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Research Proposal-3
Research Proposal-3
Research Proposal-3
The UK chocolate market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 3.2% during the forecast period
(2021-2016). The main driving force of the market is the increase in demand for chocolate
products among the general public mainly since gluten-free products are now widely available.
However pandemic has tightened the competition among premium brands as demand in that
sector has fallen due to low consumer spending on premium products. But as the pandemic
settles the demand for premium brands would rise again.
Striving for growth is inevitable for any organization to sustain for longer periods. Organizations
deploy different strategies for growth. Developing a new product and then marketing it to gain
market share is one of them. The market is filled with too many options for consumers to choose
from. Therefore new product must have something new to offer to attract customer attention. The
areas to focus on should be product development and marketing. But developing and launching a
new product is a challenging task. Developing a new product requires a good amount of research
and planning.
Box ‘O’ Choc Ltd. intends to grow by new product launch. They require a well-established
strategy to make it successful. The research would focus on the areas like product development
and marketing.
Research Plan
The research would start from assessing the market and consumer behavior then would
move to product development and testing, after that it would address the marketing campaign
and its effectiveness. In the end, it would determine KPIs to measure performance. The whole
process would start from xx-xx-20xx and would end on xx-xx-20xx.
Research methodology
For any research finding the best research methodology is the most important criteria to
decide before conducting actual research. Research methods can be:
a) Descriptive vs analytical
b) Qualitative vs quantitative
c) Conceptual vs empirical
d) Applied vs fundamental
e) Field setting vs laboratory testing research
Out of all these research methods, descriptive research methodology best fits the Box ‘O’
Choc Ltd. requirement. Its main focus is on the present state of things and then based on these
conditions we can decide; what’s the best course of action to be taken to reach the desired
outcome? In business, it is the industry practice to use descriptive research methodology.
Descriptive research methods include surveys and facts, inquiring about things. It gives
researchers no control over variables thus enabling them to find out what is happening at
present or what has happened?
The data collection method would be cross-sectional ethnography. It collects data from
different points/individuals at a single point in time. The variables get observed without the
researcher having any control over them.
The research sequence would be;
1) Research on understanding consumer behavior.
2) Research on the development of the new product.
3) Research on the effectiveness of the market campaign.
4) Research on developing KPIs for performance measurement.
The research would start from research on determining consumer behavior. This would involve
segmentation of the market and then collecting data on the target segment. Segmentation of
the market means dividing the market into smaller more identifiable segments. It divides the
market into groups of similar characteristics such as age, gender, demographics, etc. Analysis of
that data on each segment will determine consumer preferences and trends in that segment.
The next stage would be researching on development of the new product. This part would
involve idea screening which helps to generate and evaluate new ideas. This involves testing
ideas against criteria such as relevance, budget, risk, constraints, etc. After that, the ideas can
be ranked by using scoring models and checklists, and ideas that come on top would then be
considered for further testing.
After product development based on the best-selected idea, the research would focus on the
idea of concept testing to evaluate consumer response before product launch. It is defined as
asking consumers questions about your product ideas and then evaluating their response to
determine the best course of action. The most common method used for concept testing is the
use of surveys. Concept testing involves the use of the following techniques:
1) Comparison Testing
2) Monadic Testing
3) Sequential Monadic Testing
4) Proto Monadic Testing
Cpmrarison Testing involves presenting two or more concepts to the respondent. The
respondent compares these two either by mere random selection or by using ratings or
rankings. Comparison testing gves clear and understandable results however the choice of
respondent lacks context and there is no way to tell why the respondent chose one over the
other.
Monadic testing involves breaking down the audience into smaller groups. Each group gets to
respond to one idea only. After that, the researcher asks the follow-up question which is the
same for every group. As each group focuses on one idea only so it is possible to go into much
depth in a short period. However, it has a limitation as the idea can only be tested by small
targeted audience. For the concept to be tested against a larger audience sample size must be
increased which means a higher cost for research.
Sequential monadic testing is the same as monadic testing in a way that audience is divided into
smaller groups. However, each group is presented with all the concepts but in arandom order
to avoid bias. After the audience responded each group os asked the same follow-up questions
to get further inside. This gives sequential monadic testing to get in-depth detail in a short
period. It also reduces the audience so minimizing the cost for the research. Its major drawback
is that the length of the questions becomes too much and eventually affects the completion
rate.
A proto-monadic test involves the use of a sequential monadic test followed by a comparison
test. In essence audience is asked to evaluate multiple concepts and choose one out of them.
This is often used to validate results from the sequential monadic test.
The research would use a mix of all these above-mentioned techniques to conduct the
research.
After the product development phase starts the marketing campaign testing stage. This stage
would require strategies like standard test market and controlled test marketing. The standard
test market is used before a new product launch. It involves the selection of a small number of
cities to test the marketing campaign before launching it the whole.
While controlled test marketing focuses on the selection of certain stores where the company
asks these stores to display their products in return for a fee. The company decided on pricing,
display position, shelf position, etc. These strategies will fulfill the marketing campaign’s
effectiveness goal.
While conducting research primary focus groups and secondary focus groups must be
segregated to correctly analyze data. Some data collection might also be collected through
conducting interviews.
All of the research objectives would require primary research but if needed secondary research
can also be employed.
After all these steps research would focus on developing KPIs for performance measurement.
The goal is to set appropriate performance indicators that are well-matched with goals. For
example, continued sales growth can be a good indicator of the success of the overall strategy.