ASSIGNMENT 1 – MARKET RESEARCH - CENDRINE
P1 – EXPLAIN THE RANGE OF MARKET RESEARCH METHODS USED BY A SELECTED
BUSINESS.
Kellogg's is a business which produces cereals. It is the worldwide leader and produces cereals
in 18 countries worldwide, which are sold in over 180 countries globally. Kellogg's is a private
company whose main aim is profit. In order to make this profit, they must carry out market
research and find out what their customers' needs are. As Kellogg's are a market orientated
brand – a business strategy which focuses on the needs of the customer - this means that these
projects are necessary to ensure that their customers' needs are being identified, anticipated
and satisfied successfully. In this criteria, I will be focusing on the primary and secondary forms
of research used when Kellogg's investigated the feasibility of extending the Crunchy Nut brand
with a new product.
Kellogg's used both primary and secondary forms of research in order to investigate whether
expanding the crunchy nut brand would be successful. Primary research is research that is
carried out by the business using their own methods to collect new data. This includes things
like surveys and focus groups. On the other hand, secondary research is research which has
been gathered by other companies already – for example news articles and government data.
Secondary research
One example of secondary research that Kellogg's used to investigate the release of a new
product in the crunchy nut brand was market research agencies. Market research agencies are
businesses which offer various market research services to clients. They help the business by
gathering information about the client's needs, attitudes and purchasing habits, the client’s
competitors, their sales and more. Kellogg's used a marketing research agency called Mintel to
find out more about the market which they operate in – cereal. They used a report called the
‘UK breakfast cereals report’ from Mintel to find out in detail about the trends in cereals eaten,
innovation trends in the cereal market, as well as any changing consumer demands. This was
useful for Kellogg's to help with their market research, as it meant that a large chunk of the
information that they needed was already available to them – which saved them time as they
didn’t need to carry it out themselves, as well as money because research projects are often
expensive to carry out. They then would have used the information which was useful to them
from Mintel to get a better idea of what customers want from cereal brands at the time that
they were developing the product, and this eventually would’ve helped them in creating the
Crunchy Nut Bites.
Another example of secondary research that Kellogg’s used to investigate the feasibility of
expanding the Crunchy Nut brand is government information. Kellogg's will have used
, information from government websites such as the levels of inflation and interest rates in order
to figure out not only the best time to release their product, but also how to price their
product. Government websites will often include general information about the economy that
isn’t industry specific but will still help the business in conducting research. Government
information will have many benefits for Kellogg’s in finding out whether the release of the
Crunchy Nut Bites is feasible. This is because, with the use of the interest rates, the market
research team will be able to figure out the best time to release the product – as if interest
rates are high, then less people will have disposable income so Kellogg's will make less sales –
leading to a loss in revenue. As well as this, the benefits of secondary research are that it is
quicker and often less expensive than primary research, although it may not always be
completely related to the needs of a specific project.
Primary research
Kellogg's also used primary research in order to assess the feasibility of extending the Crunchy
Nut brand with a new product. One example of primary research that Kellogg's used was focus
groups. Focus groups are a form of qualitative research, in which a small group of people are
focused on and are observed or asked questions about their opinions of a product. Kellogg's
used focus groups to show consumers a variety of prototypes of the Crunchy Nut bites, and
then found out their opinions and feedback on each prototype. This was useful for Kellogg's in
finding out the feasibility of the brand extension, as it allowed them to find out how the
prototypes could be improved and how the group felt towards the product in general. It also
helped to establish what consumers might be looking for in terms of new textures and flavours,
which was used to help make the final product of the crunchy nut bites.
As well as focus groups, Kellogg's also used surveys as a primary form of research. Surveys are a
quantitative form of research which usually entails asking questions to a group of people to find
out how they feel about a certain thing. Kellogg’s used surveys in their market research as a
follow-up from their focus group results, and they put all of the best ideas from the focus
groups on boards with descriptions of the product. These were then shown to consumers who
rated the ideas. Surveys were a useful method of research for Kellogg's as it helped them to
narrow down the options of a new Crunchy Nut product, as well as find out more information
such as what proportion of people liked the new product ideas enough to buy it and which idea
had the best sales potential - which could be used later in the development to their final
product, the Crunchy Nut Bites.
Overall, we can see that Kellogg’s used extensive amounts of both primary and secondary
research to investigate the feasibility of extending the Crunchy Nut brand with a new product.
