Memos from a Researcher

John Daniel, a researcher at Georgia Metro Research, made the following notes about several of his clients to you, a newly hired trainee who had just graduated from college:

Client A is a consumer packaged goods manufacturer with a well-established brand name. The client has focused on manufacturing and distribution for years while the marketing program has been set on "auto pilot." All had worked fine, though there was a hint of emerging problems when, in the preceding year, market share had fallen slightly. Now, our client has just reviewed the current market share report and notices that over the previous 12 months, their share has gradually eroded 15%. When market share falls, clients are eager to learn why and to take corrective action.

In these situations we know immediately the problem is that we don't know what the problem is. There are many possible causes for this slippage. We need to determine the research design needed. Second, Client B is a manufacturer of several baked goods products sold in grocery stores throughout the country. Marketing is divided into five regional divisions in the United States. The five divisions have had total autonomy over their advertising though all of them have used TV advertising almost exclusively.

Each division has tried several different TV ad campaigns; some were thought to be successful and others not as successful, but no one had ever formally evaluated the ad expenditures. A new Marketing VP now wants to evaluate the advertising. She's interested in knowing not only the sales of the client's products sold during the different campaigns but also what happened to sales of competitors' brands. In this case, the client needs us to describe sales by SKU in the client's product category for each TV market and for each time period associated with each ad campaign.

What research design do you recommend? Finally, Client C is in a very competitive category with equal market share of the top three brands. Our client is convinced that they have changed every marketing mix variable possible except for package design. Since the three competitive brands are typically displayed side-by-side, they want us to determine what factors of package design (e.g., size, shape, color, texture) cause an increase in awareness, preference for, and intention to buy the brand. What do you recommend for the appropriate research design?

1. Describe what research design you would recommend for each client.

2. For each research design you selected for the three clients, discuss why you believe your choice of design is the correct choice.