Marketing Information And Research

Marketing Information And Research Nestle Ghana limited is a fast moving consumer goods producer which started business in Ghana in the year 1957 as a Nestle product (Ghana) .The Company was then solely importing Nestle products such as milk, chocolate etc. Until 1986 when it was incorporated as food specialties (Ghana) limited producers and marketers of the locally well known Nestle brands. The company name change to Nestle Ghana limited in 1987. Nestle Ghana limited operations has created positive impact on the economy through their corporate Social responsibility activities relating to countries economy. Nestle Ghana effect on the Ghanaian society has led to the recognition of the government. Nestle has commitment to business principles which take into consideration the laws of the community in which they operate. Nestle recruit appropriate people and they are given training on how to work with them. Training is valuable at nestle because of it awareness that business success is effectiveness and the efficiency of it management and workers. 1.2 MISSION Nestle is producing healthy and nutritious food beverages to the people in the country. Through research, they are able to know the right ingredients to be used in the production. They also educate the public on health issues and how important it is to them. 1.3 VISSION Nestle wants to be the number one producer when it comes to food beverages and baby foods not only in Ghana but worldwide by delighting all customers with superior and new products. 1.4 PRODUCTS Nestle Ghana manufactures and markets well known brands such as Ideal full cream evaporated milk Ideal low cholesterol milk carnation filled milk carnation tea creamer milk Milo chocomilo ceralac Nestle also imports and distribute brands such as Nido powered milk -Lactogen infant formula Non infant formula Maggi Bouillons 1.5 COMPETITORS Nestle Ghana competitors with competitors Cadbury Promasidor PZ limited Friesland foods Vega foods 1.6 POSITION IN THE INDUSTRY Nestle is the leading producer of food beverages and baby foods in the Ghanaian market with a corporate image. 1.7 Our Customer Base The companys customers range from corporate customers and the general Ghanaian publics. Our corporate customers range from retail and wholesalers food beverage shops, restaurants, hotels etc. 2.0 Research Rationale: Nestlà © has over the years been able to maintain it position in the dairy industry by using its company to communicate and receive information from its target customers. The company will like to develop a new website due to changes in their business and to respond to the complaints of its customers, but before this is done the company will like to do research on the existing website to determine how profitable it has been and to know whether it was able to achieve its objectives. This is why Caesar Research institute has decided to do research in relation to the objectives quoted in the research brief to gather reliable information that will guide the company in developing their new website. 3.0 Research Objectives The research which we are to conduct is to achieve the underlisted objectives that have been quoted in the research brief. This is to help the company to know the profitability of the previous website and also to identify whether there was anything about the website that customers did not like about the site, in order to guide us in developing a new company website that will meet expectations the users of the site. In order to understand the quoted research objectives better, each objective have been broken down into more detail as follows; 1. To examine the attitudes of a range of current users towards the existing website What are the purposes upon which they browse Nestlà ©s current website? Do they use the website for any other purpose? Do they spend time to read information provided on the website? How often do they visit the website? Do they compare our website to that of our competitors? How do they rate our website in comparison with that of competitors? Addressing the objective this way can produce useful data as to the attitude towards the companys website 2. To determine how current users navigate through the existing website How are they able to navigate for information? How often do they use the search engine on the website? And do they get the information they want? Do they use the hyperlinks that link them to other pages? And do the hyperlinks direct them to the right destinations? Addressing the objective this way will help HFC to know how the users of companys website navigate through the existing website. 3. To compare perceptions of the organisations website relative to the websites of its competitors What do users think about the quality of Nestlà ©s website to that of competitors? Do they find Nestlà ©s website colourful than that of competitors? How resourceful do they find Nestlà ©s website in comparison with that of competitors? How easily are they able to navigate through the current website in comparison with that of Nestlà ©s competitors? What do they find interesting about competitors website that cannot be found on Nestlà ©s website? How do they rate Nestlà ©s website and that of Nestlà ©s competitors? 4. To identify the potentials for enhanced features on the website Is the website user friendly? How do they find Nestlà ©s new homepage? How fast or slow does it open when they click? How do they see Nestlà ©s new E-commerce shopping cart provided on the website? How helpful do they find Nestlà ©s new auto response help feature? How do they see Nestlà ©s new 247 chart support feature? How do they see Nestlà ©s new Flip catalogue/interactive e-catalogue? 5. To assist in the selection of the overall design or the website What do they think are the gaps in our existing website? What pictures do they wish to see in the new website to be developed? Do they wish to see animated images or still pictures? What is the reason for the choice? What feature on the website will they suggest to be improved upon? Any suggestion to what feature to be repositioned on the website? And why? 4.0Research Methodologies: In carrying out our research, we will make use both secondary and primary research methodologies to collect data that will guide us in the development o the new company website. 