Business Studies
The purpose of this assignment is to communicate marketing research data to stakeholders through a marketing research report.
Follow the format that begins on page 347 in the textbook to compose your final market research report for your chosen company. Your final report should be approximately 15-20 pages and contain the following components:
Front matter – Title page, memo of transmittal, table of contents, list of illustrations, and executive summary.
Report body – Introduction, research objectives, methods, findings, limitations, conclusions, and recommendations.
End matter – Reference page.
Appendix – Incorporate appropriate graphics within the body and attach the final survey from Topic 5.
Cite 8-10 references from reliable sources, such as trade journals, academic journals, consumer research websites, and websites from professional marketing associations, within the body of the report.
Review the formatting samples in the Course Materials for additional information on formatting your report.
Prepare this assignment according to the APA guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.
Prepare a 10-15-slide PowerPoint presentation to deliver the recommendations for your market research report to your chosen company. Assume the stakeholders have already reviewed a copy of the final report and have invited you to present the recommendations in more detail. Because they have reviewed the report, you do not necessarily need to cover all of its contents in your presentation. Instead, focus on the most relevant and persuasive aspects to convince stakeholders to take your recommendations.
Your slides should be uncluttered, visually appealing, and free from error. Utilize effective slide design techniques to enhance the professional appeal of your presentation. Include the speaking notes you would utilize if you were going to deliver your presentation in person.
Refer to the resource, “Creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations,” located in the Student Success Center, for additional guidance on completing this assignment in the appropriate style.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful
ANSWER
Marketing Research Report
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
Forked River Brewing Company opened in 2012 in Ontario, London, as the first craft brewery company in London. Forked River needs to maximize customer encounters in an evolving industry and understand its client’s preferences and needs. The growth of domestic and global competition has altered consumer preferences and customer interests. Identifying and understanding the target market has been a great challenge for Forked River. This report is market research that focuses on the craft beer target market to help Forked River align its business design and core worth to the needs and preferences of craft beer consumers. The report’s objectives included exploring the consumer profile of the target market, determining the consumer habits of the target market, the brand awareness of Forked River Brewery Company, and examining the marketing mix characteristics. The report relied on qualitative and quantitative data to gain useful information about craft beer consumers between the ages of 25-50. The data results offered meaningful information about the target market, which offered Forked River Brewing Company recommendations.
Introduction
The craft beer industry has changed over the last two decades, becoming one of the fastest-growing segments of alcoholic beverages. The general term craft brewery entails breweries that can produce beer made from traditional constituents and non-traditional ingredients (Wallace, 2019). The craft beer breweries are classified into brewpubs, microbreweries, regional breweries, taproom breweries, and contract breweries. Craft beer is commonly consumed in bars and restaurants. Over the years, craft beer innovation concepts such as liquor content, ingredients, packaging, maturity, and a typical craft beer drinker profile have shifted (Long, Velikova, Dodd, and Scott-Halsell, 2018). The market research report will focus on Forked River Brewing Company to explore the target consumers’ profile, attitudes, preferences, and habits to build on their marketing strategy. Ideally, market research can focus on three different areas, industry, competition, and target consumers. Therefore, this market research will focus on the target market. Everyone is not a target market which makes the assessment of the target market essential. Understanding and knowing the target market is essential. This will allow the company to know who and where the consumers are, understand how to effectively communicate to the target market, and appropriately choose effective marketing channels. By understanding and knowing the target market, Forked River Brewing Company will effectively focus on the consumers that will become repeat purchasers.
