CASE 12-1
Essex Markets (B)
Essex Markets, a small chain of supermarkets, was
planning a study to evaluate their program of supplying unit price information on shelf tags. Among the
research questions were
What percentage of the shoppers used unit pricing
and with what frequency?
Assume that shoppers will be intercepted in checkout
lines. Write a series of questions that will allow you to
answer the research questions.
Source: Prepared by Bruce McElroy and David A.
Aaker as a basis for class discussion.
What percentage of the shoppers were aware that
unit pricing was being supplied?
CASE 12-2
Smith’s Clothing (A)
John Simpson, the head of Simpson Research, was
attempting to design a marketing research study that
would address the research questions posed by Jim
Andrews, the president of Smith’s Clothing, during
their morning meeting. The research questions seemed
rather well defined:
1.
2.
3.
Which women’s clothing stores compete with
Smith’s?
What is the image of Smith’s, and how does this
image compare with that of its competitors? In
other words, how is Smith’s positioned with
respect to its competitors?
Who is the Smith customer and how does she
differ from that of Smith’s competitors?
Although no final judgment had been made, Andrews
was leaning toward an in-home, self-administered
questionnaire. He was not certain, however, whether a
questionnaire could be developed that would be
responsive to the research questions. The population of
interest was operationally defined to be those women
whose family income exceeded the median income.
Simpson’s immediate task was to draft a questionnaire
and to develop a tentative sampling plan.
Smith’s was a six-store chain of women’s clothing
stores located in Bayview, a large, growing city in the
southwestern United States. The chain had provided fine
clothing for the upper class of Bayview for over 40 years.
Twenty years previously, Smith’s had opened its first suburban store. Having closed its downtown store 10 years
ago, it now had five suburban stores and one in a nearby
community of 60,000 people. Smith’s had avoided trendy
fashions over the years, in favor of classic, lasting designs.
During the last 10 years a set of five or six aggressive, highfashion retailers had expanded into or within Bayview.
Thus, despite the fact that the market for fine women’s
clothes had expanded enormously during the past decade,
the competition had grown much more intense.
Andrews was justifiably concerned about the performance of his stores. Profits at five of the six stores
had fallen during each of the past four years. The sixth
store had been opened only 18 months before and had
not achieved its target growth rate. Although the
chain was still profitable, if the existing trend continued it would soon be losing money.
This performance had stimulated Andrews to
engage in serious reappraisal of the whole operation.
In particular, he was reviewing the chain’s rather conservative policy toward the product line, advertising,
store decor, and store personnel. He felt that it might
be time to consider stocking some trendy fashions and
attempting to increase the store’s appeal to women in
their teens and twenties. A working hypothesis was
that Smith’s had a higher appeal relative to other
stores to women over 40 and was less attractive to
younger women. He realized that any such move was
risky in that it would jeopardize the existing customer
franchise without any guarantee that new customers
would compensate. Before making any such move he
felt that it was critical to learn exactly how Smith’s
was now positioned. He also felt that he needed a
much more reliable fix on the current Smith customers
in terms of their age, the stores in which they shop,
their preferences, and their purchase profile. With
such information he would be in a much better position to identify alternatives and evaluate them.
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Assignment
Develop a research design including:
1. The type of survey to be employed
2. A questionnaire
CASE 12-3
Compact Lemon
Ben Johnson, a marketing research staff member, has
been asked to provide a quantitative estimate of the
demand for a new product concept, tentatively called
Compact Lemon. The concept involves a powerful spray
cleaner with a lemon scent to be used to clean trash
compactors. The product will involve a heavy-duty
cleaner that will clean more easily than current competitors, which are not in a spray form, and that will
provide the added benefit of a deodorizer.
Johnson has a research proposal for a telephone
survey—a national random sample of 600 homeowners
screened to be owners of compactors would be phoned
via a WATS line. Johnson wonders (1) whether the proposed questionnaire will deliver the necessary information and (2) what improvements could be made.
Proposed Questionnaire for Telephone Survey
1.
2.
3.
4.
Do you own a compactor?
How often do you use your compactor?
Is it satisfactory?
Any problems?
CASE 12-4
Wave Mp3 Player
Wave mp3 player, a leading Chinese brand has plans
to enter in to the U.S. market. Currently, they have been
marketing their products by focusing on their low price
and utility value of the players. They wish to break
away from this mold and concentrate on branding, and
5. Have you noticed any odor problems? (Skip if covered in question 4.)
Our client is considering a new product. The concept involves a powerful lemon-scented cleaner in a
convenient spray container to be used to clean trash
compactors. This heavy-duty cleaner will clean more
easily because it is in spray form, and it will provide
the added benefit of a deodorizer.
6. Which of the following would describe your likelihood to buy the product?
Would buy it
Would very likely buy it
Would not very likely buy it
Would not buy it
7. What is your reaction to this idea? (Probe—any
other reactions?)
8. How often do you use deodorizers in the home?
9. How many people are living in your home?
10. What is your age?
11. Do you have children under eight years old?
12. Which are you?
a. Home owner?
b. Home renter?
c. Apartment renter?
promoting the player as a fashion accessory. They
intend to conduct a segmentation study involving a
sample of 2,500 respondents across the United States
to know about the consumer preferences. They have
decided to administer the survey using the mall-intercept
technique. They are keen to know about the perception
of other leading brands in the United States, the user
profile and usage characteristics.
Assignment
1.
2.
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Can you think of some questions that can be included in a survey of this nature?
What are the issues with this type of international survey research?