Focus groups

As part of a Uni project I had to carry out research in the form of focus groups. They consisted of two group interviews: one with over 35’s, and the other with under 21’s. Both groups will be even in regards to gender split. To ensure for wider and more accurate results, secondary research will also be considered. Mintel, a website offering respectable consumer, media and market research, offers a much wider range of research, but not necessarily as accurate. Comparisons of both researches were made at the end. Below are detailed the research aims:

1. Identify who would be most likely to donate to CRU target market

2. Identify the most popular donation method

3. Identify what makes our target market donate.

Brassington’s Essentials of Marketing (EOM) describes focus group as an investigation into ‘…underlying attitudes and behaviors relevant to the market’ – and this very apparent in our own research, with discovering major differences in in gender and age, with suitable research into the consumer’s behaviors as well as the marketplace it self. Brasington describes the method as qualitative research, meaning although the results can be in-depth with honest answers (due to the small amount of participants and the open questions - encouraging conversation) they are unable to provide a full analysis of the entire market - so qualitative rather than quantitative.

‘…Group interviews are used to produce qualitative data that are not capable of generalization to the wider population…’ (Essentials Of Marketing, Pg.156)

Say, for instance, the construction of a quantitative research method was carried out, like a questionnaire filled out by several hundred people – this type of research would show wider results, but maybe not necessarily as honest results. So the focus groups encouraged open conversation leading people to open up more and give honest and in-depth answers, unlike questionnaire or surveys, but unfortunately do limit the amount of data that can be collected.

So I learnt from the focus groups we were able to find out more about the market, find out underlying values which effect purchases!

Tweens

‘…is an American neologism and marketing term for preteen. A blend of between and teen "tween" in this context is generally considered to cover the age range from eight to twelve years. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preadolescence)

Tweens are the perfect group to market towards. They hold a great influence over how family finance is spent – whether its holidays, food, clothes and/or luxuries. Marketers refer to a technique called PESTER POWER.

Web definition of PESTER POWER: Refers to children's ability to nag their parents into purchasing items they may not otherwise buy.

Also, creating this relationship with kids/teens at an early age means they are more likely to continue to purchase into the brand. For example: McDonalds offering free toys with happy meals, this will build a relationship with the consumer and hopefully mean they will continue to eat there even when they have grown up enough for a LARGE BIG MAC MEAL!!

Social Class

‘All societies can be roughly divided into haves and have-nots. While social equality is widely held value throughout Europe, the fact remains that some people seem to be more equal than others’ (Solomon 2006)

"Social class is a division of society made up of persons possessing certain common social characteristics which are taken to qualify them for intimate, equal status relations with one another, and which restrict their interaction with members of other social classes"

Centuries ago social class was a lot more important. People were restricted in who they could mix with, it was considered inappropriate to marry out of your own social class. Nowadays such restrictions do not exist, and there is currently many more classes than before. Please relate to the diagrams. . .

In Britain we have a classing system which ranks from A - E, it goes a little something like this:

A - is the upper middle class, the elite within society - highest managerial positions, CEOs, or professionals

B - is the middle class, which is a large majority of the population - intermediate managerial, administrative or professional

C1 - is the lower middle class - supervisory or clerical and junior managerial

C2 - is the skilled working class - Blue Collars

D - is the working class - semi and unskilled manual workers, factory workers

E - is the lower class - casual or lowest grade workers and pensioners - non contributors

Below I have listed some relations we make between the two main classes.

Lower . . .

Ford Escort

Burberry

Bingo

Beans on Toast

Primark

Council flats

Spain Holidays

Higher . . . .

Mercades Benz

Diamond Rings

Mansions

Champagne

Waitrose

Maldives

Ascott

Louis Vuitton

Sushi

Marketers must understand class, as just like groups, values, perception, gender etc class will also highly influence consumer’s purchases. And each class will have different way to appeal to them most!

Generational Marketing

Generational Marketing mean to target a specific demographic, trying to appeal to all is too diverse and you wouldn’t expect good results. For example, you wouldn’t try and sell a pushchair, or a mountain bike to an OAP. Check out the adverts below….

This first one is obviously aimed at an older, middle/higher class audience… staring Joanna Lumley a long established British actress – a celebrity the older generations can relate to!

Now by viewing the advert below you can see the massive contrast between advertising to different generation. This advert is obviously aimed towards children – mostly boys. With a great use of colours, music, effects and enthusiast over voice!!

These are four popular generational categories that most marketers tend to focus on.

They include:

• Millenials or Generation 2001ers, born after 1980
• Baby Busters or Generation Xers born between 1965 and 1980
• Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964
• Mature Citizens born between 1909 and 1945

By viewing the groups above we can relate back to previous blogs, these different generations will differ in values and perceptions – which will in turn will make them differ in which products they choose to buy, or which brands they trust the most!

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First impressions

Your perception on someone will be highly influenced on the first impressions they give off.... so better make it count!!!

• Takes three seconds for someone to evalute you – to make a first impression
• This will be based on your appearance, body language and your mannerisms.
• …also clothes, shoes haircut

Perception Experiment

BACK TO PERCEPTION. . . . .

For this section we will see the effectiveness of perception, and the reputation it can give to a brand. I will now be testing successful brand Smirn off vodka, investigating the influence of perception in comparison to a Sainsbury’s own. I am hoping I will be able to prove that consumers are massively influenced by advertising, and purchase a product because of its brand, not necessarily because of its quality. I want to prove that marketing can create a positive brand perception, which consumers want to buy into.

My Experiment

Please view table below in relation to individuals tested:

Male Female

Under 21 5 5
Over 30 5 5

Step 1

I will start by showing 20 individuals two different bottles of vodka:

1st bottle – Sainsbury’s basics Vodka – £7.48 – 37.5%
2nd bottle – Smirnoff’s Vodka 1ltr - £15.00 - 37.5%


I will then ask each person which vodka they would prefer – they will write there answer, with their name, on the provided sheet.

Step 2

The next stage will involve testing the vodkas. I will pore 10ml of vodka in two separate glasses, label glass 1 and Glass2, obviously making sure measures are exact throughout. I will not let anyone see which vodka is in each glass, and ask all 20 to test both. I will then once again ask them to write down which drink they preferred.

On the outset all 20 people agreed that in comparison to Sainsbury’s own, they would all prefer Smirnoff’s. To question whether this decision was based on taste I blind-fold tested each of them. So with two separate glasses filled with two separate vodkas we began. The results disagreed with their first answers, showing 13 out of 20 preferences towards Sainsbury’s own.

Check out the advert below, showing how perception can trick you . . . . .

Enterprise Week

During enterprise we I took part in the enterprise challenge, this consisted of three stages –

Stage 1 – sell as many doughnuts as possible.
Stage 2 – create your own product and sell it.
Stage 3 – hold your own event.

When competing in stage 1 our competitors were all selling Tesco’s own doughnuts – very cheap and lots of them! We, on the other hand, contacted a private baker and brought some ‘luxurious’ doughnuts – much bigger in size with a variety of icings and toppings. Even with competitors plotted directly opposite us we still managed to make a larger profit by instead of selling 5 rubbish doughnuts for £1, we were selling our amazing one for £1 each.

Out of all teams participating we came second – and were through to the second round.

During the second stage we were selling boxes of Christmas chocolates– made from a selection of sweets brought at the local cash n’ carry. The chocolates were then packaged and a bow was attached. Unfortunately we were unsuccessful in getting into the final round – we ended up paying a lot more for the packaging which increased our profit margin alot! Also, the location was a bit poor, there didn't seem to be alot of people in Wycombe - less contact, less chance of profit!