Question

MARKETING RESEARCH

The principal activity of General Mills is to produce and market packaged consumer food products. The products include cereals, desserts, flour and baking mixes, dinner and side dish products, organic products, snacks, beverages and yogurt products. The products are sold under the brand names namely: Cheerios, Wheaties, Lucky Charms, Total, Chex, Pillsbury, Haagen-Dazs, Betty Crocker and Bugles. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is one of the major customers of the Group. As of 2005, the company operated in the United States, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific.

In order to determine the impact of an important strategic move, such as lowering prices or introducing new products, General Mills uses marketing research. General Mills ran into problems when a pesticide panic hurt sales and private label makers started to cut into their market share. Store brands have become increasingly popular with consumers. Store owners took advantage of cereal prices of up to $5 per box, resulting in increased market share for the store brands. At least one cereal maker, Quaker Oats, started making a house brand version of its cereal. Quaker’s lower priced-bagged-copies of leading brands have grown rapidly and advanced Quaker’s market share to over 10%. Ralcorp Holdings Inc., the leading maker of private label cereals, expects the trend of house or private brands gaining increased market share to continue, since only about half of the leading cereals have private label competition. Ralcorp expects to gain a larger portion of the market as it continues to introduce more imitations. Some industry experts believe that unless the big brand name cereal prices are cut, or the promotions increased, this trend will continue.

In order to address this problem, General Mills conducted problem solving research to determine what, if any changes they should make to their price and promotions strategy. In order to determine the effects of changes, consumer surveys were undertaken followed by test marketing. The results of General Mills test markets suggested several pricing and promotional changes that would help increase their success. General Mills cut prices on several of its cereal lines. Along with this price reduction, General Mills cut its coupon and promotion budget in an effort to halt spiraling costs and to reduce the price gap between General Mills’ products and the competition, which had been as high as 25% in the past.   

In addition to lowering prices, General Mills launched sweetened cereals to capture the aging baby boomer market. In January 2005, the company introduced Fiber One Honey Clusters, which has slightly sweetened flakes instead of the original Fiber One’s fiber twigs. This introduction was based on the belief that if a product does not taste good, it does not matter what the nutritional benefits are. It is not going to be a success. The sweetened cereals have also helped to insulate General Mills from price competition. Private labels are less likely to knock off the sweetened brands, either because they are too narrowly targeted at market niches or because store labels cannot compete with the hefty marketing budget of General Mills. These moves have increased General Mills’ sales and profits. The strategy of consistently low prices and introducing niche products, supported by marketing research, is paying high dividends for General Mills.

Questions

1. In its attempt to perform descriptive research design, what type(s) of survey and observation methods do you recommend to be used by General Mills in order to determine their pricing and promotional strategies needed to face private labels. ( 20 points - 250 words approx.)

ASAP PLEASE!!

Answer 1

The review strategy can be utilized for enlightening, exploratory, or logical research. This technique is most appropriate for examines that have distinct individuals as the unit of investigation. Albeit different units of investigation, for example, gatherings, associations or dyads (sets of associations, for example, purchasers and venders), are additionally examined utilizing reviews, such examinations regularly utilize a particular individual from every unit as a "key witness" or an "intermediary" for that unit, and such studies might be dependent upon respondent predisposition if the source picked doesn't have satisfactory information or has a one-sided sentiment about the marvel of premium. For example, Chief Executive Officers may not satisfactorily know worker's discernments or cooperation in their own organizations, and may in this manner be an inappropriate witness for investigations of group elements or representative confidence.

Poll Surveys :

A second kind of study is bunch regulated poll . An example of respondents is united at a typical spot and time, and every respondent is approached to finish the review poll while in that room. Respondents enter their reactions freely without interfacing with one another. This arrangement is advantageous for the specialist, and high reaction rate is guaranteed. On the off chance that respondents don't see a particular inquiry, they can request explanation. In numerous associations, it is moderately simple to collect a gathering of representatives in a meeting room or break room, particularly if the review is endorsed by corporate officials.

Meeting Survey

Meetings are a more customized type of information assortment technique than polls, and are led via prepared questioners utilizing a similar research convention as survey overviews (i.e., a normalized set of inquiries). Notwithstanding, in contrast to a poll, the meeting content may contain exceptional guidelines for the questioner that isn't seen by respondents, and may incorporate space for the questioner to record individual perceptions and remarks. What's more, not normal for mail overviews, the questioner has the chance to explain any issues raised by the respondent or ask examining or catch up inquiries. Notwithstanding, interviews are tedious and asset concentrated. Extraordinary talking abilities are required on part of the questioner. The questioner is likewise viewed as a major aspect of the estimation instrument, and should proactively endeavor not to falsely inclination the watched reactions.

Inclinations in Survey Research :

Notwithstanding the entirety of its qualities and points of interest, study look into is frequently spoiled with precise inclinations that may nullify a portion of the derivations got from such overviews. Five such inclinations are the non-reaction predisposition, inspecting inclination, social attractive quality inclination, review predisposition, and regular strategy inclination.

Non-reaction inclination. Review look into is commonly famous for its low reaction rates. A reaction pace of 15-20% is common in a mail review, significantly after a few updates. In the event that most of the focused on respondents neglect to react to a study, at that point a real concern is whether non-respondents are not reacting because of a deliberate explanation, which may bring up issues about the legitimacy of the investigation's outcomes. For example, disappointed clients will in general be more vocal about their experience than fulfilled clients, and are thusly bound to react to poll overviews or meeting demands than fulfilled clients. Subsequently, any respondent example is probably going to have a higher extent of disappointed clients than the basic populace from which it is drawn. In this occasion, not exclusively will the outcomes need generalizability, however the watched results may likewise be an ancient rarity of the one-sided test.