknown. Market research simply means gathering, recording and analyzing market data to find out consumer wants and needs.
Market Research Sources
Desk research
Field Research
MARKET RESEARCH OR SURVEY METHODS
PRIMARY RESEARCH: It involves going 'into the field' (e.g., house-to-house or street surveys). This has different methods and it is used for different purposes in a market research.
* Focus groups: This is used when groups of people e.g. five and ten are asked to discuss their views about a product or service during research over a given period of time and the interviewer leads the discussion to bring out thoughts and feelings.
* Personal interviews: They are like a face to face discussion whereby data collected is always very useful, although it takes time to organize and are very expensive to conduct.
* Telephone interviews: They can collect information quickly and have the ability to contact people in a short period of time and also always have the potential to be influenced by the interviewer.
* Postal survey: They can only ask straight forward questions and cannot be used to investigate an issue in depth and responses are generally very low, can also take a long time to be returned.
SECONDARY RESEARCH: It involves using existing sources of information to research the market which can be obtained from both internal and external sources.
* Government Statistics: which are supplied by the office of National Statistics (ONS), Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union) and the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) For example the (ONS) family expenditure survey explains how families spend their money and ONS Social Trends shows changes in labor markets, incomes and spending.
* News Reports: They are useful data used to produce countries and industries reports daily as well as having regular articles about a company's product, markets and consumer trends.
* Trade Journals: Trade journals are magazines that contain useful industry information in terms of buying trends and new technical developments. Examples are Mintel which produces a wide variety of reports that covers market segments, levels of advertising expenditure and factors determining market growth and future forecasts. Other examples are Dun and Bradstreet and Thomson Financial.
* Competitor's Information: This could involve sales report or financial updates, the company's annual review which can be obtained from a company's website or brochures. For example Kellogg's company's website (www.Kellogg's.co.uk).
There are two sources of secondary data: internal and external:-
* Internal secondary data: This includes sales figures, expenses of adverts and team reports and prices of the products or services.
* External secondary data: This can be information's that comes from outside the Kellogg's company from a variety of sources.
MARKET RESEARCH PROCESS
In general there are six main steps or process in Market Research:
. Selection of product, identifying and defining the problem: This includes research briefs or history of the selected product, describing the problem faced by the company towards the original product and reasons for changes into new variants and how it was researched from the members of the public or the market.
2. Developing an approach: This includes considering whether to undertake primary or secondary research, that is the selection of an appropriate research technique to be used (such as a survey) the type of sampling plan needed (such as random) and how choosing an appropriate form of how people will be contacted.
3. Research design (Questionnaire): This includes creating a questionnaire in order to know the percentages of consumers to research one's findings in order to get an accurate data before analyzing.
4. Collating the data: This includes plan of work, identifying the data to be collected and the way to collect it with timing and also gathering data of the randomly selected method from useful sources for example members of the publics views in the questionnaire
5. Performing data analyses: This includes taking the information from a variety of sources and drawing conclusions before making any recommendations. For example, making the information or result collected from people's views or the internet and making into charts in order to analyze the figures or percentages.
6. Reporting and presentation: This is the final part of the work which involves
presentation to members of the class or colleagues either in a projection or in a speech format.
TYPES OF SAMPLING METHODS
Before choosing the suitable sample method for my questionnaire, I need to discuss the different types of sampling methods in order to choose the appropriate one and sample a percentage. Samples are used for conducting marketing research in order to use small numbers of individuals to find out people's views in a whole group.
* Stratified Sample: Stratified sample is used to research consumer market in a large form. It involves dividing the population into groups, drawing samples from each group. For example, dividing the population into groups like A, B, C1, C2, D, and E, that shows or explain the social background of the people involved and random samples are usually taken from each group.
* Quota Sample: Quota sample ensures that the proportions in a sample show the whole market. Quota sample can be selected from a relatively small geographical area, they are cost-effective in gathering data and refusals or non-returns can be replaced by anyone else who suits the characteristics of quota sample.
