Marketing Issues of Pillsbury Cookie Challenge, Ad-Lider Embalagens, and New Coke - Case Study Example

Market Research Name Course Lecture Date Case 2: Pillsbury Cookie Challenge GMCC sells refrigerated baked goods and their success in the USA market has compelled them to try their luck in other countries and thus their focus in the Canadian market. Despite these, their venture into the Canadian market was not as successful as in the USA. The challenge is that the cookies are not doing well in Canada. Despite being the most profitable product under the RBG category, the growth of the product has been stagnant at 1% and the market penetration at 24%. Based on these, Guillen seems to be concerned and aims of improvement the performance of the cookies in the market by increasing the household penetration and increasing the frequency of the purchase. Thus, the use of both quantitative and qualitative techniques in seeking ways of solving the challenge the company is facing under the cookie market segment (Mauro 2011). Based on the analysis of the case study, I firmly believe that the information obtained through the use of qualitative techniques in the second phase of the research is not enough to support the strategic decisions that Guillen needs to improve their performance in the cookie category. Thus, the urgent need to make use of both the quantitative techniques used in the first phase of the research and qualitative techniques applied in the second phase. By doing so, Guillen will come up with a more informed and adequate solution to solve the challenge. In the second phase, Guillen makes use of In-Home immersion and Discovery workshops. Through the utilization of these techniques, they would be able to gain a better and clear understanding of the consumer beliefs, perceptions and feelings towards their products that are the Pillsbury RBG cookies (Mauro 2011). The In-Home Immersion offered them with adequate information for decision making; the researchers were able to move into the world of the consumers. When in this setting, they were able to see a real life and dynamic view of the consumer and brand relationship, aspects that surround it, the environment where the relationship unfolds as well as the wider picture influences that are clearly depicted when the cookies are being baked. This offered them with first-hand information on the consumers of the products (Mauro 2011). This is beneficial in that, it will aid a lot in making a decision since the information obtained was not tampered with in any way. Through the use of discovery workshop, the company and participants were able to share thoughts and experiences, explore issues in a creative manner and detect new avenues of opportunity that the company can exploit to tackle the challenge that they are facing. Additionally, the discovery workshops were designed in an efficient manner and coupled with other techniques such as role playing and customer experience mapping, these methods played a crucial role in that, they helped the consumers in expressing their innermost feeling and onlookers such as Guillen and Pasato were able to view the behaviour and relationship of the consumers towards Pillsbury brand. By making use of both the qualitative and quantitative techniques, Guillen is able to come up with a more precise decision on how to solve the challenges facing the cookie section. This is so because; by the use of both techniques, the drawbacks of one technique will be solved by the other. For instance, by making use of the quantitative research, Guillen will be able to acknowledge the fact that the family structure and demographics in both Canada and United States are similar and also appreciate new learning derived from the research. For instance, a good percentage of people in Canada prefer baking from scratch as compared to the US where the most popular baking method is the use of refrigerated dough (Mauro 2011). This offer useful insights since prior to the research it was believed that Canadians were more used to making use of refrigerated dough, and this seems to be the wrong perception of the consumers. By use of new information and the results of the qualitative research, Guillen can make adjustments to their marketing strategy in Canada so as to drive sales in the country to higher levels. At the same time, while making adverts they need to include children in their adverts since a new learning is that kids play a bigger and essential role in driving purchases in the Canadian market. Also, they could also target the young mothers who are working and busy thus offering a great level of convenience to them and at the same time, since the refrigerated cookie dough are common in homes that have kids and thus by noting this, adverts needs to be more focused to these groups of consumers (Mauro 2011). The dough offers some levels of convenience to the mothers and at the same time, they can personalise the cookies to some extent making baking fun and a homemade experience since even kids are involved. Case 3: Ad-lider Embalagens The primary objective of the research conducted was to obtain qualitative information, and the techniques that have been used are surveys, focus groups and interviews. All these provided all the information that was required on consumer's preferences when it comes to garbage collection bags. To a great extent, the method adopted by Ad-Lider seems to have some advantages as well as disadvantages. Most research questions were open-ended, and thus the researchers had a greater possibility of getting the detailed information. Additionally, through the application of interviews, they were able to get genuine information from the interviewees and thus the results were not likely to be biased for instance, consumers were able to express themselves and talk about the different experiences with different kinds of garbage bags and what they thought about them at time of packaging, pricing and durability (Gertner, Guthery & Ettenson 2009). With the test marketing approach that Ad-Lider applied, they were able to get feedback and responses from customers in regard to new products and through this kind of information; modifications can be done to the final product. For example, they were able to get information about the straps in plastic bags. The consumers also complained that, though some bags had the straps, they could break easily. There are also some major drawbacks in the design and implementation of the marketing research. One of the drawbacks is that, there was difficulty in the generalization of results and result would be subjective. It can also be noted that, the market research was very complicated and very expensive to carry out. Thus in conclusion the design as well as the implementation of the marketing research was done in an efficient manner thus offering adequate and accurate information that can be applied in the development of new products for the target customers in the specified markets. Although it took time and it was expensive. Based on the above evaluation, I would recommend the launch of the Climp Fecha Facil bag. From the findings derived from the research conducted, the company can launch the product garbage bag to their intended customers. They need to launch the bag as the ideal garbage bag, and they need to stress out the following aspects; resilient, easy to close and green coloured and not opaque. By doing so, they will make the garbage bag to stand out from the rest of the trash bags on the market. In regard to the packaging of the trash bags, I would recommend that they use both plastic packaging and box packaging (Gertner, Guthery & Ettenson 2009). By doing so, they will be targeting the group of customers who prefer plastic packaging and those that prefer box packaging. Additionally, in the launch of the product, they can come up with monthly