Using many forms of research is important for Kellogg's as it ensures that they are doing the
correct things for the release of their new product, such as marketing towards the correct
P1 – EXPLAIN THE RANGE OF MARKET RESEARCH METHODS USED BY A SELECTED
BUSINESS.
Kellogg's is a business which produces cereals. It is the worldwide leader and produces cereals
in 18 countries worldwide, which are sold in over 180 countries globally. Kellogg's is a private
company whose main aim is profit. In order to make this profit, they must carry out market
research and find out what their customers' needs are. As Kellogg's are a market orientated
brand – a business strategy which focuses on the needs of the customer - this means that these
projects are necessary to ensure that their customers' needs are being identified, anticipated
and satisfied successfully. In this criteria, I will be focusing on the primary and secondary forms
of research used when Kellogg's investigated the feasibility of extending the Crunchy Nut brand
with a new product.
Kellogg's used both primary and secondary forms of research in order to investigate whether
expanding the crunchy nut brand would be successful. Primary research is research that is
carried out by the business using their own methods to collect new data. This includes things
like surveys and focus groups. On the other hand, secondary research is research which has
been gathered by other companies already – for example news articles and government data.
Secondary research
One example of secondary research that Kellogg's used to investigate the release of a new
product in the crunchy nut brand was market research agencies. Market research agencies are
businesses which offer various market research services to clients. They help the business by
gathering information about the client's needs, attitudes and purchasing habits, the client’s
competitors, their sales and more. Kellogg's used a marketing research agency called Mintel to
find out more about the market which they operate in – cereal. They used a report called the
‘UK breakfast cereals report’ from Mintel to find out in detail about the trends in cereals eaten,
innovation trends in the cereal market, as well as any changing consumer demands. This was
useful for Kellogg's to help with their market research, as it meant that a large chunk of the
information that they needed was already available to them – which saved them time as they
didn’t need to carry it out themselves, as well as money because research projects are often
expensive to carry out. They then would have used the information which was useful to them
from Mintel to get a better idea of what customers want from cereal brands at the time that
they were developing the product, and this eventually would’ve helped them in creating the
Crunchy Nut Bites.
Another example of secondary research that Kellogg’s used to investigate the feasibility of
expanding the Crunchy Nut brand is government information. Kellogg's will have used
, information from government websites such as the levels of inflation and interest rates in order
to figure out not only the best time to release their product, but also how to price their
product. Government websites will often include general information about the economy that
isn’t industry specific but will still help the business in conducting research. Government
information will have many benefits for Kellogg’s in finding out whether the release of the
Crunchy Nut Bites is feasible. This is because, with the use of the interest rates, the market
research team will be able to figure out the best time to release the product – as if interest
rates are high, then less people will have disposable income so Kellogg's will make less sales –
leading to a loss in revenue. As well as this, the benefits of secondary research are that it is
quicker and often less expensive than primary research, although it may not always be
completely related to the needs of a specific project.
Primary research
Kellogg's also used primary research in order to assess the feasibility of extending the Crunchy
Nut brand with a new product. One example of primary research that Kellogg's used was focus
groups. Focus groups are a form of qualitative research, in which a small group of people are
focused on and are observed or asked questions about their opinions of a product. Kellogg's
used focus groups to show consumers a variety of prototypes of the Crunchy Nut bites, and
then found out their opinions and feedback on each prototype. This was useful for Kellogg's in
finding out the feasibility of the brand extension, as it allowed them to find out how the
prototypes could be improved and how the group felt towards the product in general. It also
helped to establish what consumers might be looking for in terms of new textures and flavours,
which was used to help make the final product of the crunchy nut bites.
As well as focus groups, Kellogg's also used surveys as a primary form of research. Surveys are a
quantitative form of research which usually entails asking questions to a group of people to find
out how they feel about a certain thing. Kellogg’s used surveys in their market research as a
follow-up from their focus group results, and they put all of the best ideas from the focus
groups on boards with descriptions of the product. These were then shown to consumers who
rated the ideas. Surveys were a useful method of research for Kellogg's as it helped them to
narrow down the options of a new Crunchy Nut product, as well as find out more information
such as what proportion of people liked the new product ideas enough to buy it and which idea
had the best sales potential - which could be used later in the development to their final
product, the Crunchy Nut Bites.
Overall, we can see that Kellogg’s used extensive amounts of both primary and secondary
research to investigate the feasibility of extending the Crunchy Nut brand with a new product.
Using many forms of research is important for Kellogg's as it ensures that they are doing the
correct things for the release of their new product, such as marketing towards the correct