* Judgment Sample: In this type of sample researchers select the sample based on who they think will most like show the views of the group to be interviewed and it is used where large companies dominate the market in industrial research.
* Convenience Sampling: Convenience sampling means there is no sample design. The sample is chosen on the basis of who can be contacted easily and it is similar to an interviewer questioning people met on the street or in an area in a town closed to traffic.
* Random Sampling: - Random sampling is done by picking a selection of people in random from the whole population or the college to be researched using a questionnaire. For example pick the entire student in college to have an equal chance of being selected. Then later use statistical methods by calculating how many need to be interviewed so that my findings reflect the views of the entire population.
The most useful method or technique I would apply is the random sample because it is easier and most suitable to research my findings in order to get ...
This is a preview of the whole essay
* Random Sampling: - Random sampling is done by picking a selection of people in random from the whole population or the college to be researched using a questionnaire. For example pick the entire student in college to have an equal chance of being selected. Then later use statistical methods by calculating how many need to be interviewed so that my findings reflect the views of the entire population.
The most useful method or technique I would apply is the random sample because it is easier and most suitable to research my findings in order to get an accurate or appropriate data.
MY SELECTED PRODUCT
I have selected Kellogg's products and I am going to research it's the original "Special k Cereal" and the new "Special K Bar".
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PRODUCT
W.K. and Dr. Kellogg were constantly experimenting with different production techniques and made a major step forward when they decided to run boiled wheat dough through rollers which enabled them to produce thin sheets of wheat.
To take the process a stage further, they then decided to toast the sheets and grind them into meal and this is how they discovered wheat flakes.
However, the development came quite by chance one day in 1894 when an interruption of their laboratory activities left cooked wheat exposed to the air for more than a day. When the brothers returned, they decided to run the wheat through the rollers despite the fact that it was no longer fresh. What they saw next amazed them - instead of a single, large sheet of wheat, the rollers discharged a single flake for each wheat berry and cereal flakes were born.
In about 1898, Will Keith Kellogg directed experiments that led to the development of Corn Flakes. At first they were made from the whole kernel and their acceptance was limited. W.K. discovered that a much tastier flake was produced by adding malt flavouring and by using only the grit or heart of the corn.
In 1924 as the business continued to flourish, Kellogg's established the Kellogg Company of Great Britain which began distributing Corn Flakes and All-Bran, and four years, later Rice Krispies. By the 1950s the company had started to develop cereals appealing to younger tastes, such as Frosted Flakes in 1952 which arrived in the UK in 1954 as Frosties. Forty years after the opening of Kellogg's original Manchester site, the Wrexham factory was opened in 1978 to provide one of the most modern food production factories in the world.
Today, Kellogg's is a global organization; it produces more than 40 different cereals which are manufactured in 19 countries, on six continents and markets its products in more than 160 countries. The company employs 15,657 people in its worldwide organization.
With annual sales of more than £4.5 billion, Kellogg's is the world's leading producer of cereal products and convenience foods, such as cookies, crackers and frozen waffles. Its brands include Cornflakes, Nutri-Grain and Rice Krispies. Etc.
MARKET RESEARCH PLAN
Developing an Approach
Original product
PRIMARY RESEARCH
In order to meet the assessment criteria, I need to carry out a market research. I am only going to use primary research method including a questionnaire, because Primary research delivers more specific results than secondary research while Secondary research, also known as desk research, already exists since it has been collected for other purposes but primary research is conducted from scratch. It is original and collected to solve the problem in hand, which is an important consideration for Kellogg's company when launching a new product or service. It is also the useful technique for conducting a survey in marketing research in order to design a qualitative method of questionnaire.
Primary research is usually based on statistical methods that involve sampling as little as 1 percentage of a target market. The sample gives an accurate representation of a particular market.
After designing my questionnaire, in my research I will use a randomly selected sample and I collated my data in order to get the total result in a qualitative research rather than a quantitative research, and then I will later compare the qualitative result using a tally and charts.