packages since most respondents who participated in the research were more accustomed to monthly packages. The garbage bags can also be launched in the already use sizes that customers are accustomed to that is in 30, 50 and 100L. This will provide a wide variety of bags to choose from based on the household need and amount of garbage that they are likely to dispose. Climp Fecha Facil need to be premium priced since people seemed to be willing to pay a higher price and they can attribute their price on the new closing mechanism, the strength as well as the colour of the bags. Another aspect that would support my launch of the bags is the use of the already existing distribution channel. A great number of people who participated in the research were found to make their purchases from door to door salesmen and from mass merchandisers. Ad-Liner can make use of the two channels parts from the supermarket stores. By the use of the door to door salesmen, they will be able to get a quick breakthrough in the garbage bag market and to make the product readily available to the users. Am also in support of the launch since end users who participated in the researcher were not happy with the performance of the products that were already on the market, and they depicted some unresolved issues with the products. The research also represents a considerable level of willingness from the users to accept a new product provided that it illustrated the capability of overcoming the issues with the already existing products. The other aspect in my support for the launch is that the users who participated in the researched showed low levels or no brand loyalty and thus is the new product offered added benefits, the users were more likely to shift to the new product in the market (Gertner, Guthery & Ettenson 2009). For instance, the new product seems to have more strength, and it is also easy to close. This aspects act for the benefit of the new product since the already existing products do not have these aspects thus, by launching Climp Fecha Facil, they will be addressing the issue of closing a garbage bag. This would be an important differentiating factor that can act as an advantage to the Ad-Liner against their competitors in the market. Case 4: Introducing New Coke After Gouzueta became the CEO of Coke, he had the obsession of increasing the market share of Coke since he termed it a neccessity for coca-cola. Resultantly, he sold out coco-cola non-performing businesses such as the tea, coffee, industrial water treatment and aquaculture. In mid 80's they made a decision to introduce a new beverage since they faced stiff competition from Pepsi and Pepsi was gaining a greater market share in areas they initially dominated. The company had evidence that Pepsi was the reason for their decline in their market shares that they had dominated in the 1970s and 1980s and thus, they developed the new product and dubbed it the new coke (Fournier 2001). When it was tasted, it was sweeter than the original coke that the company had relied on for a long period. In regard to market research, the company conducted 200,000 blind product taste tests in the United States alone and the number of people who favoured the new Coke over Pepsi, and the original Coke was more than half. The management, therefore, made the decision to introduce the new coke and do away with the original formula. This turned out to be the worst mistake they had done in the company lifetime. After some time, the company had no option but to introduce the old formula and marketed the two products simultaneously. Ultimately, they had no alternative but to withdraw the new coke since the sales had decreased and the consumer had not gotten over the change as they had expected. A primary flaw can be detected from the marketing research that was undertaken. Coca-cola assumed that taste was the only deciding factor when it comes to consumer behaviour. The results of the implementation of the research proved them wrong. During the study, the consumers of the original formula ought to have been informed that only one product would be marketed (Fournier 2001). Thus, they should have been asked if they were willing to give up the original coke formula for the new coke. By not asking this question, the company made a great mistake since it is clearly evident that, when choosing between the new coke and original formula, a great number of the people preferred the original formula over the new coke and the consumer had the perception that the two products would be marketed simultaneously. Another flaw of the research was that, it failed significantly when it came to realising the emotional involvement and symbolic value that people had with the original Coke formula and especially the old (Gobe 2001). The bottom line of this concept is that, the most relevant variables that could have had a great influence on the problem solution were eliminated from the research. This great attachment to the original coke is demonstrated by the old who went out and bought a considerable number of the original Coke after it was announced that the product was to be replaced by the new coke. Some even said that they would eventually stop taking coke if the original formula was not reintroduced in the market. The attempt to reformulate Coke is a good example of how customer awareness of the reactions of the other customers plays a crucial role in the failure or success of an altered or new product. The case study shows the need of explicit investigation of the effect of social interaction in concept testing research. Coca-cola seemed to have focused more on the product and eventually ignored the brand and neglected the emotional value that the American public had on Coke (Gobe 2001). Coco-cola also asked the wrong questions in the research and, therefore, irrelevant information was obtained, and thus the wrong decision was made. The research also misguided coca-cola since, rather than introducing a new product to replace the old product, they should have engaged in promotional strategies such as coupons, bundling offers, free giveaways and special packaging since there were no problems related to the product or the brand (Fournier 2001). In regard to these, coco-cola ought to have worked on their opportunities to their advantage as opposed to their competitors. Since it is clear that, a significant number of the coke consumers had considerable levels of emotional consumer attachment to the coke, campaigns ought to have been launched to remind the users of their emotional attachment rather than introducing an entirely new product. Another flaw was that they failed to carry out a brand research in collaboration with the marketing research so as to get insights of what people perceive the brand as. It would be essential to emphasise more on a product since it should be fitted to the liking of the consumer, and equal focus should be placed on brand management. Based on the information obtained, marketing campaigns need to be launched to motivate the users and, therefore, decide the fate of the product. Coco-cola need to have gone beyond market research of conducting the research and this ought to be done carefully since mistakes such as withholding certain kinds of information can lead to misleading results and decisions as in the case of coco-cola (Fournier 2001). Companies need to learn from coca-cola and avoid making similar mistakes in the future. References Fournier, S 2001, Introducing New Coke, Harvard business school Publishing, Boston. Gertner, R, Guthery, D & Ettenson, R 2009, Ad-Lider Embalagens, SA: Marketing Research for Drawstring Trash Bags in Brazil, Thunderbird school of Global Management, United States. Gobe, M 2001, Emotional branding, Allworth Press, New York. Mauro, N 2011, Pillsbury Cookie Challenge, Ivey Publishing, London. Read More