Both the graph and table shows that the majority of customers, regardless of their gender or age are happy to pay 34p for a packet of Poppets. This shows have priced their product well; keeping a competitive price whilst pleasing the customers.
Place
Firms have to find the most cost effective way in getting the product to the consumer. The product has to be in the right place for people to hear about it and see about it. Going through wholesalers and high-street retailers is the most popular form of distribution, as most people shop at high street retailers. Though nowadays business tend to miss parts of this out to make themselves more profit. The form Poppets use is
Manufacturer
Wholesaler
Retailer
Consumer
Another aspect of place is Point of Sale. Paynes have to be careful where there products are sold, for example Paynes would want Poppets to be sold next to other confectionary instead of Baked beans.
Product
A product can range in an anything to a good or a service that is sold to a customer or a consumer. A customer buys a product whereas a consumer uses it. For example Poppets buy their chocolate from another company and use it to make Poppets. This makes Poppets a consumer.
Poppets had to use market research to find out what people want. Through the market research they found there was a place in the market for a light, snack type chocolate that can be eaten easily. They had to make sure they differentiated the product enough to rival potential competition such as Malteasers and Revels.
Then Poppets had to build on their idea, they had to design an easy to eat chocolate and decide on the flavors. They also had to decide on the name of the product, this aspect is important as the name has to be appealing for people to buy it.
All products go through a similar life cycle such as the one below
Launch. Growth Marurity. Saturation. Decline. Obsolescence
When Poppets realize obsolescence is happening they come up with a extension strategy. Extension strategies Poppets have used in the past are releasing new flavors and new packages. Paynes hope that by using extension strategies their product life cycle will look like this…
Launch. Growth Marurity. Saturation. Decline. Extension
However, Fox’s product range includes a lot more than just Poppets. REMEMBER TO FINISH THIS. GO ON THE INTERNET
Promotion
The purpose of promotion is to remind and let people know of you new product. Advertising is the biggest used form of promotion and it involves TV adverts, radio adverts, cinema adverts, billboards and many more. Advertising has to be right to ensure it reaches your chosen market audience and it is most cost effective. Coming into an already catered, competitive market, Poppets marketing department had to ensure it’s product stood out from other competitors as it would be placed next to them on the shelves. The marketing department had to make sure consumers had heard about Poppets before they hit the shop. If this never worked they had to rely on impulse buying. To make this happen their product has to stand out. In the past Poppets have used advertising in teenage magazines and as a promotion they have used was their ‘camera for life,’ promotion to encourage people to buy an adequate amount of Poppets to collect enough coupons to receive a camera. Other forms of promotion Poppets have used is Point of sale advertising in which Poppets were isolated in their own display place of the shop to draw attention to them. They have also used Discounts where you get 25% extra free.
Fox also use public relations to help promote their product
Packaging
In confectionary packaging is a vital aspect. With a lot of confectionary being alike i.e. Poppets, Malteasers, Revels it is important for the marketing department of Poppets to give the product a unique look and catchy brand name. The marketing department also has to also make sure it’s packaging is distinctive. For instance, Poppets are recognized by their customers from they square box and bright colours. This is very different form Malteaser’s red image. All this will help to differentiate Poppets from Malteasers and other similar products. To assist my investigation I decided to find out what packaging different age groups preferred.
I asked 25 of each age group below to choose their favourite type of packaging for their confectionary to come in, I then put the results into the table below.
As I expected the younger age groups preferred the smaller packet and the older age groups preferred the large luxury box. This is not surprising as small packets would be difficult for older hands to fiddle with and large luxury boxes of chocolate may be out the price range of the younger market who only want a quick snack.
Results Presentation
For this section of my course work I will be talking about the questionnaire provided by the OCR exam board. The questionnaire consists of thirteen closed questions. A majority of these questions give qualitative data that I can use to help me find Poppets strengths and weaknesses in its marketing strategy. 6180 people completed the questionnaire. This means it should give much more accurate results than the ten I got filled in by my family and friends not only because more people means more precise results but the data should represent the tastes and feeling from everybody in the country.
2861 females and 3008 males completed the questionnaire. This ratio is very good because it is near 50% each which means both genders will be properly represented.
