Kellogg Case Study Essay

Qualitative explore establishes a conversation with consumers. It prompts consumer reaction to, for example, a rude(a) reaping conceit and helps researchers understand what they think of it, how it makes them feel, why they find it interesting or not. Qualitative research may be obtained through focus groups, where amoderator captures feedback from a group of six or sevenconsumers to the bases shown to them. Those ideas may takethe conformityat of drawings or having natural viands prototypes to taste. Quantitative research may use questionnaires administered to spacious numbers of respondents. This allows statistical analysis, such as the calculation of a mean score or percentages. It aims to part a representative picture of what consumers think of a new-fashioned harvest-tide idea or a new (real) pabulum. It may involve the use of scales, so numbers get associated with a particular gist forexample, on a evaluation scale of 1 to 7, where 1 means very poor and 7 mea ns excellent. Crucially those numbers need to be interpreted to enable the business to understand theconsumers overall response.In addition, Kelloggs used supplementary research which is existing research that has already been collected by other organisations. Sources of secondary data include books, journals, the internet and government statistics. Market research agencies collect a range of data which they process and use to provide organisations like Kelloggs with research. The benefits of secondary research are that it is quicker and often less expensive than primary, although it may not always be firely related to the needs of a specific project. Information gathering discovery to selectionFor Kelloggs, the dictate in which the information is gathered is as important as the type of information being gathered. In order to develop the new Crunchy screwball Bites, Kelloggs undertook four distinct microscope stages of research.Stage 1 breakthroughInitial research aimed to ide ntify a set of new food ideas that would besuitable for evolution a new Crunchy grump ingathering.Secondary research from Mintel and Datamonitor was used tofind out about renewing trends in the cereal market. It was also used to find out about new harvest-times, flavours and foods from around the world. feed developers at Kelloggs used thisinformation to come up with a number of new food ideas.Focus groups were used to provide qualitative research. These were used to show consumers the new food ideas in the form of a number of different (real) food prototypes, including a mini crispy lattice product and a nutty triangle. The focus groups captured the attitudes and feelings of consumers towards the new foods. This primary research helped Kelloggs to find out how new product suggestions could be developed and still fit in with the Crunchy Nut brand. It helped Kelloggs to establish what consumers were looking for in terms of potential new flavours and textures.The results allowed Kelloggs to discard some ideas. Other ideas were appealing for consumers but call for fine-tune and further information. At the end of this stage, Kelloggs had a number of new food ideas that all seemed to appeal to consumers.Stage 2 Selecting the opera hat ideaThis stage aimed to select the trump out idea arising from the stage 1 research. Kelloggs put the ideas from the focus group on boards. The boards had pictures showing product ideas and a exposition of what the new product would be like. These boards were then shown to a large group of representative consumers in aquantitative trace. They were asked to rate those ideas against a number of scales, so Kelloggs could identify which product ideas consumers liked best or disliked.The quantitative data created specific statistical information that indicated that a new Crunchy Nut Bites idea was perceived as the most appealing amongst all the ideas tested. It established what proportion of people liked the new product idea e nough to buy it. It also identified those product ideas that had the best or least(prenominal) sales potential.Information gathering development to launchStage 3 Crafting the idea into a complete new productOnce the best idea had been selected from stage 2, Kelloggs needed to make this idea become a real product. The CrunchyNut Bites food prototype recipe was refined using the feedback from another(prenominal) qualitative and quantitative survey.The qualitative research helped Kelloggs food technologists to explore the taste and texture of the new food idea in more than detail. Kelloggs needed to understand the eating experience of the consumer to begin with a decision could be made about how to develop the recipe in more detail. undermentioned this stage, four product recipes were developed and these prototypes were then tested with representative groups of consumers in a quantitative survey tosee which product consumers preferred. This enabled Kelloggs to select the best one.A lso, at this stage, the pack design for the new Crunchy Nut Bites was developed. Several designs were developed aimed at giving the new product the same look and feel as the rest of theCrunchy Nut family. The packaging designs were tested withconsumers, which enabled Kelloggs to select the final packaging design for Crunchy Nut BitesStage 4 Forecasting sales for the new Crunchy Nut BitesAt Kelloggs, every product has to abide one final test prior to a new product launch. This is called the In Home customs duty Test. The consumers are given the product to try for several days and this enables Kelloggs to capture how consumers move with the product for the graduation exercise time. At the end of the trial, consumers complete a report on what they thought of the food in the form of a questionnaire. This final survey measures how appealing the new product is to consumers and how likely they would be to buy it in real life.The data collected also helped to calculate a sales foretast e for the new product for the first and second year in market. The forecast was used by the finance department to set budgets, organise the supply chain and to schedule food production. Once the datawas analysed and the product concept tested, Kelloggs was able to make the strategic decision to go ahead with the new product. action could then take place.ConclusionKelloggs used market research throughout the solely development process for a new product for the Crunchy Nut range, from the initial idea to the planning of production and delivery. During the precedent stages of research, consumer responses helped Kelloggs to explore lots of different ideas in an open way. It then crafted some ideas in more detail and screened those ideas with consumers to select the one which seemed to have the highest appeal.The idea became real by testing several recipes, refining the food prototype selected and developing the design for packaging.Once the food and packaging elements for the new pro duct had been developed, the whole product was tested with consumers to ensure it met their needs. The data also provided a sales forecast to predict the first two years of sales of Crunchy Nut Bites. Crunchy Nut Bites has extended the Crunchy Nut family of products. In doing so it has brought new consumers to the brand andincreased its consumption. Kelloggs launched Crunchy Nut Bites in September 2008. Sales data shows it was one of the bestperforming brands to launch in the breakfast cereal category with a sales value of 6.9 meg in its first full year of sales.* This illustrates that the detailed market research undertaken during the planning stages was valuable. It helped to ensure that the product extension hit the spot with consumers straight away.