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH: It means collecting information from a broad population sample. For example conducting extensive surveys, it was used when Kellogg's wanted to gauge appeal across a wide audience.
* Qualitative research produces more in-depth, comprehensive information.
* Qualitative research, seeks a wide understanding of the entire situation.
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH: It means working with small 'focus' groups. This involves far more detailed investigations, e.g. gathering a small group of 'typical' consumers to taste different products. It also provides greater insight into 'why' people think what they think. I do not need this technique because it is not useful and will not gather all my information for the research needed.
* The results are statistically reliable. That is, quantitative research can reliably determine if one idea, concept, product, package, etc., is better than the alternatives.
* The results are able to be projected to the population. That is, the proportion of respondents answering a certain way is similar to the proportion of the total population that would have answered that way if they all had been asked.
* Quantitative multivariate methods have the advantage of allowing researchers to measure and control variables
This most useful technique for me to use in my questionnaire in order to collect an appropriate record of data or information from students in the college based on my result would be qualitative research.
SPECIAL K - CEREAL
In considering Special K, the company concentrated on changing the product through new variants. Although special K was already a well- established brand, its full potential had never been reached. It was viewed as a stand-alone product, and Kellogg's had not created any variants or brand extensions to develop the core product. Managers at Kellogg's can decide when to make key changes to a core product by analysing its position within the product life-cycle. A product's life-cycle may last only a few months, as with special K, for many years. Although it was a successful product, Kellogg's recognised the opportunity to stretch the brand by investments that would:
* Revitalise it
* Extend and further develop its growth phase
* Help to delay the onset of the maturity phase.
SPECIAL K BARS
THE NEED FOR CHANGE
In a rapid changing and competitive business environment, it is not easy to predict a product and recently, many people are more concerned about their health they prefer to take less fatty foods or cereals especially women they request for a product that can help in dieting and because of the trends in consumer tastes and preferences, Kellogg's want to avoid competitor's actions by creating an existing brand which is the new "Special k Bar". Kellogg's already knew that women who are keen to watch their weight and shape seek a range of solutions throughout the day, not just at breakfast.
With the help of both users and non-users of existing Special K products, market researchers undertook further quantitative tests of product ideas across a range of food categories.
The research identified that cereal bars offered the strongest opportunity to develop Special K as a healthy snack. The brief was then developed and Special K bar was launched in July 2001, with significant television coverage. Consumers were also able to sample the bar through specific promotional activity.
Kellogg's soon came to realise that the variants were responsible for a huge growth in the Special K brand, without a drop in sales of the core cereal product. New product development had transformed the brand within the UK. This in turn gave a great opportunity to roll-out other developments in other markets, including USA, Australia and Canada. Kellogg's product research showed that UK products could be adapted to meet the individual tastes of consumers within those markets.
GROWING THE BRAND (SPECIAL K)
Kellogg's strategy was truly global (as worldwide): it made Kellogg's management to develop an idea in Europe which they then adapted and applied worldwide. Within the space of two years according to Kellogg's research, the extensions to the brand had achieved global coverage, and were providing not only significant developments in sales value and volume of Special K products, but also a huge boost to the brand's equity (meaning fair and reasonable).Supporting such an expansion was not always easy for Kellogg's UK. Initially Kellogg's produced all the Special K variants sold within Europe. The UK Company had to increase its manufacturing capacity and also refine supply chain management processes to ensure that the product would be available at the point of purchase. Kellogg's had opened a portable foods plant at Wrexham, to produce bars. Other capacity was created by commissioning the production of Special K cereal in Spain.
I have performed a tally analysis, now I am going to use the data to create a bar chart that includes the percentage or number of people taking Special K Cereal and Special K bar by comparing and summarizing.
Question 1)
The result above shows the percentage of male compared to female that gave me a feedback in the randomly selected form, using the result above, it shows that many female completed my questionnaire in the college and I suggest that they are more interested because of the diet that the product does to their health and shape, especially married women.