The questionnaire was split into five different age categories. It was split into under 12, 13-16, 17-25, 26-40 and Over 40. The ages were split well as they represent all the different terms of maturity; However the ages were not represented fairly as you can see in the graph below…
Nearly 41% of the questionnaires were completed by the smallest age group: 13-16. This is possibly because these questionnaires were given to 15-16 year olds to complete and they probably got the majority of them filled out by their friends of their own age. Nevertheless, this may be beneficial to the Poppets marketing department as 13-16 year olds are one of their biggest markets so they will be able to find out what they want. The other age groups all have around the same amount, varying between 13%-16% which also doesn’t represent the population fairly because for instance there is a lot les under 12’s than people older than 40.
The questionnaires were filled in by people from all over England and these areas were divided into three categories: The North, South and the Midlands. However the numbers of people that filled in the questionnaire are not equal therefore the population is not represented fairly. These are two graphs showing the amount of people questioned from each area…
As you can tell from the graphs, over five times more people completed the questionnaire from the midlands than the north. This is probably because more people in the midlands and south took the OCR business GCSE course than teenagers living in the north so more questionnaires were given out and completed in the south and the midlands.
Now I am going to present my report on what I think were the most imperative questions that really show the Poppets weaknesses and strength in the confectionary market.
The first question I am going to present is question 5: “Where do you buy sweets/chocolate?”
This graph produced the results I expected: most people buy from the corner shop as it is quick and easy to pop in and out only buying one item. I predicted supermarket to be second as many families visit the supermarket weekly as apposed to the cinema and leisure center where a majority of people visit their less than once a week. I expected the school to be last because only the school children could tick this option and a preponderance of them would buy their sweets from a corner shop before school as they tend to be cheaper.
As I found the results of this graph interesting, I decided to investigate more into this question. To do this I made another graph to show how much of each age group buy from each outlet.
Instead of using numbers I decided to find out the percentage of each age group because if I did use the numbers, age groups such as 13 – 16 would be extremely high as more people took that questionnaire than any other age group. This would distort the graph and not represent the data properly. As I expected the under twelve’s and 13-16 year olds are the main purchasers from the corner shop this is because children and teenagers rarely visit the supermarket and tend not to buy their confectionary in bulk as supermarkets sell them but in ???. As you get to the 17-25 and 26-40 age groups less people buy from corner shops and the majority becomes the supermarket this is because adults tend to do weekly shopping and buy everything they need for the week in bulk. I think it is this sector of the market that buy Poppets in the larger plastic bag.
The next question I decided to report on was question 6: “The price of a box of Poppets is approximately 31p. Do you think this is:”
The graph did not produce the results I expected: I predicted a higher percentage of the south to think the value of Poppets is good than the midlands and north as the south of England is considered to be the richest part of UK. I was actually surprised to find that more of the North than anybody else thought that the value of Poppets was excellent/good since the North is deemed to be the poorest.
Poppets marketing department will be pleased to see that the majority of the people that filled in the questionairre thought that the value of Poppets was average or good. They will be even more pleased to know that a very small percentage of the country thought that the value is Poor or very poor. This means the Poppets marketing department have the equilibrium price nearly perfect. However I think Poppets could get away with raising the price of it’s Poppets a few pence, I think this would work especially well in the North of England considering over 40% thought that the standard price of 31p was above average for value.
The next question I decided to evaluate was question 4: “How often do you eat Poppets” and question 9: “How often do you see Poppets advertisements” I would like to find out how much people eat according to age and if how often they see the advertisment affects this. This is the graphs the results produced.
I was not surprised to find that in every age group over 30% of people ate Poppets less than once a month. I think this is because Poppets is in a competitive market where there is a lot of similar confectionary. As I expected the under 12 age group had the highest percentage of people that ate Poppets daily and the over 40s had the highest percentage of people who ate Poppets less than once a month; nearly 80% in fact. I suspect this is because Poppets is aimed at the younger market and the colours and wording would not appeal to the older generation.
The second graph shows that hardly any of the people surveyed had seen the Poppets daily or weekly. The graph almost seems to mirror the first graph. In both graphs the highest percentage was the ‘less than monthly’ option and ‘never seen one’. As you look closer the over 40s had eaten the least Poppets and they were also the age group that seen the least advertisements. This correlates with all age groups, for instance, the under 12 age group had eaten the most Poppets and were also the age group that had seen the most advertisements. From these graphs I don’t think Poppets advertise their results nearly enough or they don’t advertise them in the right places so I decided to look into question 10 “where do you notice advertisements most”.