Background
Forked River Brewing Company is dedicated to the production of craft beer. The co-founders of Forked River are three young individuals Andrew Peters, Dave Reed, and Steve Nazaria (Forked River, 2021). Throughout the years, the three players have developed expertise and taste in brewing beer and made this a habit which has made the company a small-scaled beer with a different taste. The company operates in Ontario, which giant brewing companies cover from the outside due to limited beer types. Therefore, after considering this market gap and trend, Forked River decided to establish a company that will offer special beer, limited-edition beers, and premium beer and produced them in-house. The company was founded in 2012 and has grown to a successful brewing company with an excellent marketing plan and brewing technology (Forked River, 2021). Forked River craft beers have developed rapidly with craft beers of different flavors that are very popular. The company has offered valuable taste and chances for the retailers to have varying varieties of beers in the market, which has made it more concrete for the company to sustain its position in the market.
Problem Identification
The market research problem sets the direction for the entire report from problem identification, research findings to correct diagnosis. Identifying the target market is the most significant step since it accurately identifies the company’s focus. As a craft beer company, finding the right target market has been a challenge. It is challenging for small brands to narrow down their focus on a certain demographic to grow successfully. Finding the right market entails identifying and reaching the right consumers, which helps keep up with the market trends. Considerably, to deliver products that solve the consumers’ problems, there is a need to understand the target market.
The target market consists of individuals that have already purchased the product, people that have not yet bought the product but are willing to buy as well as the individuals that are in the target market but are not currently using the product for a solution. Although determining the target market consumes a lot of time and effort, there is a need to have a target market that enables a company to focus on the marketing efforts cost-effectively. Understanding the consumer’s needs through clearly defining the product and the target market allows a company to discover how well they can meet the consumer’s needs. This also allows the company to establish an effective marketing communication approach through understanding the set of consumers that share the same features and needs that the business hopes to serve.
The target market research will effectively enable Forked River to assess how well their product fits in a specific target market. Understanding the target market is essential in developing a marketing strategy. The market strategy can be implemented and developed by effectively identifying, selecting, and evaluating a target market. As part of the market research, it would be helpful to develop consumer profiles to describe the typical target group members.
Research objectives
Over the years, the craft beer industry in an expansion state, which signals a steady growth. Therefore, Forked River Brewery Company needs to understand why the target group and consumption patterns meet the consumers’ needs. Forked River wants to understand why consumers buy craft beer and, more precisely, their brand. Forked River demands to understand the product features and the demands of the consumers to boost their sales and customer satisfaction. The market research goal is to measure the target audience, understand their consumer behaviors and patterns. The report is a detailed analysis of the target market, the group of individuals under focus, and the target consumers’ preferences. The research objectives for this report include:
- To identify the consumer profile of craft beers.
- To determine the consumer behavior of the target market
- To examine the brand awareness of Forked River Brewery Company
- To examine the marketing mix characteristics.
Considerably, consumer profiling entails gathering information about individuals interested in the products and grouping the potential buyers into categories. Understanding the consumer profile allows a company to effectively structure its marketing plan. This helps in understanding what ideal consumer the company is looking for and how to engage with them. Consumer profiling is more effective than the general market since the company understands what type of consumers they want to sell their product to, thus making marketing easier. Studying consumer habits helps in understanding what impacts the consumers purchasing decisions. Understanding how the consumers decide on a product can help the company fill the market gap and understand the products required to meet the consumer needs.
Consumer habits are influenced by four factors: psychological, personal, cultural, and social factors that determine the characteristics of consumer habits. Understanding consumer habits demands a company to focus on the beliefs, attitudes towards consumerism, and purchasing patterns to determine the product’s prospects. Brand awareness entails measuring how well the consumers recognize and know the brand. Brand awareness is the initial step in the buying process. This is because it’s an important part of the decision-making process that marketing efforts must be tied with. The marketing mix characteristics entail understanding what consumers like about the product, why consumers visit specific bars that sell craft beer, the premium price that consumers are willing to pay for the craft beer, and the best ways of communicating to the consumers about craft beer.
Methods
One of the major components of a report is to gather information regarding the research problem. Data was collected through the use of descriptive, exploratory, and causal research. The research methods were used to obtain information from various participants regarding Forked River target market research. Relatively, the research designs will offer many solutions that will boost the target market strategy for Forked River Brewery Company. The research relied on both qualitative and quantitative data. Ideally, quantitative data such as demographics, market size, and user preferences offer essential information for business decisions. In contrast, qualitative data offers significant data for use in product design, such as behavior and consumer needs.