4.1.1Secondary/ Desk Research: Secondary research is defined as ‘information compiled inside or outside the organisation for some purpose other than the current investigation (Dibb et al 2001). However, this type tends to have been collected for other purposes other than for the current research objectives at hand. Purpose: In conducting the research, we will start with secondary research in order to know what information is available to us before we carry out primary research. This is to make use of the already stored data in the company database. This will give us insights of how and what to investigate further. Because the data already exist it saves time and money and also serves as a guide for primary research. However, this type tends to have been collected for other purposes other than for the problem or objective at hand. For this reason we will carefully examine the data in order to choose the relevant one. In order to collect relevant and concrete data for the research, we will set a criteria to guide us in screening the secondary data. The following questions will help us to do the screening: How relevant, accurate, and valid is the data? How current and reliable is the information? What is the cost involved in acquiring the information? How long does it take to quire the information? What was the purpose for which the data was collected? Is the data collected bias? Procedure: We will conduct a comprehensive research on both internal and external data sources pertaining to the website of Nestlà © for the purpose of this project. Having done that, we will give an interim report base on the research findings 4.1.2Internal Secondary Data: Internal secondary data is ‘data that have already been generated and/or collected by a business during its normal course of activity (www.esomar.org/../glossary-i.html). The internal secondary data of Nestlà © are the data that have already been collected and exist inside the company database which references could be made whenever the need arises. We will need to be provided with some data from the database to help us in the research. We will need data like; Data collected on complaints about the current website Data collected on the number of views by browsers per day We will need to be provided with ‘FAQ about the site We will need to be provided with previous expenditure made on web designs The reason for this is to have some facts pertaining to the existing website of the company to guide us in our research. 4.1.3External Secondary Data: The external secondary data are the ‘existing data that have already been collected by other organizations. (www.esomar.org/index.php/glossary-e.html). Data from outside Nestle which has been collected by individuals, or agencies for other purposes pertaining to Nestle will be referred to for information for the sake of this research. 4.1.4Justifications of Secondary Research The information already exist in one form or another, therefore it is relatively cheap It can be conducted quite quickly to provide marketing information where primary data is not yet available or not sufficient Secondary research can serve as a guide for primary research Although secondary research is important, it is not as accurate, or as useful, as specific and customized as primary research. 4.2Primary Research Primary research is defined (also called field research) involves the collection of data that does not already exist (wikipedia.org). We will conduct primary research to collect data specifically to help us achieve the set objectives in the project brief. There is the need to conduct a primary research for this project because; The secondary data collected might not reflect the research objectives at hand The data may be bias depending on who collected it In other to have a reliable and relevant data that corresponds with the current research objectives at hand, we will conduct a primary research. For this research we will address both qualitative and quantitative primary research methods to gather information. 4.2.1Qualitative Research Qualitative research is a body of research techniques which seeks insights through loosely structured, mainly verbal data rather than measurements (MRS, 2007). The qualitative research is extremely useful due to the research objectives at hand. We will start with exploratory research by using focus group discussion to tap data from browsers to guide us in developing a new website. Purpose: The purpose of the qualitative research is to help us gather in-depth information. We will undertake the research by taking a sample size of browsers of our existing website since we can not generalize to the whole population of browsers of the website. The respondents recruited will meet to discuss the following objectives as quoted in the research brief; To examine the attitudes of a range of current users towards the existing website To determine how current users navigate through the existing website To compare perceptions of the organisations website relative to the websites of its competitors To identify the potentials for enhanced features on the website To assist in the selection of the overall design or the website METHODOLOGY Focus group discussions A focus group is a form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, beliefs, opinions, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea or packaging, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/focus_group). By using this method, we will use a moderator who will preside over the group discussions and will ask questions to seek their opinions, ideas or perceptions concerning the website of Nestlà © Ghana as stated in the project brief. The moderator will do this in an interactive group setting where group members discus the research topic freely among themselves. We will use focus group discussions because, It will help us to acquire live feedback through direct interactions with participants. It will generate quick results from a group of people It provides in-depth information to the research and provides rich data in participants own words Sampling We will use a quota sample approach to recruit participants from the lots of browsers that visit the current website. In doing this we will create criteria that will aid us to select participants and we will abide or adhere to the 1998 Data Protection Act and the MRS Code of conducts. Focus Group Browsers Groups Number of Participants Category