Company Name: Greens & Co. Research Subject: Market Research for Exporters ThisCase studyis based on the largest and most successful supermarket chains in the UK, Greens & Co. for the purpose of doing a market research to enter the American Grocery market. I have tried to answer the given questions as I have understood the Case study and the market research strategies taken by Greens & Co. 1. Identify the types of market intelligence that Greens & Co. sed to move into the US market. Ans: In my opinion competitor intelligence used by the Greens & Co. to identify the advantages and disadvantages of their US based competitor or potential rival, McLarens before entering the US market Because, McLarens was already so successful in such a huge market. As per my understanding of the case study, the types of market intelligence that Greens and Co. used are the following: i) Forces that have an effect on the market: Greens and Co. s analysts observed the cooking and the shopping patterns of households as well as their spending and quantity patterns which cover all demographic segments and gathered required information about eachfamilyincluding family income, number of members of each family, employment status, group, foodhabits, attitude towardsfast foodand healthy food age for a long time. They even considered the time spent at home by each family member ii) Product specific data: Greens and Co. ’s analysts discovered that American consumers like to visit different stores for different products.
So, before opening in Southern California, the company researched about both food quality and price for increased sales. They found that 46% of consumers were more prone to choose the healthier food when two equally priced food were offered to them. Some consumers were also ready to pay extra for the healthier food than the less expensive less nutritional option. iii) Market Infrastructure: The concept of a cross between convenience stores and grocery stores( GreenXPress) was never a usual scenario for US consumers where the products shall be a lot less expensive than convenience store yet heenvironmentis more customer oriented than typical grocery store. So, Greens and Co. took the initiative of introducing the GreenXPress format because they realized that this format had the potential to be successful because of it’s unique offerings. 2. What information gathered from the research influenced Greens & Co’s business decisions? Ans: The information gathered that influenced Green and Co. ’s business decisions are the following: )The most important information that influenced Green & Co’s decision to enter the US market is that their US competitor McLarens , they did not have as much presence in California as in other states, states which gave Greens & Co. an opportunity to enter the Californian market without entering into a head-on competition with McLarens. ii) They discovered that American consumers prefer healthier food no matter the healthier versions of any product meant to be more expensive. iii) The researcher of Greens & Co. found that American consumers visit different stores for different products.
This gave them an opportunity to have American’s try their brand out as well as the older brands already existing in the market and those that they are familiar with. iv)They found that there is no such presence of the concept of GreenXPress format, which is a cross between a grocery and a convenience store, which meant the products cost less than a convenience store yet the environment was more customer oriented than a normal grocery outlet. So, the introduction of such concept will be beneficial for people with both high disposable income as well as low income people. . Using the case study, formulate the research objectives for the primary/qualitative research that was conducted in American family homes. Ans: As per the case study, the research objectives were: i) To study the American kitchens and examining the contents of their refrigerators, as well as tracking grocery shopping frequency, spending and quantity patterns with several demographic segments. ii) To observe the food habits of the average Americans, whether they were more fast-food oriented or healthy food oriented. ii) To gather information about each family, including household income, family size and employment status to figure out whether average American families are able to buy products from the Green & Co. outlets. iv) To gather information about age group of the family members to determine whether there are more children or adults to determine the family’s tendency for fast food or healthy food and even the time spent by family members at home. 4. Was Greens & Co. pursuing exploratory, descriptive or causal research? Provide examples from the case study to support your response. Ans: In my opinion, Greens & Co. as pursuing more of an exploratory research design as the research that they made were based onobservation, pulling out primary data about American consumers and executive interviews. The research they made were exploratory in nature, providing a picture of the market which included the potential market size and purchasing or shopping frequency. The analysts of Greens & Co. spent a lot of time analyzing the refrigerator contents, the family income, the employment status, the age group of family members, the time that the family members are present at home, the food habits etc. hich all suggest that in these pieces of information they were actually exploring the American families to gain insights so that they can be successful in the US market. 5. The retail grocery and consumables market is probably one of the most concentrated in the US. What sort of research was covered prior to the move into the American grocery market? Ans: Prior to the move into a huge market like US the Greens & Co. had conducted research based on competitive intelligence and then competitor intelligence.
They found that their biggest competitor McLarens did not have that hold in California as strong as in the other states of US which provoked them to enter the US market by starting at California while escaping a strong competition. They gathered information about the different groups of people with different income levels. Not only that they also gathered some very important information from interviewing competitor’s executives and also conducted a survey including 200 shoppers to see the correlation that both food quality and price resulted in increased sales.
The most important thing they found in US that there is no such concept of a cross between a grocery and a convenience store, which means the products will cost less than a convenience store yet the environment will be more customer oriented than a normal grocery outlet. So, it can be said that they have mainly conducted exploratory research and some sort of causal research before entering the US market. Sources: Course Documents, PPT #1,#2,#3 Case study material (Assignment #01) http://www. marketingprofs. com/ea/qst_question. asp? qstid= 2819
