Question

SCENARIO 3

You are considering introducing a French cosmetic facial spray mist and a body spray made of gold, cashmere and vitamins. The products are not yet in Johannesburg. The product can be used before makeup and after makeup as a setting spray. The target group of the products are men and women who are interested in cosmetics and have an income of between ZAR 40 000 and 70 000.

You are now working on a research method for your research project. You read in the literature of positioning that you need to first do an interview with current clients of the products and after that you have to do a survey in the new market.

You are thinking of doing interviews. You are not sure if you can do only an interview with people in Johannesburg about their perception on the facial spray mist they use. There are more than 5 million people in Johannesburg.

QUESTION 3                                                                                                                                                                                       [15 marks]

Critically discuss why the literature is significant? Would it be sufficient doing an interview with 25 people; if not, how many people should you interview in order for the sample to be representative of the population.

Would you also consider questionnaire as a method of data collection? Why or why not? Using a relevant conceptual discussion, analyse in detail, with application of the scenario provided.

Answer 1

The literature is significant because the efficiency and credibility of any research conducted depends on the literature used to conduct the research and the surveys. The same research can give drastically different results when there is a slight change in the survey and the types of literature used.

If the target group of the product and brand is only the men and women who are interested in cosmetics and whose annual income is between ZAR 40,000 to ZAR 70,000, it drastically reduces the population size for conducting the primary research. We must interview only the people who fall within the target group and not the entire population.

If we assume that our target group comprises of about 10% of the total population of Johannesburg, we can calculate the sample size by using the below formula for normal distribution:

Using the above formula for total population as 0.5 billion, the sample size should be around 250 respondents.

Broadly, there are six methods of data collection in a primary survey, namely :

· Interviews

· Questionnaires

· Observations

· Documents

· Focus Groups

· Oral Histories

For the given scenario we can rule out the last 4 options. Observations can be ruled out because the objective of our research is not to consider usage patterns. Documents and oral histories can be ruled out as this is about the launch of a new product that does not have any past records. Similarly, focus groups are of no use because we do not want to go deep about a difference in opinions.

Interviews and Questionnaires are the most suitable methods in the given scenario.

I would prefer questionnaires in such a scenario when the sample size is large. Questionnaire makes it easier to record and analyze data for a larger group. Additionally, an efficiently designed questionnaire can capture all the information that is required for the research.