Question 2)
This details the comparison of people that completed the questionnaire using the Age-Group. The highest age group that completed the questionnaire is 11- 20 because most of them are teenagers in college and also the age-group of 21-30 because there are many matured students who come for evening sessions.
Question 3)
This chart shows the comparison of the highest and lowest comparison of people that replied back saying that they do and do not take breakfast. As you can see many people tend to take break fast in the morning.
Question 4)
This shows the different types of cereal and break fast that people take, and it shows that many people tend to take Special K bar a lot.
Question 5)
The chart above shows the highest and lowest percentage of people that are interested or not in Kellogg's products as a break fast.
Question 6)
The chart above shows the different types of Kellogg's brand people prefer. The result above shows that they prefer Special K bar more than any other brands of Kellogg's.
Question 7)
The chart above shows why people prefer their favorite chosen brand, by comparing question 4 and 6 that shows that many people prefer Special K Bar, the reply was that it's different, the diet is fantastic and also that they could take it around with them instead of carrying a whole pack of cereal. They stated that the main reason of taking the product is the effect that the diet does to their health and shape.
Question 8)
The chart above shows the rate at which people take the Special K Bar either daily or weekly. It proves that most take it a lot.
Question 9)
The chart above shows the highest and lowest percentage of people that takes the original Special K Cereal.
Question 10)
The chart above shows the views and opinions of consumers about what they think of the Special K Brand. M any people said that it is excellent.
Question 11)
The chart above shows the highest and lowest percentage of people that have and have not tried or tasted the new Special K bar.
Question 12)
This chart also shows consumer opinions towards the new Special K bar; many people said it is an excellent product.
Question 13)
The chart above shows other types of break fast people prefer to take apart from Kellogg's brands.
TALLY ANALYSIS
I have carried out a market research from my classmates and the college using a questionnaire in order to find out the percentage of people who take Special K Cereal and Special K Bar for their breakfast. Now, I am going to use the randomly selected primary research to perform a tally in order to get the total outcome and compare my data in charts.
QUESTION (1)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
GENDER
MALE
IIIIIIII
8
FEMALE
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
22
TOTAL 30
The result above proves that female is the highest frequent number of people that gave me a feed back based on their opinions.
QUESTION (2)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
AGE GROUP
5-10 YEARS
II
2
1-20 YEARS
IIIIIIIIIIII
2
21-30 YEARS
IIIIIIIIII
0
31-40 YEARS
IIII
4
41-50 YEARS
III
3
The 11-20 years is the highest frequent number in the age group followed by 21-30 years.
QUESTION (3)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
DO YOU TAKE BREAKFAST
YES
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
25
NO
IIIII
5
TOTAL 30
Many people tend to take break fast in the morning by looking at the result above.
QUESTION (4)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
IF YES, WHAT BREAKFAST DO YOU TAKE
CORN FLAKES
III
3
CRUNCHY NUT
II
2
SPECIAL K CEREAL
IIIIIIIII
5
SPECIAL K BAR
IIIIIIIIIIII
2
WEETABIX
II
2
OTHERS
I
TOTAL 25
2 is the highest frequent number out of 25, this shows that Special K Bar is the most consumed compared to other brands.
QUESTION (5)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
DO YOU TAKE KELLOG'S PRODUCTS
YES
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
25
NO
IIIII
5
TOTAL 30
The highest frequent number out of 30 people that filled the questionnaire is 25 which stand for yes.
QUESTION (6)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BRAND
CORN FLAKES
IIII
4
CRUNCHY NUT
IIIII
3
SPECIAL K CEREAL
IIIIIIII
6
SPECIAL K BAR
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
9
FROSTIES
III
2
OTHERS
I
TOTAL 25
The highest frequent number is nine which stand for the total number of people that prefer Special K Bar, out of 25 people that take Kellogg's brands.
