Introduction to Marketing Concepts Unit MKT396 Charlotte Lystor

Assignment: Primary Research into Healthy Drinks Ltd By Richard Sayer

Primary Research into Healthy Drinks Ltd The objective for the primary research for Healthy drinks Ltd will be to investigate the customers needs and buyer behaviour. This information will be obtained through research, but primarily through a questionnaire. The questionnaire will be our main focus as this will have up to date information, from a varied age range covering subjects like packaging, flavours and cost. We need an understanding of our customers needs and buyer behavior to satisfy their needs better than out competitors. This will help to give an advantage launching our products in the UK marketplace. Buyer behavior needs to look at who buys the product, how do they buy the product and how do they buy the product. Customers needs will be based on weather they want to buy standard products at the cheapest possible price, where as other customers will be looking for variety and quality. Additionally some customers will have special tastes wanting to buy fair-trade products or organic fruit (thetimes100, 2009). One way of doing this is to look at the market segmentation to help identify the areas, but as with all products different customers will have different requirements, and it will be not be possible to satisfy all customers needs by treating them all the same. To analyse the different market segments we need to consider these following factors: Geographic; which is based on regional variables such as region, climate, population density, and population growth rate. Demographic; which is based on variables such as age, gender, ethnicity, education, occupation, income and family status. Psychographic; which is based on variable such as values, attitudes and lifestyle. Behavioural; which is based on variables such as usage rate and patterns, price sensitivity, brand loyalty, and benefits sought. Geographically has seen the sales slow over the last year in the market due to the poor summer we had, but we have still seen an increase in the market regardless. Showing that people are being more careful with their daily diet. The perception of healthy drinks by young and old is a positive factor, due to low calorie intake, natural sugar, and the many different heath benefits that come with juices and smoothies. And with the introduction of fair trade to UK farmers people are keener to see this branding on products. As Mintel (2008) reported young children are adopting adult lifestyles which affects what they spend there own money on. Children now spend less money on sugary items and more on the healthier options.

Questionnaire Results Interpret, and Present Findings Using Text Table Graphs Questionnaires are one the main tools used in market research. The questionnaire was based on 10 questions and surveyed 50 people to gather primary market research data for Health Drinks Ltd. The objective of the questionnaire is for us to gather information on items such as flavour, price, packaging, etc, so we can make a decision about the final product. I used an online survey called Surveymonkey to collect my results. Its a quick and easy way to design a professional questionnaire. With everyone having access to the internet in one form or another, it is quick to get the results back and analyse them. Question 1
Answer Male Female Total Responses Are you male or female? Response Amount 27 23 50 Response Percentage 54% 46%

(1) (2)

This object of this question was so I could see if would get an even amount of male and female responses. This would also help us see if there is a difference in responses between the two sexes.

Question 2

Answer 0 10 11 20 21 30 31 40 41 50 51 60 61 + Total Responses

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

How old are you? Response Amount 0 8 24 12 2 4 0 50

Response Percentage 0% 16% 48% 24% 4% 8% 0%

4
This survey was sent out to equal amount of each age range. I only took the first 50 responses and as it can clearly be seen the 21-30 age range came back the quickest with responses. This could be bias due to the fact the questionnaire was completed over the internet. Pew Internet reports that 83%of ages 18-29 use the internet compared to 33% of 65 year olds or over. This could also indicate that the younger ages may use the internet on a more regular basis due the popular use of applications like Facebook.

Question 3

24%

Where do you normally purchase your take-away drinks? Answer Response Amount Response Percentage Coffee Shop (1) 12 24% Health Food Shop (2) 0 0% Local Shop (3) 9 18% Newsagents (4) 11 22% Supermarket (5) 18 36% Total Responses 50

This question gives us a clear idea on where people mostly purchase there drinks, giving us a better idea on where best to market and place point of sale advertising for our product. The strongest response supermarket could be due to the fact that most people would do there shopping every couple of weeks and stock up on there day to day use of products. But the use of other shops (coffee shops, newsagents and local shops) makes up a larger share of the results indicating that if we place our product in the right place against other products, with the aid of point of sale, could help to increase our sales.

36%

Question 4

How much do you spend a week on take-away drinks? Answer Response Amount Response Percentage 0.00 - 5.00 (1) 34 68% 5.01 - 10.00 (2) 12 24% 10.01 - 15.00 (3) 4 8% 15.01 - 20.00 (4) 0 0% 20.01 + (5) 0 0% Total Responses 50

The idea of this question is to gauge roughly how much someone spends a week, out side of the supermarket and shows that from an average of 50 people that there is a maximum of 350 spent a week in take away drinks

24%

Question 5

Which of the following flavours would you normally choose to have in your milk, fruit, yoghurt or water based drink? Answer Response Amount Response Percentage Apple (1) 5 10% Banana (2) 11 22% Blackcurrant (3) 3 6% Cherry (4) 0 0% Orange (5) 13 26% Pineapple (6) 0 0% Raspberry (7) 8 16% Strawberry (8) 10 20% Total Responses 50

20%
This was an important question to cover as this will help us decide which flavour product to launch in the UK market. I am also interested to see of which sex prefers which flavour, which can be seen below.

9 8
Question 6

7 6

16%

How important is environmentally friendly packaging in motivating your drink purchase decisions? (On a scale of 1 to 5) Answer Response Amount Response Percentage 1 - Not Important (1) 14 28% 2 (2) 9 18% 3 (3) 16 32% 4 (4) 4 8% 5 - Very Important (5) 7 14% Total Responses 50

There are two questions on this survey which were intended to see if the influences of recycling and as the later question will cover, fair-trade products, would influence the consumers decision on purchasing the product. As it can be seen from the results it does make up part of there decision but is not a major contributing factor in deciding upon the product.