Descriptive Research
The descriptive research seeks to describe a situation that will enable the company to direct decisions and monitor progress. Descriptive research can be used to analyze the market potential, the currently trending product in the market, and products that have a higher chance of selling (Mooi, Sarstedt, and Mooi-Reci, 2018). Descriptive research was essential in analyzing the participants. This method was essential in understanding the consumer patterns, their motivations in terms of why, how, and what makes them consume craft beer. This gave a better analysis of consumer behavior and drew conclusions regarding the craft beer industry. Ideally, descriptive research offers a suitable choice for identifying frequencies, characteristics, categories, and trends. This is useful when not much is understood about the problem, thus making it easier to understand how something happens. The study relied on descriptive survey research, which relies on surveys to collect data regarding varying subjects. The surveys effectively gather information from a sample to generate quantitative statistics that describe the attributes of the larger population. For instance, descriptive statistics can calculate the population that consumes craft beer in a particular region.
Exploratory Research
Exploratory research is used to investigate a problem that is not clearly defined to better understand the existing problem (Mooi, Sarstedt, and Mooi-Reci, 2018). Exploratory research relies on qualitative measures such as focus groups and consumer interviews. Exploratory research was essential to uncover opinions and facts about the craft beer market. This provides essential data which can be used to make decisions regarding the target market. Considerably, it was essential for Forked River to understand consumer attitudes and make decisions regarding beer consumption.
The exploratory research was an effective way of accessing information from consumers about their perception of craft beer. Through this, Forked River could easily analyze the beer market and make decisions about gathered information. The exploratory research relied on less structured formations such as focus groups and interviews that enabled Forked River to identify target market opportunities and develop innovative ideas that will overcome their target market problem.
Causal Research
Causal research focuses on investigating the relationships which involve more than independent variables. This relies on experiments such as test markets that include simulated or real-world experiments to ascertain the brand, consumer attitudes, and market share, among other variables (Mooi, Sarstedt, and Mooi-Reci, 2018). For instance, Forked River would decide to devise an experiment to see what will happen to the sales if they focus on a certain target market group. Therefore, the causal research was an informative method that based actions on results. This would also help create a hypothesis from the data collected through observations, surveys, and questionnaires to find out the root cause of the target market problem.
Data Collection Method
The research relied on primary data to identify the target market, consumer behavior, and perceptions of Forked River Brewery. The study used in-depth interviews and surveys to obtain data regarding attitudes towards craft beer and Forked River Brewery. The in-depth interviews targeted individuals between the ages of 25-50 years that consumed beer. In-depth interviews are considered the most significant form of primary research and are appropriate when targeting detailed opinions, insights, and attitudes. Ideally, in-depth interviews are significant when the objective is to capture sensitive feedback. The interviews used open-ended questions to facilitate an understanding of consumer target habits and patterns. The survey was used to gather data concerning the demographic, geographic, and psychographic behavior of the target market. Fifty surveys were conducted from bars, restaurants, family members, and friends. The market surveys are significant since they generate insights and help anticipate changes as well as stay relevant.
Findings
Qualitative Results
The Consumer Profile of Craft Beers
Craft beer consumers range between the ages of 25-50. The studies indicated that the craft beer market is an exclusively male market. The general craft beer customers are young males that are highly educated with a higher range of household income. The pattern has been considered that individuals tend to explore different beers after they are past 18 years. Therefore, the exposure to craft beer leads to most of these individuals consuming craft beer. For instance, recommendations from friends or limited options in the pubs have been the most prevalent.