QUESTION (7)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
WHY DO YOU PREFER THIS BRAND
TASTY
IIIIII
6
GOOD
III
3
LESS FAT CONTENTS
IIII
4
IT'S DIFFERENT
IIIIIIIIIIII
2
TOTAL 25
In this table it details the total people that made different opinions of brands, and the highest frequent number is 12, they said that Special K Bar is different.
QUESTION (8)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
HOW OFTEN DO YOU TAKE THE BRAND
VERY OFTEN
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
6
OFTEN
IIIIIII
5
NOT VERY OFTEN
IIIIIII
4
TOTAL 24
The highest frequent number is 16 which stand for the total number of people that take Special K Bar very often out of the 25 people that take breakfast in question 3.
QUESTION (9)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
DO YOU TAKE THE ORIGINAL SPECIAL K CEREAL
YES
IIIIIIIIIIIII
3
NO
IIIIIIIIIIII
2
TOTAL 25
The highest frequent number is 13 people who said that they have not tried the Original Special K Cereal.
QUESTION (10)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
IF YES, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE BRAND
EXCELLENT
IIIII
2
GOOD
III
2
AVERAGE
II
OTHERS
TOTAL 5
Out of five people that tried Special K Cereal, they had different opinions.
QUESTION (11)
TALLY
HAVE YOU TRIED THE NEW SPECIAL K BAR
YES
IIIIIIIIIIIIIII
5
NO
IIIIIIIIII
0
TOTAL 25
Out of the 25 people that take breakfast, 15 is the highest frequent number that has tried the new Special K Bar.
QUESTION (12)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
IF YES, WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE BRAND
EXCELLENT
IIIIIIIII
9
GOOD
IIIII
4
AVERAGE
III
OTHERS
I
TOTAL 15
According to the result above, most people said that Special K Bar is an excellent brand.
QUESTION (13)
TALLY
FREQUENCY
WHAT BREAKFAST DO YOU TAKE APART FROM KELLOG'S
WEETABIX
II
2
OATS
II
2
OTHERS
I
TOTAL 5
The result above shows the highest frequent number of other types of break fast for people who said they do not take Kellogg's brand's in question 5.
ANALYZING MY MINI RESEARCH OR SURVEY
In the result drawn from my questionnaire and tally analysis it has given me a prove of the opinions of consumers that Special K Bars and Special K Cereal are more consumed than most of Kellogg's products and from the analysis Special K Bar seems to be the strongest of all brands consumed according to my questionnaire. In the result the brand seems to be most people's favorite because of the dieting, consumers said that they prefer bars because they can take it anywhere instead of carrying a whole pack of cereal for example, in a situation whereby they wake up late and cannot wait to make a bowl of cereal they can just take a bar along with them and eat on their way.
Therefore according to my research, many people prefer Special K bar compared to Special K Cereal.
Kellogg's Special K and Smart Start have seen a rise in sales, although cereal sales overall has been dropping, An example to prove this would be some of its commercials claiming cereals can help consumers lose weight and the consumers report took a closer look to see if they are as good for their figure as they have been recently good for Kellogg's sales figures. My recommendations to Kellogg's company would be that they should try to apply PESTLE ANALYSIS into the making of their products and services in order to succeed because it is the most useful management technique that helps all marketers for understanding the external environment in which an organization operates.