Group 1 8 Working staff Group 2 10 Customers (users of the website) Recruitment of group participants: We will set criteria with which browsers of the site will be selected as participants of the focus group discussions. Participants will be selected by screening with short questionnaires through emails. We will do this by taking the email addresses of browsers of the website that have been stored in Nestlà ©s database made possible by their invisible web tracker code on the existing website. The selected participants will then be sent e-mail invitations in two weeks advance of the focus group discussions. The participants who meet the criteria (quota) for selection will be promised incentives. Participants from working staff will be given products from the company and cash incentive of  £50 and participants from customers who browse the website will be given the same products from the company and cash incentive of  £50. Procedure Two focus groups will be undertaken, the first group will be a group for working staff of the company, and the second customers who browse the companys website. Eighteen respondents will be recruited, of which group one consisting of working staff will be made up of eight participants, and the second group consists of customers that browse the companys website with a sample size of ten. An interviewer will be used who will preside over the group discussions, and will be well briefed with the research objectives so that what ever question he/she will ask will be centered around the project brief. All group discussions will be completed in two days. The discussions will take place at the conference center at Golden Tulip, adjacent the company on the airport street. The location will make it convenient for participants to commute and flexible for staff who are taking part in the research. Caesar Research Agency will alert participants that they are recording participants for further study of the focus group discussions by the marketing team of Nestlà ©. The session will be observed by four members of Nestlà ©s marketing team behind one-way mirror, and will be provided with concealed microphones to enable the observers to hear the discussions. The discussion guide that will be use will follow the following sequence; PHASE ONE The Introduction Phase- 30 minutes PHASE TWO The Discussion Phase 1hour a. Discussion Phase 1- (30 minutes) To examine the attitudes of a range of current users towards the existing website To determine how current users navigate through the existing website To compare perceptions of the organisations website relative to the websites of its competitors To identify the potentials for enhanced features on the website To assist in the selection of the overall design or the website b. Discussion Phase 2- (30 minutes) Projective Techniques to adopt Word Association Test and Brand Mapping PHASE THREE Summary Phase 30 minutes Recap of key points Delivery of incentives Acknowledgements Data Analysis After collecting all the data which takes the form of video, and text, it will be edited and stored on CDs to be analyzed by the marketing team of Nestlà © in order to aid them in creating of the their website. Data from transcripts will be simplified, data in graph, charts form will be followed with notes for better understanding. 4.2.2Quantitative Research: Quantitative research is a ‘research that is undertaken using a structured research approach with a sample of the population to produce quantifiable insights into behaviour motivations and attitutes (Wilson, 2006). Here we will base our research on quantifiable models, theories and hypothesis. The research will cover a wide range of users of the companys website to examine the attitudes of a range of current users towards the existing website, to determine how current users navigate through the existing website, to compare perceptions of the organisations website relative to the websites of its competitors, and to identify the potentials for enhanced features on the website. We will use Face-to-face interviews and E-mail Survey to tap data to enable us meet the research objectives. Methodology Part 1 Face-to-face Interviews: We will use face-to-face interviews due to the nature of the research objectives we wish to achieve. Despite possible interviewer bias, it can improve the quality and rate of responses. The face-to-face will enable us to meet directly with participants to tap information from them. The face-to-face interview will be advantageous in the following ways; it will ensure full and accurate data to be collected it is quick and easy to collect data the personal feeling attached to it will encourage high response from respondents It enable the interviewer to pick up nonverbal cues from respondents PROCEDURE The interview will take place at the Aseda Nestlà © Depot. The reason for this location is that, most of the people who come to purchase at the depot are mainly retailers and wholesalers, and they normally make use of our site from time to time to seek information before coming over to purchase. The interviewers will meet customers on the compound of the Aseda Nestlà © Depot to interview them in order to tap information from them concerning the research brief at hand. We will make use of three interviewers who will be trained to be prepared to handle a wide variety of potential questions and responses from the customers. Interviewers will warmly welcome the customers and ask them to spare him/her two minutes of their time to answer some few questions to help the research agency to conduct a research. The questions that will be asked will take the form of the under listed questions: How often do you visit our website? For what purpose do you use the site? Do you spend time to read information provided on the website? How often do you use the search engine on the website? How often do you use our online chat feature provided on the website What do you think about the quality of our website as compared to that of competitors? What can you find on competitors website that cannot be found on our website? What do you think are the gaps in our existing website? What images do you wish to see in the new website to be developed? Do they wish to see animated images or still pictures? What is the reason the choice? The interviewer will thank the customer for his or her time and contribution to the survey, and then