Craft beer drinkers have placed great value on the quality of the beer they consume. Craft beer consumers are highly conscious of how the beer is made. They have great interest in how the beer is manufactured and appreciates high quality and good taste. The consumption of craft beer is not defined by behavioral intentions to buy craft beers but is predicted greatly by consumers’ demand for uniqueness (Rivaroli, Lindenmeier, and Spadoni, 2019). The motivations to consume craft beer are emotional and cognitive due to the direct relation to the consumer’s identity, consumer behavior, social pressure, and unique products.
The Consumer Habits of the Target Market
The consumption of craft beer is considered a social act. Consumers are highly influenced by the recommendations of others within the same social setting. Most consumers purchase craft beer since it’s a socially acceptable drink. The drinking patterns vary from those that drink craft beer more than three times a week and those that drink beer once a week. Individuals that drink beer once a week illustrated drinking habits linked to evens and weekends. At the same time, the rest demonstrated drinking craft beer as a way of escape, relief, and social drinking with friends. Most of these consumers have their drinks at home, restaurants, pubs, events, and parties.
The craft beer consumers demonstrate two segments for craft style: a preference for complex and string flavors and the other segment for traditional style flavors that are less complex. Most of the consumers do not desire to taste new beers by they are likely to taste new flavors recommended by friends. One respondent stated that they are likely to taste new craft beer “depending on the recommendations of a friend and the quality of the beer.” According to the consumers, “an individual’s choice of craft beer can change considerably depending on the place setting and living conditions due to the influence from social groups and collective life experiences.” The strong attachment of an individual to local business increases their desire to boost and support the local businesses and neighbors with an intention and motivation to maintain their natural surroundings.
The Brand Awareness of Forked River Brewery Company
A higher percentage of respondents have consumed and liked crafted beers. The assortment of beer in the craft beer industry comes in all sizes and shapes. They have been typically known for their organic ingredients and high quality. They offer a wide variety of styles and flavors that have made craft beer well known. Considerably, craft beer enjoyment is linked to the different flavors in comparison to other beers. The support for local breweries has also increased awareness since this has become a purchase decision for consumers.
The findings indicate that consumers have been familiar with craft beer from Forked River Company by quality and promotions from social media, in-store shelves, and billboards. Craft beer has been perceived with different flavors and high quality compared to commercial beer. The respondents stated that craft beer is well known for its natural, tastier, genuineness, and other beer attributes. Forked River craft beer has been known for preservation of the positive momentum as well as the innovative elements of craft beer with the consumer’s expectations. Consumption of craft beer in pubs, events, restaurants, and at home with colleagues and friends has led to the social role associated with the consumption of crafted beer, thus increasing awareness and preference for consumption.
The Marketing Mix Characteristics.
Product- Craft beer is often considered by consumers as an authentic and intellectual beverage enjoyed in moderation due to its exquisite flavor. The consumers of craft beer seek high quality, depth of flavor, reasonable prices, bold packaging, and connection of the product with the social setting.
Price: Craft beers are more expensive than commercial beer. Consumers tend to equate price to quality. The higher price of craft causes consumers to consider craft beer to be of higher quality. Therefore, the consumers are willing for high-quality crafted beer. All beer consumers with higher income are considered the prime consumers of craft beer. Ideally, craft beer is a premium product which makes it exclusive. The flavor and taste are very different from other beers, making it unique and first-class, thus maintaining a premium pricing.
Place: Consumption of craft beer is based on the convenience of the consumer. Some consumers prefer taking it at home, in pubs and restaurants, or at parties. Considerably, the consumers do not choose craft beer depending on the bar but make choices based on their selection and the type of craft beer they consume.
Promotion: Social media and television are the first places that people go to learn about a company. Craft beer consumers rely on social media and television as brand decision-makers. They pay more attention to advertisements on televisions and social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Print mediums such as billboards have also been effective ways of reaching the target market. Therefore, digital technologies have played an essential role in consumer engagement in the beer market.
