Performance of DuPont Company - Essay Example

Report Proposal DuPont is a science company that delivers science-based solutions in food and nutrition, health care, and apparel; as well as home and construction, electronics, and transportation. The company was founded in 1802 and operates in more than 70 countries as of 2003. DuPont's core values for more than 200 years have remained constant: commitment to safety, health, and the environment; integrity and high ethical standards; and treating people with fairness and respect. Because of the recent technology, competitors of DuPont are now adopting advance features to promote their product. DuPont was not able to adopt right away but because of the need to make steps to cope up with the competition, DuPont introduces the new stainmaster carpets and it become one of the most popular commercial in television. For most of its history, the residential segment had been the most laid back segment of the carpet market. Styles tended to be simple, colors passive, and features uniform across all competitors in the industry. Technically, industry players maintained that differences did indeed exist, but in the words of one industry analyst, "The differences were there in style and fiber quality, but the housewife out shopping for carpet didn't really know or care-she only liked what she could see and feel." As such, DuPont wondered if the styles and designs so popular in the commercial segment could be transferred to the residential segment. Was the average household willing to make carpeting more than just a backdrop for other furnishings If the program were to be successful, it would mean several things: further differentiation from other nylon. The decision of the company adapting to a new technology has been a good move but it also become a decision problem. The company has come up with question that can be answer by a good marketing strategy. Although the advertisement in TV has been successful the consumer usually doesn't care about the style and fiber quality instead they liked what they could see and feel. Problem Definition Defining the problem is the single most important step in the market research process. A clear statement of the problem is a key to a good research. A firm may spend hundreds or thousands of dollars doing market research, but if it has not correctly identified the problem, those dollars are wasted. In our case it is obvious that the problem here is that, will the new stainmaster carpet will be as successful as their original carpet. But even if this is clear, you still need to know what exactly you need to know to make the new approach a success and what specific related to the product is difficult to find out. Problems that may be encountered are: it is unknown what potential markets there are, what customer groups are interested in your products, who the competitors are After formulating your problem, you need to formulate your research questions. What questions need to be answered and which possible sub-questions do you have. Dupont wondered if the styles and designs so popular in the commercial segment could be transferred to the residential segment. Was the average household willing to make carpeting more than just a backdrop for other furnishings With the problem or opportunity defined, the next step is to set objectives for your market research operations. Research objectives, related to and determined by the problem formulation, are set so that when achieved they provide the necessary information to solve the problem. Research, Design and Methodology Design is the activity involved in the development of an artifact or part of artifact from idea of manufacturing hand-off. Essentially, design is about fulfilling the human needs and particularly through the link of innovation, can make a real difference to quality of life. In DuPont, they have welcomed the new technology by introducing their new product line which is the Stainmaster carpet. It has been successful in the television ad but was not really able to penetrate the household. The company should be able to tell the consumer the importance of their new product in human. Design practice, in having the potential to significantly leverage innovation activity, should be of greater interest on an organizational level. Yet in many companies design is not "championed" in some places inexplicably where innovation is preached as being the ultimate aim. If innovation is the value-added exploitation of ideas, design activity has the potential to make many of those ideas reality. Qualitative and Quantitative Research Generally, research methods fall into two major groups-qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative methods are often used in exploratory designs. These methods focus on gathering information in depth, and will probe to explore feelings, motivations, purchase drivers and inhibitors, purchase behavior, and much more. Qualitative research explores the WHY, not just the WHAT, in your data. Typically, qualitative research begins with broad questions, intended to rich and diverse insights which will developed and refined as more is learned over time. The researcher emerges with a specific insight, flash, or 'aha' that can then be quantitatively tested. Since the company's problem is whether their new product would be successful in the market the qualitative research would help them a lot in identifying their problems. Quantitative Research use structured question sets intended to sort data into discrete, distinct groupings. Findings are numeric, rather than verbal, and are often embedded in quantitative-descriptive or experimental designs. This allows questionnaires to be tested over wide geographic areas and large groups, sometimes as large as thousands of respondents. Research Design Exploratory Research has the goal of formulating the problems more precisely, clarifying concept, gathering explanations, gaining insights, eliminating practical ideas, and forming hypotheses. Exploratory research can be performed using a literature search, surveying certain people about their experiences, focus groups, and case studies. When surveying people, exploratory research studies would not try to acquire a representative sample, but rather, seek to interview those who are knowledgeable and who might be able to provide insight concerning the relationship among variables. Case studies can include contrasting situations or benchmarking against an organization known for its excellence. Exploratory research may develop hypotheses, but it does not seek to test them. Exploratory research is characterized by its flexibility. Descriptive Research is more rigid than exploratory research and seeks to describe users of product, determine the proportion of the population that uses a product, or predict future demand for a product. As opposed to exploratory research, descriptive research should define questions, people surveyed, and the method of analysis, prior to beginning data collection. In other words, the who, what, where, when, why, and how aspects of the research should be defined. Such preparation allows one the opportunity to make any required changes before the costly process of data collection has begun. There are two basic types of descriptive research: longitudinal studies and cross-sectional studies. Longitudinal studies are time series analysis that make repeated measurements of the same individuals, thus allowing one to monitor behavior such as brand swithching. However, longitudinal studies are not necessarily representative since many people refuse to participate because of the commitment required. Cross- sectional studies sample population to make measurements at a specific point in time. Casual Research seeks to find cause and effect relationships between variables. It accomplishes this goal through laboratory and field experiments. Reference: 1. L. Blessing, (2002a) What is this thing called Design Research, Annuals of 2002 International CIRP Design Seminar, Hong Kong, May 2002 2. Cornish, S.L. "Product Innovation and the Spatial Dynamics of Market Intelligence: Does Proximity to Markets Matter' Economic Geography. Volume: 73, Issue 2 (April 1997), pp: 143-165. 3. Basic Marketing Research: First Edition by Nakesh MAlhortra 4. http://www.sba.gov/starting_business/marketing/research.html Read More