Qualitative Research on Kit Kat - Essay Example

?QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ON KIT KAT INTRODUCTION Success of business overall or an individual product is dependent on large number of factors with marketing aspect being one of them. In itself marketing is also a broad domain and requires adherence to every aspect in detail for the acceptance, success as well as exploring future prospects for the business. Prior to launch of new product as well as for existing ones firms also conduct market research on and off for gaining insight about current market status and standing of the product. This research is aimed at exploring customer perception of Kit Kat which is a renowned chocolate brand. The researcher aims to develop primary research and gain first hand information from the customers for the launch of Kit Kat chocolate slab. Hence, employed in this research are two techniques of primary research to update perception of Kit Kat among chocolate eaters. Findings of the primary data have been presented. In addition the researcher has discussed in detail the various aspects of the research techniques employed. Researcher has also shed light on other techniques (that have not been employed due to resource constraint) identifying aspects that could have been explored based on employment of other techniques. Research Method 1- PRIMARY RESEACH Among two broad categorization of research is primary and secondary research. Primary research refers to research methodology with analysis and fact finding from data that has been collected for the first time and has not been through application of any techniques before (Glass, 1976). Among many techniques designed for primary research, two that have employed in this research are individual interview and focus group interviews. Both techniques have been employed face to face. Interview method of data collection refers to oral and verbal response to oral and verbal queries. 1.1- FACE- TO- FACE INTERVIEWS Face to face or personal interview involves two people; one interviewee and the interviewer. In general format the interviewer begins interview with presenting questions to interviewee on one by one basis and collects respective responses. Usually structured questions are presented with employing high level of standardization. Pre-described and set methodology is used to avoid and control deviations that is generate with response. The other method of unstructured interview provides interviewee with freedom to response but increases deviations resulting difficulty in comparing responses (Sekaran, 2006). 1.1.1- EFFECTIVENESS Effectiveness of personal interviews is dependent on the level of contribution from both sides; i.e. interviewee and interviewer. Interviewer shall provide comfortable environment providing ease to interviewee to openly and comfortably present his/ her views. Moreover, interviewer possessing dominant attitude affect the effectiveness of overall methods. Interviewee is usually asked for prior consent and hence, shall be true in information provision. 1.2- FOCUS GROUP SESSION Focused group discussion is conducted to explore responses of individuals' to any existing products, concept or ideas. It is based with degree of formal discussion usually among group of 6 to 8 participants. Participants are directed by moderator towards point of discussion acting as a psycho-therapist. During discussion moderator avoids reflecting any of personal views and encourages participants to provide increased response. This format also is generally initiated by moderator; however, rigidness of the order of question is somewhat relaxed in this format. 1.2.1- EFFECTIVENESS Effective focused discussion can be achieved with moderator playing role in true spirit, avoiding taking side of either participants and encouraging entire group to participate almost equally. Moreover, participants must also maintain to present their view than dominating the group. Effectiveness of the focused discussion can also be achieved with carrying discussion in well defined flow: initially warming up participants with thoughts; exploring important discussion points; undertaking core discussion; summarizing important points by re-asserting confirmation from participants. 1.3- COMPARISON OF METHODS Since each method has its own merits and demerits; hence, both benefits research. For instance, personal interviews are beneficial as they provide complete opportunity to participant for providing his/ her very own point of view. This method is also beneficial to be employed in case the question understudy restrains people to speak in public. Moreover, for taking view from people those are shy in nature to participate in groups. On the other hand, focused group provides people to develop their final view after listening other views and provides more relevant answer in a flow or pattern. Hence, both cases are beneficial to generate information. However, methods also have some demerits as personal interview follows rigid set pattern of question and is totally driven by interviewer. Therefore, in case when interviewee wishes to change the response of any previous question gets difficult; though not impossible. In case of group interview any participant can dominate the discussion resulting participants backing-off to present their views despite efforts from moderator. In such cases, information achieved from the participants gets biased and loses effectiveness. Further, increased time taken for any point of discussion can reduce the amount of attention on other aspect as the sessions are to be concluded to on time (Strauss, and Corbin, 1990). This can result in less information available on one aspect while some aspects result in generating extensive information. Despite all these factors are to be managed by moderator but the fact remains that discussions have higher degree of deviation as compare to personal interviews. Last but not the least, are faulty memory; false information; inability to answer; misinterpretation or misunderstanding the purpose of research and hence providing dishonest or exaggerated responses are some problems that are common to both methods (Creswell, 2003). 1.4- REFLECTION OF RESEARCHER ROLE For the research, due to resource constraint, the researcher self played role of interviewer in the former method and role of moderator in the latter one. Researcher is not much experienced to conduct interview and moderate the session with perfection; hence, faced difficulty in tracking participants back to the relevant aspects in discussion group. 