1b. NATIONAL MARKETS - CASE
.docx
School
De La Salle University**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
MARKETING 100
Subject
Marketing
Date
Jan 10, 2025
Pages
3
Uploaded by ColonelScience102742
CASE: DEFINING THE RESEARCH PROBLEMNATIONAL MARKETS—NUTRITIONAL LABELINGJose Martinez was the president of Strategic Marketing Research Associates (SMRA). He was in the process of preparing a marketing research proposal for National Markets, the largest supermarket chain in the country. Stores of National Markets are typically located in shopping malls that cater to middle- and upper-income shoppers. It introduced its Shopper Reward card much earlier than its competitors, which allows shoppers to accumulate reward points which they can use to pay for their purchases.National’s market share in the National Capital Region, its largest market, had been declining steadily for the past two years, and the marketing department was determined to turn things around. The senior members in the department had formulated a plan, but they needed marketing research data in order to verify the plan’s validity to other National departments. SMRA was one of three major marketing research firms vying for this research project. The completed research proposal was due in 2 weeks.Martinez had had a meeting with National’s marketing department earlier in the month to roughly define the purpose of the project. Michelle Santos, vice president in charge of marketing at National, hadn’t outlined the specific information needs; rather, she had gone over the problems that were facing National. She had indicated to Martinez it would be up to him to formulate research objectives based on his perception of the information needs.Santos told him that National’s sales in NCR had been increasing at a slower pace than its competitors’ and that National wanted to reverse this trend through “goodwill gestures” aimed at consumers. The tentative plan was to provide shoppers with detailed nutritional information about the packaged foods sold in National stores. But National executives weren’t sure exactly how the information should be presented to consumers, how the consumers would react to it, or even if they would use the information. Because of these concerns, initiation of the program had been delayed until consumers’ attitudes could be researched.
Bart Reyes, National’s district manager for NCR, foresaw potential problems with the proposed “solution”. First of all, he related to Martinez, stores would be reluctant to post information that might cut their profits. Since many of the high-margin items were also the least nutritious, consumers might avoid the nonnutritious—but highly profitable—foods if nutritional information were available. Second, the cost to provide this information would be high unless the stores were subsidized by the National main office. The majority of National’s stores could not afford to offer additional services to shoppers without boosting prices. But, said Reyes, store managers would furnish nutritional information readily if they were shown that the cost of providing this information would be offset by the benefits gained if more people began shopping at National. The marketing department hoped that presenting favorable marketing research results to the store managers would make them more willing to accept the idea of forgoing some short-term profits for long-range benefits.The nutritional information had already been gathered by National, so the only cost to the individual stores would come from disseminating these data to consumers. The information had, for the most part, been obtained from outside sources. For 85 percent of all products, the required nutritional information had been collected from the manufacturers—either directly from the food labels or in response to a written request. For another 9 percent of the products, National managers had weighed the contents of the packages and combined that data with information, or from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, to determine the nutrient content of the foods. For the remaining 6 percent, National could not acquire nutritional information. Most of these foods were “mixed” foods with low sales volume, like frozen mixed vegetables, or multi-packs of single-serving breakfast cereals.National executives from other (nonmarketing) departments had indicated a willingness to help stores implement the program, but only if marketing research showed that:1.Shoppers would actually benefit from the information.2.They would make use of the information.
Even if sales did not increase right away, National top management felt that providing this extra service to consumers would benefit National in the long run by increasing customer loyalty.Because this project was such a major undertaking, Martinez spent a great deal conversing with Santos, as she would be very influential in choosing which company got the research grant. Martinez wanted to be absolutely certain that he had enough information to identify the problem areas National was most concerned with so that he could define the research objectives correctly. Stead had not set an upper limit on the project’s budget, but Martinez wanted to keep it at a reasonable level so as to remain competitive. In the end, though, he knew that the quality of his research proposal would determine whether or not MMRA would be awarded the project.CASE QUESTIONSDevelop a statement of your general research problem and specific research objectives.oWhy the request for information was made? What marketing situation triggered the request for a research undertaking?oIn order to help National Markets to develop a solution to their current situation, how would you state the research problem?oWhat kinds of information would you need to collect? What specific questions must you, as the researcher, be able to answer?How would you design the study? What methodology would you employ?oWho will be your target respondents?oHow would you find them or get in touch with them?