Quantitative Results
The frequencies were used to discover the number of individuals that chose to consume craft beer rather than the traditional and mainstream brands. Out of the sample size, only 16 out of the 50 displayed drink craft beer. The cross-tabulation was utilized to indicate why users agree to select a particular type of beer. 75% of consumers agreed on craft beer as the main drink due to its quality and availability compared to mainstream beer. The reason for consumers’ choice of a predominant beer brand varies from alcohol content, quality, taste, and availability. 22.7 % of the consumers choose craft beer due to taste, while 54.6% due to alcohol content and 22.7% due to its availability. On the other hand, 22.7% of the consumers choose a mainstream brand due to its taste, 22.7% due to its availability, and 54.6% due to its alcohol content.
| The Reason for predominant Choice of Beer Brand | ||||
| Alcohol Content | Availability | Taste | Total | |
| Mainstream Brand | 3
10.7% |
10
35.7% |
15
53.6% |
28
56% |
| Craft Beer | 12
54.6% |
5
22.7% |
5
22.7% |
22
44% |
| Total | 15
30% |
15
30% |
20
40% |
50
100% |
Limitations
Sampling Error: The main research limitation was sampling errors due to the respondents during the interview to gain qualitative data. This entails the selection of a sample that fails to represent the entire population of data. Sampling error creates a difference between the mean values of the population and sample, thus underrepresentation of the population (Nunan, Malhotra, and Birks, 2020). Ideally, the results found on the sample fail to represent the results that ought to be obtained for the entire population. Therefore, the results regarding the target market failed to represent the opinions and preferences of the entire population. The interview guide suggested ten interviews, but only five interviews were conducted. Larger sample size would lead to more precise results since the study gets closer to the intended population size.
Implementation of Data Collection Method: The data collection errors result from a lack of extensive experience in collecting primary data, which leads to a scenario that the primary data collected is flawed. Data collection was affected by biased responses from the applicants suited for the survey and interviews. Limitations of alcohol consumption due to medical issues and traditional customs greatly affected the suitability of respondents. Some of the responses from the respondents were misleading and gave wrong information affecting the accuracy of the research.
Time Constraints- Limitations of time and money greatly influence marketing research since it’s a costly affair and time-consuming. Marketing research requires many financial resources to carry on various market research (Nunan, Malhotra, and Birks, 2020). For instance, resources are required to conduct surveys, prepare questionnaires and prepare reports. Marketing research involves several steps that are essential in solving the marketing problem. The marketing research for Forked River was only carried out for a limited time, which impacted the accurateness of data collection. With the total time and resources, the report only obtained limited reliable results.
Quality- The validity and reliability of the results threatened the quality of the report. For instance, one of the major challenges was a reduction number of participants and the changes in the responses of the certain respondent. Therefore, the quality of the research and responses and time allocated limited data from the respondents. For instance, the questionnaires failed to acquire significant information about consumer drinking habits.
Recommendations
Determine the Target Market: Identifying the target market is considered one of the effective ways that a company can reach its potential consumers. The target market is the set of individuals that share the same characteristics and needs that the company hopes to serve. Although determining the target market is time-consuming, it allows the company to focus on its marketing efforts. For instance, Forked River will understand the needs of the consumers and discover how exactly they can meet the consumer’s needs. Understanding the target market will allow the company to craft a message that is appealing to the consumers.
Identifying the target market will also allow the marketers to focus on potential customers rather than the general beer market. For instance, the advertisement can now reach the intended recipient due to the clear identification of the potential consumers. On the other hand, Forked River should rely on the target market data to examine the under-served market rather than focusing on the unreached part of the total market. Once Forked River has understood who they are targeting, this makes it much easier to make decisions on the target market plan that will lead to a better return on investment.
Targeting Strategy- Forked River requires a targeting strategy to accomplish positioning, targeting, and segmentation. The targeting strategy involves segmenting the market, selecting appropriate segments, and determining the products that need to be offered to the segment (Taylor and DiPietro, 2019). The most effective targeting marketing strategy for Forked River Craft beer is pursuing various marketing segments through several marketing mixes. Forked River needs to ensure that their craft beer is well known to the target market through conveying messages that establish a position on something. The target marketing strategy will enable Forked River to position itself in the mind of potential consumers.