give him or her some products from Nestlà ©, and then move on to interview another customer. Methodology Part 2 E-Mail Survey: E-mail survey is a research technique in which questionnaires are sent and returned by mail (www. Bnet.com). An e-mail survey will be conducted to reach a large number of people at different geographical locations. Here there will not be any strict criteria for selection of respondents. The population of interest will be customers who use the Nestlà © website, and our sample size will be 200 people. The use of the e-mail survey could be advantageous in the various ways; It is cost effective It is quick or less time consuming to conduct It reach number of respondents within a short period of time It yields rapid response Methodology A quota sample will be used where 200 participants will be selected from the population of interest (customers who use the Nestlà © website). Respondents will fall into these categories. Categories Sample size Customers 150 Working staff 50 We will refer to the database of Nestlà © to get e-mail addresses of some customers ie; hotels, restaurants, wholesale shops and retail shops. We will then send questionnaires to them through emails. We will send the mail to about 350 customers, so that we can get our sample size incase of low turn up. The questionnaire will cover the following objectives; To examine the attitudes of a range of current users towards the existing website To determine how current users navigate through the existing website To compare perceptions of the organisations website relative to the websites of its competitors To identify the potentials for enhanced features on the website To assist in the selection of the overall design or the website Participants will fill out the questionnaire by using check boxes and use the ‘reply feature on their mail software to return the completed form. To entice customers, we will assure them of a handsome package of Nestlà © products to the first 100 participants whose questionnaire will be received well answered. This is to generate a large number of responses from participants. 5.0Budget: PHASE DESCRIPTIVE COST ( £) Staff Moderators 20,000 Secondary research Purchase of relevant research paper 12,000 Qualitative research Focus group discussions 7,000 Quantitative research Face-to-face, and E-mail survey 6,000 Miscellaneous Expenses Transportation, refreshments, stationery purchase 5,000 TOTAL=50,000 6.0Reporting of Research Findings: Reports on findings and observations generated from the research will be prepared and submitted to the Marketing Department of Nestlà © Ghana. The report will include conclusions and observations of qualitative and quantitative research. A meeting between Caesar Research agency and Nestlà © Ghana Ltd will be held to review the previous report before the next stage of the research starts. A one hour oral presentation on analysis of the research data and recommendations on training areas will be presented. An electronic copy and hard copies of final reports which include detailed research findings and conclusion drawn from each stage of the research, tabulated results and fund allocation at each stage will be made recorded. 7.0Time: TASKS Weeks Project planning 1 Secondary research 2 Secondary reporting 3 Training of moderator for qualitative report 4 Recruitment of respondents 5 Qualitative Research 6 Qualitative report 7 Training of interviewers for quantitative report 8 Recruitment of respondents 9 Quantitative analysis 10 Quantitative report 11 Presentation 12 Final Report 13 8.0CV: Caesar Research agency is one of Ghanas fastest growing research agencies, using innovation research solutions to help clients develop and launch world beating products/services. We utilize the latest approaches to help our clients, and also we have extensive experience of implementing and managing quantitative and qualitative research projects within various industry sectors. Mr. Kwaku Barko is the Managing Director of Sky Research Agency. Mr. Kwaku Barko studied marketing in the University of Ghana and afterwards established his research company in the year 2002, and from then the company has enjoyed rapid growth to be among the top market leader in the industry. Caesar Research Agency has Mr. Jude Rockson as Deputy Managing Director, a top ranked marketer in Ghana. His duty is to oversee both the junior and senior staff of the company. His contributions have been of great help to the success of the company. We guarantee that all of our market research projects receive the close personal attention of a Senior Market Research Director and are undertaken according to the strict rules and standards of MRS code of conduct, the Data Protection Act of 1998 and the Esomar codes of conducts. If you are looking for advice or help with a market research project, please contact us through our online site Caesarresearchghana.com or phone us on +2330246059267. Task One (13 Sides of A4 sheets) TASK TWO (DISCUSSION GUIDE AND MODERATOR GUIDELINES) DISCUSSION GUIDE: A discussion guide is the guide prepared by a depth interviewer or focus group moderator to guide the topics under discussion (www.aqr.org.uk). The discussion guide will be prepared to help the moderator during the focus group discussions. We will use focus groups for the discussion. This is because, Focus groups allow the researcher to interact directly therefore, allows for the collection of rich data in participants own words They provide data from a group of people more quickly than interviewing people They are less expensive as compared to other methods A trained moderator will preside over the group discussion. Proceedings of the discussions will take the form of the followings; The introduction Phase The Discussion Phase The summary phase The Introduction Phase (30 minutes) The introduction phase for the discussion will be very brief and this will take about thirty minutes The moderator will welcome the participants to the group session, Introductions ; The moderator will briefly introduce him/herself. Any assistants to the group discussions will introduce themselves and explain their roles Participants will be asked to introduce themselves to the house The moderator will explain the purpose of the focus groups The time and rules for the discussions will be mentioned to participants Ethical clarifications; Participants will be informed