Understanding the Consumer Perception about Joes Wraps & Subs - Research Proposal Example

Market Research Proposal for Joe’s Wraps & Subs Understanding the consumer perception about the organization Table of Contents Market Research Proposal for Joe’s Wraps & Subs 1 Table of Contents 1 Methodology 3 Research Design 4 Sampling Plan 4 Target Population 4 Sampling Frame 5 Determination of Sample Size 5 Sampling Method 5 Drawing the Sample 6 Sample Validation 6 Addressing Reliability and Validity Issues in the Project 7 Conclusion 7 Questionnaire for Joe’s Wraps and Subs 8 References 10 Problem Definition Joe’s wraps and Subs is a submarine eating joint chain, which operates out of five units, all located in greater metropolitan area. It offers sandwiches and wraps (sandwiches made out of tortilla). The management is planning to expand his business on national level. However, the expansion is put on hold until a baseline survey is done to analyze the perception of the consumers about the eating joints. The survey would also enable organization to realize fallible areas in business. The task of research is outsourced to Excel Research Inc. It is in constant touch with the management of Joe’s wraps and Subs to conduct a substantive and coordinated research to achieve the objective. In the above mentioned project, the marketing research problem is to ascertain the consumers’ perceptions about the organization and determine its weak areas vis-à-vis other competitors. Specifically, this research seeks to provide answers to the following questions: 1. How often do people purchase a meal at Joe’s? 2. About how much do they spend there per visit (per individual)? 3. Overall, how satisfied are they with Joe’s? 4. How do they rate Joe’s Wraps and Sub’s performance on the following various aspects? a. Competitive price b. Convenience of location c. Variety of sandwiches d. Freshness of sandwich fillings e. Speed of service f. Taste of subs g. Taste of wraps h. Uniqueness of sandwiches 5. What recent advertising do they recall, and/or where do they recall noticing advertising? (Joe’s uses the following advertising: Yellow Pages, billboards, newspaper ads, and coupons) 6. What is the demographic profile of the sample? Methodology For the purpose of this project, quantitative research methodology would be used. The data would be collected through telephonic interview. Telephonic interview is chosen above other survey methods because it leads to higher sample control and is personal in character. The tone and sincerity of the respondent is usually assessable in such form of interviews. It helps to gauge the involvement of the respondent in the feedback process, hence, would deliver more accurate results. On the other hand, questionnaires administered through mail actually don't tell the level of involvement the customer has with the product/service being researched. Research Design After the discussion with Joe’s management, Descriptive Research design is adopted for this project. Research aims to understand consumer’s perceptions about Joe’s on various parameters such as price, convenience of location, variety in menu, taste, freshness of fillings, and uniqueness of products. The questionnaire would be administered through telephonic interviews. In the questionnaire both comparative and non-comparative scaling techniques are used. Comparative Scaling technique is used to understand how consumers perceive the price and uniqueness of Joe’s sandwiches vis-à-vis its competitors. Non-comparative scaling is used to rate various dimensions of Joe’s products/services per se. In the scale, there are odd number of categories in which middle scale position is designated as neutral, ‘the presence of which [neutral category] might have significant effect on response’ (Patten, 2001). The questionnaire is designed keeping in mind the telephonic interview mode of data collection. At medium pace, the questionnaire would take five minutes of the respondent’s time to be answered fully. Sampling Plan The sampling plan for the project is discussed below: Target Population The target population for this research is defined as Males or Females who have eaten at Joe’s Wraps and Subs at least once in past six months. They should be 15 years or older and must be residents of Greater Metropolitan Area at the time of this survey being conducted. They should be accessible on a working telephone number. Sampling Frame Joe’s database of its customers would act as sampling frame here. It is assumed that Joe’s maintains a record of the individuals who visit Joe’s. However, if till now Joe does not have a list of its customers it is recommended that the staff at Joe’s be instructed immediately to collect the details from each of its customers for a period of at least three months. This exercise would help in identifying target population of this research. Determination of Sample Size Important factors that should be considered in determining the sample size are: nature of the research, nature of analysis, sample sizes used in similar studies and resource constraints. (Malhotra, 2004). Keeping in view the above- mentioned factors, it is suggested that the sample size should be large enough to serve the objective of descriptive research and quantitative analysis. However, it should not be too large to put money and time constraint. Since the research aims to understand the customer perception, the sample size is chosen as per the typical range for such projects. The typical range for such problem identification researches is between 100-2500 (Malhotra, 2004). Considering the importance of this project and time/money constraint for Joe’s, a sample size of 2000 is recommended. Sampling Method For the purpose of this project, Systematic Sampling would be used as sampling technique. The advantage of systematic sampling is that population parameters can be estimated with known accuracy. Since the sample size is also large enough (2000), it justifies the use of Systematic Sampling. The first step to systematic sampling would be to assign a unique number to each element in sampling frame. Telephone numbers cannot be treated as unique numbers since two or more members of a family might share a phone number. After that, every fifth element/number (starting from 1) in succession is picked from the sampling frame either manually or electronically. Drawing the Sample Samples can be drawn from the pool of data by ‘computerized dialing of every ‘ith’ number’ (Sean, 2002) or by generating random numbers by computer routine or table and manually dialing each number. Computerized dialing would ensure that no respondent (who has already answered the questionnaire will be called twice). All the people who meet the following criteria should be listed: Males or Females who have eaten at Joe’s Wraps and Subs at least once in past six months 15 years or older Residents of Greater Metropolitan Area at the time of this survey being conducted. Accessible on a working telephone number. Sample Validation ‘The essence of sample validation is to assure the client that the sample is, in fact, a representative sample of the population about which the decision maker wishes to make decisions’ (Burns & Bush, 2010) To accomplish this, an analysis of the demographic profile of Joe’s customers would be done. Age and Gender shall be the major factors for Sample Validation. Next, customer’s profile would be compared with the demographic profile of the samples chosen. If the assessment passes, the sample stands validated. If not, re-sampling would be done to achieve the desired result. Addressing Reliability and Validity Issues in the Project Reliability refers to the extent to which a scale produces consistent results if repeated measurements are made (Bruce, 2002). Since the research would be conducted through telephonic interview, the method suggested to ensure reliability would be Test-Retest reliability. The respondents would be administered identical sets of scale items at an interval of three weeks. The higher the degree of similarity between two measurements (correlation coefficient), the greater the reliability. Since telephonic interviews have personal touch, it is anticipated that the respondents would co-operate for ascertaining reliability. Validity of scale would be assessed in terms of content validity. Content validity would be determined by assessing if the scale of measurement covers all the dimensions of customer perception about the product and service or not (Chisnall, 2002). In Joe’s case, the various dimensions would be quality, variety, freshness of wraps and sandwiches and the swiftness of service delivery. Conclusion On the basis of discussions with Joe’s management and Excel Inc’s inputs, the above given format of research is designed. In crux: the research would be descriptive in nature and data collection would be through telephonic interviews. The samples would be drawn from the existing customer database of the Joe’s (if it is not available, it has to be created in three months time). Keeping in mind the objectives ascertained and mode of research, a questionnaire has been designed. It forms the next part of this report. Detailed analysis of the data would be done once the data collection stage is completed. Only then we can arrive at the results of the research conducted. Questionnaire for Joe’s Wraps and Subs Hello! I am ------------ from Excel Research Inc. Am I speaking to Mr./ Ms. -----------. Greetings to you Sir/madam. Joe’s wraps & Subs is conducting a Customer Satisfaction Survey. Our records say that you have experienced Joe’s offerings recently. We request you to kindly spare five minutes, which would contribute to enhance the service levels at Joe’s. Please answer to the questions I’ll read out next: 1) How often do you visit Joe’s Wraps and Subs to buy a meal? Kindly tell me the relevant choice. Daily 2-3 times a week Weekly Once Fortnightly Once Monthly Once 2) What is your range of expenditure (per head) when you visit Joe’s Wraps and Subs? Kindly tell me the relevant choice. Less than 5$ 5$-10$ 10$-15$ >15$ 3) I would like to have your feedback on certain performance parameters of Joe’s Wraps and Subs. I will read to you these parameters related to the services of our outlets. Please rate them as per your experience with Joe’s Wraps and Subs. Use a 7 point scale where 1 denotes Extremely Bad and 7 denotes Extremely Good. Please remember that higher the number, greater the satisfaction level with Joe’s services. Now, please tell me your satisfaction level with regard to: Extremely Bad Very Bad Bad Average Good Very Good Extremely Good a. Price 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 b. Convenience of Location 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 c. Variety of Sandwiches 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 d. Freshness of Sandwich Fillings 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 e. Service Swiftness 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 f. Taste of Subs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 g. Taste of Wraps 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 h. Overall satisfaction derived from Joe’s Wraps and Subs 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4) Kindly let us know which organization’s pricing structure you find most suitable. Most to least would be placed in the order of 1 to 4. I’ll read out the organizations names for you: Price structure Joe’s C1 C2 C3 Rank 5) Please rank the uniqueness of the sandwiches of Joe’s in comparison to its competitors C1,C2 and C3. Please remember that Rank 1 stands for the organization which offers most unique sandwiches and Rank 4 stands for the organization which you find offers most regular ones. Ranking on the basis of Uniqueness of the Sandwiches Joe’s C1 C2 C3 Rank 6) I will read out the various spaces where Joe’s Wraps and Subs advertises. Please recall where you noticed the advertisement of Joe’s Wraps and Subs ? a. Yellow Pages- yes/no b. Billboards-yes/no c. Newspaper –yes/no d. Coupons-yes/no 7) We are constructing a demographic profile of the customers of Joe’s. Hence, request you to let us know about your age group. Shall read out the age groups, please let me know the one appropriate to you. 15-25 25-35 35-45 45-60 >60 years Gender: Male Female (To be filled in the by the interviewer based on the title (Ms./Mr.)of the respondent. References Bruce, T. (2002). Score Reliability: Contemporary Thinking on Riliability Issues. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. Burns, A., & Bush, R. (2010). Online Research Applications. Retrieved April 19, 2010, from Mktg research Website: http://www.mktgresearch.com/4eWebsite/Students/ChapterAids/PDF/BurnsBushChapter12.pdf Chisnall, P. M. (2002). Marketing Research: State of the Art Perspectives. International Journal of Marketing Research , 122-125. Malhotra, N. K. (2004). Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation. Singapore: Pearson Education (Singapore) Pte Ltd. Patten, M. L. (2001). Questionnaire Research: A Practical Guide. Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing. Sean, M. (2002). Florida Tourism Leaders Say Industry is recovering slowly. Knight Ridder Tribune Businee News , 1. Read More