Question

Do you think that 1-For-1 Foods has enough information to create a successful marketing strategy? If not, what other questions need to be answered and what research methodology should be used?

What other types of research could have been used to gather the insights uncovered in the studies?

Could this research have been done using tracking data and Google Analytics? Why or why not?

Is a hiking trip a proper venue for ethnographic research? What about dinner at a restaurant?

Answer 1

Do you think that 1-For-1 Foods has enough information to create a successful marketing strategy? If not, what other questions need to be answered and what research methodology should be used?

I think that 1-For-1 Foods has fascinating research goals and the tools needed to create a detailed research desgin, but there are definitely other questions that need to be answered before the study starts.The case represented the “ideal client” as an individual who consumed coffee and would be in an environment with healthy food bars. But who is the target market? Someone who wants to be healthy, someone is living well in every aspect of their life, or is it someone who trust and believes in the core values of the company? Furthermore, their experiment was conducted on the lower end of the expensive scale, so it could help to produce more accurate results by engaging in more on the price and length of the experiment. Online surveys could be a great tool here as people feel less embarrased behind the screen of a computer. Healthy eating is a topic where some people may feel pressured to admit to a habit they normally would not have, Online often offers the user the satisfaction of expressing his or her mind on the subject of giving back to the community as opposed to being studied by researchers

What other types of research could have been used to gather the insights uncovered in the studies?

I think casual research will work here well as researchers are trying to find the cause or reasoning for buying their products from their customers. The experiment on cause and effect could be achieved by conducting a study in which the organisation changes its principles and stops giving back to the community. This would demonstrate which consumers are loyal to the brand and which customers only buy the product for the values and heroic actions of the company. A more descriptive study could produce more detailed results of their participants also. This type of study could show more overlaps between the compared companies, 1-For-1 Foods and TOMS, and their customer base

Could this research have been done using tracking data and Google Analytics? Why or why not?

No, I don’t think the entire study could be done online effectively because the customer base wants a more personal approach with these companies in particular. The consumer needs to feel and live the values they are buying with buying one and giving one tactics. Tracking data and using Google Analytics could help gather more evidence on exactly what the consumer is looking for and what subjects are patterns relevant to the businesses, but overall online data would not address or get closer to the research issues at hand.

Is a hiking trip a proper venue for ethnographic research? What about dinner at a restaurant?

Because ethnographic research is the study of people in their own climate, I would think that the hiking evironment created by the company was a little too perfect. I think this might skew the results and make the evidence seem too good to be true because eveyone feels closer to nature and happier when put in such a calm environment. I think a dinner environment will make it more consistent and straightforward to see what the customer really needs and feels, without placing them in aposition where they tend to fell a certain way.