Market Research

Quantitative information (also known as quantitative research) is based upon hard facts and it is aid to be objectives. Quantitative research provides numeric data of a particular topic being investigated by an organisation. For example, Cadbury Schweppes may want to know how many people are buying Cadbury Time Out Original and at what price. This type of information can give Cadbury Schweppes an overall idea of the size of the market, and the effects that various strategies can have within the market. This type of information can be collected in number of ways including face-to-face interviewing, by telephone, by post and self-completion questionnaires. Examples of quantitative information include: 100 units, 100,500 people, 98kg, 25%, 84kph and £23,600.

Cadbury Schweppes can use both qualitative and quantitative information as part of their market research because, they are closely linked together. Qualitative information provides the context within which, quantitative facts operate. For example, if Cadbury Schweppes use ‘What do you think about…?’ approach, it will give people the opportunity to offer a range of opinions, reasons, motivations and influencing factors.

Both qualitative information and quantitative information can be collected first hand, which is known as primary research. Also, if they are already published outside the organisation, it is known as secondary research.      

Primary research

Primary research involves collecting primary data from the public in the streets, or in the workplace. Primary research is often referred as field research.

There are five main methods that can be used for collecting primary data. They are discussion with people, direct observation, questionnaires, surveys and sampling, and test marketing.

Discussion with people

Discussion with respondents will help organisation such as, Cadbury Schweppes to find out about their knowledge, feelings, preference or thoughts. There are number of methods that involve discussion with respondent. Some of which have been mentioned, below:

1. Face-to-face interview

Face-to-face interviews are carried out by free lance market researchers, or the employees of market research businesses. Face-to-face interviews may include the following:

• Street survey- these take place in the streets, particularly in busy town centres. The problems of this survey is that, some respondents are busy or in a hurry to complete a survey
• Shop survey- these take place in shops such as, in the entrance. Shoppers are asked by researchers to take part in the survey, as they leave the store
• Household survey- these take place at people’s door steps
• Business survey- these take place in business premises and are prearranged

The advantages of face-to-face interviews are: it usually achieves a good response rate; because it is a one-to-one interview, the risk of inaccurate data is reduced; interviewers can find out the truthfulness of the response from facial expressions and other body language signals; and interviewers can able to judge the respondent’s mood and to change the approach according to keep him or her interested.

The disadvantages of face-to-face interviews are: interviewing is expensive because, you have to pay the researchers, travelling expense, etc; it is fairly time-consuming process; there are more difficult to organise than some other methods; and supervisors must be appointed to make sure the surveys goes according to instructions.

This method would be good for Cadbury to use because; it would mean that they got a wide range of opinions of a lot of different people

2. Focus groups

A focus group is a group of 5 to 10 ordinary consumers, who are brought together by a market research organisation in an internal environment, to discuss about a general topic such as, a new chocolate brand, T.V. programme, tinned food, etc.

The main advantage of focus groups is new ideas and opinions can be created by each group member. The main disadvantage of focus groups is discussions taking place in a focus group have to be recorded- audio-or video-taped.

This method would also be good for Cadbury because, they could easily find out how their existing customers will react to their developed products.

3. Panels

A panel group is a group of customer, who agree to give information about their attitudes or buying habits. There are two kinds of panels: home audit panel and diary panel. A home audit panel involves a consumer discussing his or her consumer issues to a researcher, during a number of personal visits. A diary panel is when a consumer recorded his or her purchases in a diary

The advantages of panel groups are it can cover a wide range of geographical area, and it covers a number of subjects. The disadvantage of panel groups is panel members need to be rotated to prevent set answers being given.

This method would not be appropriate for Cadbury because, people attitudes and habits won’t help them to develop new products.

Direct observation

 

Observation involves looking at how customers behave in the shopping environment. There are two main ways of doing this. They are known as accompanied shopping and mystery shopping.

Accompanied shopping is when a researcher accompanies with the shopper on shopping trip. The researcher will observe and question the shopper why he or she chose that product. This method is very time-consuming and costly.

Mystery shoppers is when a researcher poses as a shopper and goes in a branch of a retail shop, in order to report on the level of service provided.

The advantages of direct observation are it is very accurate and it is easily controlled. The disadvantages of direct observation are, it is too expensive, it is very time-consuming and requires full co-operation from the group being observed.

This method (observation) would be quite good for Cadbury because, they could decide where people most buy chocolate when there’re shopping and therefore place their displays in the relevant places. However, this may not always be possible because, the shop itself decides where they put products.

Questionnaires

The purpose of a questionnaire is to fin out information from people about specific events, their attitudes, their values and their beliefs. A questionnaire consists of different types of questions, e.g.:

• Closed questions- this provides the respondent only two possible choices, for example, yes or no and true and false
• Multi-choice- this is a closed question and it provides the respondent more than two choices
• Open questions- these types of questions are used to gather qualitative information, for example, people opinions and suggestions
• Scale or rated questions- this is when the respondent answers a question by using a scale 1 to 10, where 10 is the most positive answer and 1 is the most negative answer

The advantages of a questionnaire are costs can be controlled, respondents have time to respond, any area can be covered, and respondents may be more truthful especially if, the reply is anonymous. The disadvantage of a questionnaire is there is very low response rate because, questions can not be explained or answer verified.

This method would be good for Cadbury because, they can obtain information about their products from their new and existing customers.