Marketing Mix: The marketing mix is a set of tactical marketing tools that a company can use to build a desired response to the target market. Forked River should focus on a marketing mix, which will allow the company to concentrate their resource on a target market, thus creating opportunities to boost growth and sales. Forked River ought to position its beers as high quality as compared to the competitors. The results have indicated that craft beer consumers tend to focus on quality than price and are motivated more by taste rather than availability compared to the mainstream brands of beer. They should also focus on their packaging techniques to create a differentiation in the market.
Forked River should focus on the distribution range of their craft beer to increase exposure in the bars, pubs, and liquor stores. Since consumers consider high quality than price, they need to put their pricing points at a premium to differentiate their product exclusiveness (Pokrivčák et al., 2019). Regarding brand awareness, consumers stated that they acquire product knowledge through advertisements on billboards and social media. Therefore, Forked River should extend to social media to motivate consumer buying habits. The promotion strategies should be based on TV advertisements and social media platforms such as Facebook to effectively reach the target market.
Conclusions
The target market helps a company gain insights into how its products meet the consumer’s needs. However, identifying the target market in the craft beer industry has been a great challenge that affects the marketing efforts. Knowing the target market will enable the craft beer companies such as Forked River to respond adequately to the needs of the consumers. The report has focused on the target market of Forked River craft beer, whose aim is to enable the company to define its target market. The quantitative and qualitative data have offered an in-depth study of the target consumer, needs, preferences, habits, and attitudes. The target market of beer consumers’ between 25-50 years will select a Forked River craft beer rather than the mainstream beer.
The consumer profile indicates that consumers focus more on the quality of beer than availability and price. Most consumers drink craft beer since it is a social act which means that it connects to the social setting. Relatively, the brand awareness of Forked River craft beer has been improved by availability, advertisements, and recommendations from friends and colleagues. Therefore, the data collected from the respondents indicate that the Forked River should focus on its market mixes and target market strategy to effectively position the brand in the market. Creating great exposure of the brand and improving on quality and availability in the pubs, restaurants, liquor stores will boost the growth and profitability of Forked River Company.
References
Forked River. (2021). Forked River Brewing Company. Craft Beer in London, Ontario. Available at: https://forkedriverbrewing.com/
Lerro, M., Marotta, G., & Nazzaro, C. (2020). Measuring consumers’ preferences for craft beer attributes through Best-Worst Scaling. Agricultural and Food Economics, 8(1), 1-13.
Long, J., Velikova PHD, N., Dodd, T., & Scott-Halsell, S. (2018). Craft beer consumers’ lifestyles and perceptions of the locality. International Journal of Hospitality Beverage Management, 2(1), 1.
Mooi, E., Sarstedt, M., & Mooi-Reci, I. (2018). The market research process. In Market Research (pp. 11-25). Springer, Singapore.
Nunan, D., Malhotra, N. K., & Birks, D. F. (2020). Marketing Research: Applied Insight. Pearson UK.
Pokrivčák, J., SUPEKOVÁ, S. C., Lančarič, D., Savov, R., Toth, M., & Vašina, R. (2019). Development of beer industry and craft beer expansion. Journal of Food & Nutrition Research, 58(1).
Rivaroli, S., Lindenmeier, J., & Spadoni, R. (2019). Attitudes and motivations toward craft beer consumption: an explanatory study in two different countries. Journal of Food Products Marketing, 25(3), 276-294.
Taylor Jr, S., & DiPietro, R. B. (2019). Segmenting craft beer drinkers: An analysis of motivations, willingness to pay, and repeat patronage intentions. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 20(4), 423-448.
Wallace, A. (2019). ‘Brewing the Truth’: Craft Beer, class and place in contemporary London. Sociology, 53(5), 951-966.