8%

Question 7

Answer Glass Bottle Carton Plastic Bottle Foil Packed Total Responses

How do you prefer you drink to be packaged? Response Amount Response Percentage (1) 3 6% (2) 4 8% (3) 43 86% (4) 0 0% 50

Similar to the last question, the results tell us how people would want there product packaged, which also gives us the indication on how easy it is to recycle the waste. Plastic or Glass would be fully recyclable, where as the other packaging is more likely to be used from recycled products.

Question 8

How important is Fair Trade drinks in motivating your drink purchase decisions? (On a scale of 1 to 5) Answer Response Amount Response Percentage 1 - Not Important (1) 9 18% 2 (2) 8 16% 3 (3) 18 36% 4 (4) 8 16% 5 - Very Important (5) 7 14% Total Responses 50

Similar to question 6, the idea was to see how important fair-trade products influence the buying decision. This seems to have more influence than environmentally friendly packaging in the buying decision. Our products are from local farmers and would be a major selling point for our range of healthy drinks.

16%
Question 9

What would be appropriate price range for a 500ml natural fruits beverage? Answer Response Amount Response Percentage 0.00 - 0.75 (1) 4 8% 0.76 - 1.00 (2) 14 28% 1.01 - 1.25 (3) 14 28% 1.26 - 1.50 (4) 12 24% 1.51 - 1.75 (5) 4 8% 1.76 - 2.00 (6) 1 2% 2.01 + (7) 1 2% Total Responses 50

It can be seen from these results that we could price our products at over a pound. It might be a good idea to launch a trial price for a short period of time to help influence the people who would not normally be inclined to spend that much. Another idea might be to advertise at point of sale, if someone was to purchase two types of our drinks they would receive them at a lower price.

Question 10

24%

Over a three month period how often do you buy multi-packs of healthy drinks (yoghurt, smoothies & fruit juices) from your supermarket? Answer Response Amount Response Percentage 0 (1) 20 40% 12 (2) 9 18% 34 (3) 9 18% 56 (4) 3 6% 78 (5) 4 8% 9 10 (6) 2 4% 10 + (7) 3 6% Total Responses 50

The final question was mainly gauged at the supermarket buyer who maybe more likely to purchase muti-packs. Although 40% said they have not bought muti-packs in the last 3 months from a supermarket, 60% said they have. This survey was only based on 50 people, the amount of people who walk into a supermarket on a daily basis is obviously on a much larger scale. This shows there is high potential of selling multi-packs though supermarket chains, again a trial price might be a way of encouraging people to try our products.

8%

6%
Conclusion

The questionnaire has helped give us up to date information on both customer needs and buyer behaviour. The questionnaire was sent out to equal amount of people from each age range and clearly shows bias on the 21 40 age range, but on the positive side this is the market demographic we are trying to aim out products at. The results on what people are prepared to pay for a 500ml healthy drink was surprising as quite often a bottle of coke of the same quantity is less than a pound, which shows people are prepared to pay more for a good quality healthy drink. The addition of it being a fairtrade product may help influence the buying decision further. The market, even under the current economic situation is still growing, although it may be at a slower pace than previous years (Zenith, 2008). Therefore packaging will need to very clear and must get our point across if people are purchase our products off the shelf at either the newsagents or supermarket. A strategy will need to be developed to identify marketing strategies and objectives. The products need to be innovative, so to give Healthy Drinks Ltd a good start in the market. There is a strong future potential with the smoothie market due to the increasing awareness of fair trade and manufacturers focusing on mass appeal A flexible strategy will have to be employed to enable the company to grow and expand. The products need to be kept innovate, so not to be complacent in the market. There is a strong future potential with the smoothie market due to the increasing awareness of fair trade and manufacturers focusing on mass appeal. The next step will involve working out and justifying our market strategy, and decide on a marketing model which will suit Healthy rinks Ltd.

Bibliography

Times 100, 2009, Establishing customer needs [online]. Available: http://www.thetime100.co.uk/theory/theory--establishing-customer-needs--345.php [accessed 17th January 2009] Talking Retail, 2008, Britain leads the way in ethical shopping [online]. Available: http://www.talkingretail.com/news/industry-news/9859-britain-leads-leads-the-way-inethical-shopping.html [accessed 17th January 2009] Zenith, 2008, UK Smoothies [online]. Available: http://www.zenithinternational.com/market_industry_reports/report_detail.asp? id=183&desc=UK+Smoothies [accessed 17th January 2009] Mintel, 2008, Pocket Money [online]. Available: http://academic.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen_academic/search_results/show&/display/id=3 00256 [accessed 17th January 2009] Tutor2u, Market research questionnaires [online]. Available: http://tutor2u.net/business/gcse/marketing_research_questionnaires.htm [accessed 17th January 2009] Surveymonkey, Surveymonkey [online]. Available: http://www.surveymonkey.com/Default.aspx [accessed 17th January 2009] Pew Internet, 2006, Demographics of Internet Users [online]. Available: http://www.pewinternet.org/trends/User_Demo_1.11.07.htm [accessed 17th January 2009] Zenith, 2008, UK Smoothie Sales Top 300m [online]. Available: file:///E:/Business %20Management%20Foundation%20Year%200/Introduction%20to %20Marketing/ArticleDetail.aspx.htm [accessed 16th January 2009]