Surveys and sampling

Surveys are one of the most common methods used to gather and collect market research information. There two special kinds of surveys that exist: a census and a sample. A census survey is when a market researcher questions every supplier or customer within a particular market.

A sample survey is when a market researcher questions a selection of respondents from a target market. Cadbury Schweppes use this type of method to collect market research information. The organisation needs to make certain that the results of a sample survey are precise by identifying a typical group of consumers. If the selection made by Cadbury Schweppes is fair and accurate, then the information will be ‘systematically reliable’. If the sample is incomplete and does not accurately represent a group of consumers, misleading data is obtained and the sample is to be ‘biased’.

There are number of various methods of choosing a sample. Some of which are mentioned, below:

1. Random sampling

Random sampling is when people and organisations are chosen from a sampling frame. A sampling frame is a list of all the members of the market or population to be surveyed.

There are three main types of random sampling: simple sampling, systematic sampling and stratified sampling. Simple sampling involves a market researcher who, will choose the size of the sample needed, and then to select the sample on a purely random basis. Systematic sampling involves selecting items from the list at regular intervals, after choosing a random selecting point. Stratified random sampling is when items are specifically chosen from each stratum to represent the population. A stratum (the singular of strata) is a group of items with a set of common characteristics such as, age, sex, income groups, etc.

2. Cluster sampling

Cluster sampling is when the population is divided into specific groups known as clusters, which are then selected at random.

3. Quota sampling

Quota sampling is a non-random method of sampling. With this method, interviewers are provided instructions as to the number of people to interview with some characteristics such as, age, sex, socio-economic group, etc.

4. Convenience sampling

Convenience shopping involves gathering information from anyone for the interviewer to survey, no matter what his or her background is.

The advantages of surveys and samplings are it is fairly cheap, it is convenient, and it is quick to carry out with immediate feedback. The disadvantages of surveys and samplings are it can be biased if, an unrepresentative sample is selected and a sampling frame of all items may be required.

This method would be good for Cadbury because, the organisations can receive immediate feedback from their new and existing customers.

Test marketing

Test marketing involves testing a new product (before its launch) in a specific area where, there is a small number of the nation as a whole, i.e. with a range of age, income, lifestyles, etc. There are two main ways of testing a new product: pilots and field trials.

1. Pilots

Before the launch of a new product, they are often tried out on a very small number of people, to find out what alterations need to be made before; any further money is spent on development. The purpose of this method is to identify and deal with any major problems.

This method would good for Cadbury because, they might want to test that their surveys produces the results and answers they are looking for before, doing it on a large scale.  

2. Field trial

Field trial is when selected people are asked to test a product quality to its launch, through blind placement test. For example, asking if they prefer product A or B without knowing which is the new product.

The advantages of test marketing are it can prevent costly later mistakes; it is fairly cheap and convenient; immediate feedback; and can test a range of features. The disadvantage of test marketing is results can be biased if, the area I not chosen carefully.

This method would also be good for Cadbury because, they could test a new product or developed product in a small areas before, launching it nationwide to make sure that it is going to be successful.

Secondary Research

Secondary research is secondary that that is already collected by others (e.g. a business organisation) from their own purposes. Secondary data is also known as desk research. Secondary data can be collected from internal and external sources:

Internal sources

Internal information is information already collected within the organisation. All of the information is stored on a marketing database. A marketing data base contains a collection of related marketing data on the past, current and potential customers. Examples of internal data include the following: sale records, product records, promotion detail, etc.

External sources

External information is information that already exists in the form of published materials, collected by someone else. There are number of methods to collect external source of information. Some of which are mentioned, below:

• Government statistics
• The media
• The internet
• Market research companies

Government statistics

External information can be collected from the ONS (Office for National Statistics- ), the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry- ), the DfEE (Department for Education and Employment- ), the GSS (Government Statistics Service- ), and OECD (Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation- ).

I have listed some of the main government publications, below:

1. Monthly Digest for Statistics- summarising on economic trends
2. Regional Trends, e.g. households, work, living standards, etc
3. Social Trends, e.g. trends in labour markets and incomes
4. National Food Survey- expenditure on and consumption of food by income group and region
5. Population Trends- family statistics including, births, marriages, deaths, etc in regions

The Media

Media sources normally include the following:

• Newspapers- broadsheets such as The Times and The Financial Times
• Magazines and trade journals- obvious example is The Economist ()
• Television and radio- this covers specialist news and current affairs programmes
• Teletext- this gives a wide range of current information covering many subjects

The Internet

It is the most common method of obtaining external information. Many organisations such as Cadbury Schweppes use the internet to obtain information about their rival competitors, for example information about their products.

Market research companies

There are number of market research companies that provide useful information. For example, Mintel () is a commercial research organisation which, sell monthly journals containing reports or consumer markets, for example, bread, confectionery, beverage, and financial services.

I have collected my secondary data from the following sources:

• I got general company information from  and .  
• I got some company information sent to me through the post
• I got my statistics from the internet at  
• I also got information about the company and Cadbury Time Out from  

I have designed and produced my own questionnaire (see page  ) to find out what people thought about different flavoured bars, etc. Then I have produced my results for my questionnaire and identified the main findings (see pages ). Next, I have explained the secondary data of Cadbury products and found out the main findings of each graph (see pages ).