1.5- RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY Soundness of the information must be measured before conducting test. For the purpose, reliability and validity are measured. Former is a measurement of consistency in results while latter one is tool to measure the suitability of the technique applied to the research question. Validity reflects difference in techniques with more clarity. Reliable data may not be have validity whereas validity, if, correctly measured will result in reliability every time measured. RESEARCH FINDINGS The research aimed to explore expectations of participants for in case slab for the Kit Kat is launched. The research focused on 4p’s of the new Kit Kat slab. For the product aspects participants referred to acceptability of new flavors. For instance, focus group participants (FGP) and the first interviewee (male – 21) stated: “I would have Strawberry cheesecake or white chocolate” the orange one was amazing, but I really like chocolate orange”, “white chocolate, a bit of dark chocolate” I was thinking of that or even mixing blueberries or raspberries with dark chocolate or white chocolate”. But some idea received some resistance such as JD Kit Kat flavor “I could not think of anything worse than eating a chocolate tasting like a JD and coke” It also resisted chocolate to be some product that receives perception of being masculine and if so then must be have variants for both genders. Kit Kat was suggested to follow the similar finger shape making it easier to break but size that doesn’t fit in hand will not be preferred. Moreover, an innovative idea of presented from FGP was orange octagon shaped chocolate. Importance of the product size and design can also be maintained from fact that some participants associated animals with chocolate based on their size and product shape. For the packaging red of Kit Kat was suggested to maintain for being catchy. While change in color with flavor or change in variants offered were also among offered suggestions. Logo on packaging was suggested to be maintained considering level of familiarity mass people had developed with it. Moreover, presence of description was also stated to be important. Participants of both interviews asserted the price of newer product to be reasonable, stressfully not expensive as high priced chocolates are already present in the market with their premium flavor. Second interviewee referred “Obviously Price is going to be a factor”. And price difference of 10 or 20p from existing brands would not make any difference in buying while one FGP suggested price of 2.99 pounds. Also initial lower introductory price and then updating it was among dominant suggestions. Place aspect had difference in opinion. First interviewee referred to importance of cultural; weather and price impact dominant. First Interview held opinion: “In Algeria … depends on the price, cause chocolate there is very cheap … they are not going to pay that much, but we don't eat that much chocolate, cause we have our own little pastries basically”. While focused group participant had opinion that place doesn’t matter “Not really, chocolate is chocolate I would say “and second interviewee held that variants of different places catch attention and calls for trial. Moreover, price differences that happen to be due exchange difference were also considered acceptable. Finally the promotion component was stressed to be important as people associate and remember chocolate with what is presented in advert. First interviewee recalled an advert of chocolate in another country “and it's always the same woman who does the endorsements for them”. FGP associated Gorilla with Cadbury. “That's mainly cause of the advert I saw recently”. Hence, adverts also develop the perception and once perception is developed such as lion (Chocolate) for being masculine it will resist women market to be attracted. RECOMMENDATION Kit Kat Slab can be launched with some variations such some fruity such as strawberries or raspberries, white chocolate, Strawberry cheesecake etc. To note, all these flavors are established in sweet category. However, for novelty, some new flavor or variant for health conscious but chocolate lovers is expected to do wonder as people like chocolate but for being fattening it is consumed in limited amount. Packaging shall be mainly on some extreme sides of blues or pinks for dark colors are usually associated with slim looks and extra light colors perceived for light weight thing. Product to be endorsed by some style and health conscious icons such famous actor and actress both; hence, inviting both gender classes for healthy option. Price range suggestion participants are reasonable. OTHER METHODS Results derived with two techniques employed could also have been conducted with questionnaire and telephonic interviews. Telephonic interview are almost similar to personal interview and the only difference in the procedure is interviewee and interviewer are not present face to face. For the question understudy, this factor would not have any impact on efficiency, in fact could have saved time resource to the particular extend. Personnel interview conducted face to face get more importance when case understudy is sensitive in nature and requires deriving information from the posture of interviewee (Saunders, Thornhill, and Lewis, 2009). The other method that could have been employed to collect information is questionnaire. Questionnaire format share similarity in case that it follows the structured and set pattern of question presentation. This format provides interviewee to respondents to answer question with their own priority and giving due time to each question for clear interpretation. This case allows to generating more participants /respondents as it do not mandate interviewee and interviewer to be present at same place as well as same time. Further, large number of responses can be generated with most appropriate ones can selected to get more accurate results in contrast to personal interview where results are to be generated from responses of limited number of participants. However, since interviewer is not present while the participants are filing form hence, there are greater chances of incorrect responses (due to misunderstanding of questions) etc (Jankowicz, 2005). Nevertheless, as the techniques employed had some merits and demerits; similarly stated methods also have some goods and bads to offer. However, it provides opportunity for further research with applying these and other techniques to verify the results of this research; asserting reliability of the study. CONCLUSION Market research is the pre-requisite for the product launch. This research drafts the primary research for launching the Kit Kat slab. Primary research has been conducted for the purpose using focus group interviews and personal interview. Drafting the details of techniques applied; the report details the findings related to 4p’s of marketing. References Creswell, J. W. (2003). Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. California: Sage Publications, Inc., Thousand Oak. Glass, G. (1976). ‘Primary, Secondary, and Meta Analysis of Research.’ Educational Researcher, vol. 5, no. 10, pp. 3-8. Jankowicz, A. (2005). Business Research Projects. London: Thomson Learning. Maylor, H., and Blackman, K. (2005). Research Business & Management. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. Saunders, M., Thornhill, A., and Lewis, P. (2009). Research Method for Business Students. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall. Sekaran, U. (2006). Research Methods for Business. NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research, grounded theory procedures and techniques. London: Sage Publications. Read More