Question: Learning Objectives:

• Be able to apply porter's analysis to assess the strengths and weakness of a marketing strategy (product strategy)

• Be able to recommend a survey mode, and modify a survey questionnaire to accomplish the objective of the marketing research

Suppose you are hired by Starbucks to conduct marketing research to access the market potential of selling gluten-free bakery food in its U.S. stores. You are given a budget of $20,000 and three months to prepare a marketing research plan.

Part 1. (Section II and Chapter 1)

First, conduct a Porter's analysis on the competitive forces faced by Starbucks.

Second, based on the Porter's analysis, discuss the following questions

1a. Does this new initiative fall in the broad class of needs that the company is seeking to satisfy?

1b. Who should be the target market for the gluten-free bakery food, and is the market segment potentially meaningful (the market is large enough in size and is able to generate sufficient profits)?

1c. After undertaking the porter's 5 forces analysis, what are the potential pros and cons of launching this new product?

Part 2 (Chapter 2): As an initial step, we have conducted focus group discussion in the class. See attached focus group guide. Focus_group_guide_2_HW1.docx

2a. What did you learn from this initial focus group discussion with respect to the market potential of gluten-free bakery products? See attached notes from the focus groups.

See notes_focus_groups_hw1-1.pdf (attached)

2b. Are these focus group participants representative of the target market? Why or why not.
As an initial pre-test, you have been given a draft survey in the class. Additionally, the survey responses from the pre-test were recorded in an excel spreadsheet.

See the survey questionnaire here. cookie_survey_2014_HW1S2018.docx (attached)

See the collected responses here. Cookie_Merge_HW1.xlsx (attached)

2c. Please describe (summarize) what you learned from the recorded responses to the pre-test survey questionnaire.

1: Consumption frequency of bakery products in the Starbucks store

2: Expenditure on the bakery products in general

3: Preference for the type of bakery products (what would the glue-ten free bakery item be if offered in Starbucks?)

4: Percent of bakery purchased in a Café type of setting vs. other outlets?

5: Percent of respondents that like or like very much gluten-free bakery products?

6: Percent of current purchase that is gluten-free

7: Importance of factors in purchasing bakery products

8: Knowledge of gluten-free

9: Willingness to pay for gluten free vs. conventional cookies

2d. Overall: Is there enough demand for gluten-free bakery products in the market? Is the company able to generate sufficient premiums from the gluten free products?

2e. Are these survey respondents representative of the target market? Why or why not?

Part 3. To further investigate this issue, you plan to carry on additional marketing research,

3a. What would be your specific research objectives for this project?

3b. Suppose you plan to collect additional quantitative data through survey

Which survey mode is the most appropriate in your opinion? (Note: one could also conduct a hybrid form of survey. For example, one could combine an Internet survey with a telephone survey; in-store intercept with mail survey, etc.)

• Additionally, other types of marketing research can be supplementary to either focus group and/or survey research. Those include but not limited to: test marketing and in-store sampling. Would you recommend conduct this type of additional research?

• Where do you plan to launch the survey? What is your sample size in order to be representative of your target population?

• What questions are you going to ask in the survey questionnaire? You can come up with your questions and/or revise the survey questionnaire I provided during class. Please include them in the assignment.
3c. Please provide your budget allocation for each activity you recommend (focus group, or survey/or taste test/printing materials, etc.). I recommend using a table to show how the $20,000 would be allocated across different types of research activities (focus groups, survey, or in-store sampling).

Information related to above question is enclosed below:

Attachment:- Attachments.rar