As I imagined, Television is where people notice advertisements most, at least 50% in every age group chose this option. Magazines and newspapers were second in every age group having over 20% in the 17+ age groups. I think this is because a lot adults read newspapers daily whilst children may read their magazine weekly or monthly, depending on which magazine they purchase. The cinema option was 3rd with every option over 10% with the exception of the over 40s radio which had 7%. I think this is because Over 40s tend not to go to the cinema as much as children, teenagers and younger adults. Billboards was 3rd with the average being about 10%. Radio was last, with not much difference in the different age groups the range only between 6-8%.
The next question I decided to evaluate was question 7: “What is your favourite Poppets flavour”
I expected to find a significant difference between the different genders’ preferences as I guessed that different genders liked different things but I was wrong, the results seem to be the same with the males liking every flavour a bit more except the ‘other’ option.
As the graph shows the Nut flavour is considerably unpopular with only 6% of males liking them and 5% of females.
I expected the mint option to be there as I have always associated Poppets with the colour green and I see the mint flavour a lot more than I see the nut and raisin. Also to be more accurate I think the people who chose ‘less than once a month’ in question 4: “How often do you eat Poppets?” should not of answered this because this category will contain people who have never eaten Poppets so their answer would not be accurate so I done the graph again excluding those who said they ate Poppets less than once a month.
The results have now, quite dramatically changed. Nut is still the least popular and toffee is still the favourite but they have now evened out. ‘Other’ does now not have the most results. I think this is because the people who ate Poppets rarely did not have an option for ‘none’ so they opted ‘other’ as the next best thing. The results are now much more accurate as the people involved know what their favourite flavour is as they eat them and I will be using these results in my data analysis.
Now I am going to look at question 11: “Which type of promotion makes you buy a product” Firms promote their products to improve the image of the business, remind customers of the product and the make customers aware. The type of promotion this question is involving is point of sale promotion because the consumer may not know of the promotion till the point of sale. Here is the graph…
As I had anticipated, both ‘money off’ and ‘BOGOF’ were the most popular. ‘Money off’ got 26% whilst ‘BOGOF’ got 44%. I don’t think ‘competitions’ got a lot of votes because the chances of people winning are miniscule. I don’t think ‘free gifts’ got a lot because the gift prize is generally of a low standard and you have to fill in coupons or buy more of the product. ‘Charity link’ which got the least (5%), didn’t get a lot because there is a great number of charities and the charity that the product is supporting may not appeal to the customer.
Data analysis
In the 5th and penultimate of my essay I am going to analyze the data I gathered from my report on OCR’s questionnaire. From my report I discovered I discovered that 2765 out of the 5887 people who answered the question ‘Where do you buy sweets/chocolate?’ chose corner shop. This was not surprising as they are not really an item purchased at a supermarket unless they are eaten frequently and are brought in bulk. The supermarket came 2nd with 1979 people opting for this option. The Cinema/leisure center option came 3rd with a lot less people buying from there and had only 662. This is because most people do not visit the cinema and leisure centers nearly as much as much as people visiting the corner shop and supermarket. Schools had the least of 471 because only school children could choose this option and even though over half the people questioned were potential school goers most of these would probably buy their snacks on the way to school as corner shops and newsagents tend to be cheaper and have a bigger variety, also children may have to wait till break and lunch times to purchase their confectionary if they were to buy them at school. Using the same question, but linking age groups into it I discovered two trends occurring: The results generally shown the younger you were the more you brought your confectionary from the cornershop and then the older you were the more you brought your confectionary from the supermarket with only 19% of 12-16 year olds purchasing their confectionary from the supermarkets whilst 57% of over 40s did.