INTERPRETING RESEARCH FINDING
`
When researching information, it can also be interpreted or analyzed using both the statistical methods and or graphical representations below but for the purpose of my market research analysis, the discussions would be on graphical representations, however I will discuss statistical analysis and its uses. They are:-
* Frequencies
* Grouped and Ungrouped
* Histograms
* Cumulative Frequencies
* Mean, Median and Mode
* Range
FREQUENCY: - It is a table showing the different values and the frequencies with which they occur. Frequency may either be grouped or ungrouped. They are often used as one of the exploratory procedures to review how different categories of values are distributed in the sample. For example, in a survey of spectator interest in different sports, we could summarize the respondents' interest in watching football in a frequency table as follows:
STATISTICAL
BASIC
STATS
FOOTBALL: "Watching football"
Category
Count
Cumulative
Count
Percent
Cumulative
Percent
ALWAYS : Always interested
USUALLY : Usually interested
SOMETIMES: Sometimes interested
NEVER : Never interested
MISSING
39
6
26
9
0
39
55
81
00
00
39.00000
6.00000
26.00000
9.00000
0.00000
39.0000
55.0000
81.0000
00.0000
00.0000
GROUPED FREQUENCY TABLES: - Grouped frequency data means constructing a set of non-overlapping groups or classes, which between them cover the whole range of the data we are is interested in. we can then later count how many of the data values fall within each class. For example a grouped exam score's table:-
95,72,88,90,76,85,60,99,72,84
66,78,90,74,85,65,89,93,91,85
82,75,88,93,53,84,87,58,72,94
EXAMPLE
FREQUENCY
95-99
2
90-94
6
85-89
7
80-84
3
75-79
3
70-74
4
65-69
2
60-64
55-59
50-54
UNGROUPED FREQUENCY TABLES
Ungrouped frequency of numerical data means when raw data is not grouped.
Mark in test Frequency
0 3
5
2 1
4 6
7 4
8 9
28
HISTOGRAMS: - Histogram is a graph that displays the data by using vertical bars of various heights to represent the frequencies.
A histogram has an appearance similar to a vertical bar graph, but when the variables are continuous, there are no gaps between the bars. In a histogram, frequency is measured by the area of the column
Below is an example of a distribution of salaries of the Acme Corporation using a histogram.
CUMULATIVE FREQUENCIES: - Cumulative frequencies are the sum of frequencies accumulated up to the upper boundary of a class in the distribution. They are used visually to represent how many values of are below a certain upper class boundary.
Example of a cumulative frequency distribution:-
CLASS
FREQUENCY
CUMULATIVE FREQUENCY
-4
6
6
5-8
2
8
9-12
5
3
2-16
3
6
MEAN, MEDIAN AND MODE
* The mean is useful for predicting future results when there are no extreme values in the data set.
* The median may be more useful than the mean when there are extreme values in the data set as it is not affected by the extreme values.
* While the mode is useful when the most common item, characteristic or value of a data set is required.
In general, the mean, median and mode of a data set are known as measures of central tendency as these three measures focus on where the data is centered.
MEAN
The mean or average of a set of data is defined as the sum of all the data values divided by the number of data values. That is,
Mean = Sum of all data values
Number of data values
For example, symbolically, mean can be represented by
×= ?×
n
Where x is (read as x bar) is the median of the set of x values,
? x is the sum of all x values, and n is the number of x values.
For example, the marks of seven students in a mathematics test with a maximum possible mark of 20 are 15, 13, 18, 16, 14, 17, and 12
I can find the mean of this set of data values by using the formula
Mean = Sum of all data values
Number of data values
= 15 + 13+ 18 + 16 + 14 + 17 + 12
7
= 105
7
= 15
Therefore, the mean mark is 15.
MEDIAN
Median of a set of data values is defined as the middle value of the data set when it has been arranged in ascending order. That is, from the smallest value to the highest value.
For example, the maximum of nine students in a geography test that had a maximum possible mark of 50 are 47, 35, 37, 32, 38, 39, 36, 34 and 35.
To find the median of this set of data values, I need to arrange the data values in order from the lowest value to the highest value:
32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 47
The fifth data value, 36, is the middle value in this arrangement.
Median = 36
MODE
Mode of a set of data values is defined as the value(s) that occurs most often.
For example, to find the mode of the following data set:
48, 44, 48, 45, 42, 49 and 48
Therefore, the mode is 48 since it occurs most often.
RANGE
The range of a set of numbers is the largest value in the set minus the smallest value in the set or the difference between the highest score and the lowest score. For example, the range of the following set of data:
34 50 61 77 99 26 15 62 44 74 88
Therefore the range is 99 - 15 = 84
EVALUATION OF KELLOGG'S BRAND
Kellogg's has many products they did not actually disclose the sales for only one product, they only did for all the brands. Therefore I am going to use few examples of Special K sales result to evaluate the success of its products or services.