From my results I also found that the amount of people that ate Poppets daily was considerably low. 12-16 year olds had the highest amount of people only 14% of 12-16 eating them daily and the rest of the age groups ranged between 3 and 7%. In every age group most of the people ate Poppets less than monthly. These results, in turn coincided with the amount of people saw Poppets advertisements. Under 12s had the largest percentage out of all the age groups that saw Poppets advertisements daily but still this was only 8%. The other age groups had nothing between them and had a range of only 3-4% of people seeing them daily. My results generally show, that the more you see Poppets advertisements, the more you eat them. Also the younger age groups, Under 12s, 13-16 and 17-25 ate a lot more than the older generation.
I also discovered that male and females tend to like the same flavours, and their was no significant differences between the two. Nut, was the least popular with 20% of males liking them and 518% of the females. Raisin was next with both genders liking 24% and toffee was the most popular with 35% of males liking them and 36% of females. I didn’t really expect a significant difference between the two genders as males and females tend to like the same smells and tastes.
My results gathered, also showed me the most popular promotional deals. ‘Money of’ and ‘BOGOF’ were the most popular with 70% almost ¾ of people choosing one of them. This is because you can claim it straight away with out filling in time consuming forms as you would for many competition and free gift deals. Competitions did not appeal to a lot of people and only got 11% because even though the prize may be magnificent the chance of winning is extremely small. Free gift’s got a slightly larger vote of 14%. I think this was also quite small because the gift in generally not what people want and even if it is the standard of the gift is quite poor.
Even though the questionnaire helped me get many useful results I still noticed some faults in it. For instance question 3, ‘Where do you live?’ Had the options North, South and Midlands. This was very unclear as many people would not know how far north you had to live for it to be considered north or how far south you would have to live for it to be considered south. This would cause many to choose wrong option.
Also, it was not made clear whether or not two options could be ticked. This would have been useful for question 7, ‘What is your favourite Poppets flavour,’, question 5 ‘Where do you buy sweets/chocolate,’ and question 11 ‘Which type of promotion makes you want to buy a product?’ However, these faults were in the minority as the rest of the 13 questions were very clear and not at all confusing, also I noticed no bias and every question was appropriate and all the 4P’s were covered.
Evaluation and Recommendation.
I think Poppets marketing mix is very succsessful however it did have some weak points. I found it’s promotional department very weak as the graph in the results presentation showed. Only 8% of Under 12s saw a Poppets advertisement daily and the other age groups saw one much less than that. 75% of over 40s and 65% if 26-40 year olds had never seen on. 55% of 17-25 year olds and 62% of 13-16yr olds had also never seen one. I think the promotional department needs to work drastically on this. The strongest part of Poppets marketing mix is it’s price. They have done this very well and over 80% of every region in the country were pleased with the average price of 31p. However in the little test I took of my own on page__ shows that the majority of all ages were prepared to pay 34p which is the price where I live.
Recommendations I would like to put forward to Poppets would firstly, to advertise Poppets to over 40s more as only 23 of them ate Poppets at least once a month. I think they should promote different style packets and different advertisements to the over 40s than they do to the younger market as they could risk losing some of the 66% of the under 12s that eat Poppets at least once a month because Poppets would not appeal to younger children as much if their grandparents were also eating them out of exactly the same packet. They needn’t change the style for the younger generation but perhaps for the over 40s they could present them as a luxury item, making them more rare and expensive and pack them in a larger box of assorted flavours. I have proven this in the primary data I gathered on page ___ in which I asked people of different age groups what packet they preferred their confectionary to come in. As expected a large number of over 40s preferred the large, luxury box, 22 out of 25 in fact! Also, 16, over half of the 30-40 year olds preferred them in a large luxury box compared to 1 of the under 12s and 4 of the 12-18s. To interest the new customers I suggest Poppets consider advertising of television as over 40% of every age group notices adverts on the television more than anywhere else. However this is very expensive and they should only do this if they are sure they can make their money back in the long run. As an alternative to television they could advertise in magazines and newspapers as over 16% in every age group notice these most. This is a considerable drop from television but it is much cheaper, you can advertise to specific areas of the country and still, millions of people of all age groups read newspapers and advertisements everyday. To generate new audiences and keep the customers still interested Poppets they could do ‘buy one get of free’ promotional deals as 44% nearly half of the peoples said that promotional deal makes them buy a product most. They could also use ‘money off’ deals as 26%, just over a quarter said this would make them buy a product. They should then advertise the fact that they are doing so on the packet to let the customers know.