THE BRAND CREATED A STRONGER POSITION FOR KELLOGG'S
When Kellogg's management think deeply in long-term investment before making decisions, brand managers face two key questions.
. In what projects should the company invest?
2. What level of investment should be improved?
In response, Kellogg's has been careful not to lose balance. New products like Special K Bars show that the company can respond to demands for healthier products, but not at the expense of its others, less-healthy products.
"Kellogg's CEO Carlos said if he is right", the worst could be over for the cereal group provided consumers return to their former eating patterns once the dieting fad is over-allowing it to continue its impressive growth of the last few years.
In conclusion, after a long period between 1998 and 2000, when sales revenues were stagnant, Kellogg's has posted growth of more than 13 per cent in the last three years, taking sales to £8.8 billion in 2003 as it restored its product portfolio, reduced costs and invested more in its brands.
PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
A product life-cycle shows how a product goes through four stages during its life in the market place. At each stage in the product life cycle, there is a close relationship between sales and profit when a product goes into decline, profits usually decreases.
As you can see above when Kellogg's product is introduced to the market, growth is slow due to limited awareness of its products to consumers and as the product is establishing itself, sales will start to increase during the period of growth and also as the product reaches maturity stage, Kellogg's inject new life into the product by launching new variants for example (Special K bar after Special K Cereal) because if they do not create brand extensions or variants the product will reach maturity stage and start to decline.
Looking at the growth of the brand which is Special K, Kellogg's strategy today has been global (worldwide) the extensions to the brand had achieved a global coverage within two years in sales value and volume of Special K products, it has also added a huge boost to the brand's equity.
COMPARISON OF MY RESULT WITH MARKET RESEARCH OF KELLOGG'S
Before taking any investment decisions, Kellogg's undertook market research. It wanted to answer these questions:
* What changes taking place in society are likely to affect the product?
* How might new technologies affect the business?
* What are likely to be future market trends?
* Where are the opportunities within the market place?
* What new categories would appeal to the target market?
* How far do consumers think the brand could stretch into the market for different product categories?
For the Kellogg Company, market research suggested that using funds to develop variants on Special K looked like a comparatively low risk project that offered the prospect of a good rate of return. This was largely because it involved developing and extending a brand that already enjoyed huge consumer support in ways that could be adapted to the market place worldwide. The judgement has proved to be correct, to the benefit of the company and its many stakeholders.
Special K Bars were key driving in a 5 per cent increase in revenues in the group's core market and accounting for more than 60 per cent of Kellogg's total revenues, it has posed the biggest obstacle to the company's growth in recent times because of the maturity of the market and the invasion of new dietary regimes (as in the act of food in take for health matters) such as low-carb, which have immediately reminded both Americans and British to eat fewer cereal products.
In conclusion, by comparing my research to Kellogg's market research based on the questionnaire and charts results below, it has proved that Special k Bar is the most consumed brand and it has made a strong boost to the company's sales performance.
(1)
From my research, this has proved that many people enjoy Kellogg's product and they take it as well, therefore compared to Kellogg's research it seems to be the same result.
(2)
The highest percentage of people that take Special K Cereal and Special K Bar is 50 %-60% which is very true and equally with Kellogg's research.
(3)
And lastly, based on my research, it seems to be that many people have tried both brands and they enjoy it.
REFERENCES AND APPENDIX: -
(Research Findings)
For above task in order to obtain appropriate information, I have used the:-
* Heinemann BTEC National Textbooks by Rob Dransfield, Catherine Richards, Philip Guy and David Dooley
* Internet using the search engine (www.Google.co.uk) to research for the types of sampling methods and also
* Kellogg's website which is (www.Kellogg's.co.uk) to research the history and sales report.
ADEBIMPE ADEKOYA
