Ocean Spray Cranberries November 7, 2013

1. Evaluate the research objectives and management's participation in the design

of the study.

The research objectives of the study were to have an interim review of the

cranberry sauce project to understand the plateau of sales growth and create a basis for

a future with a survey of consumers’ product attitudes, personality patterns and life style

characteristics towards canned cranberry sauce and cranberry jelly. The objectives

were formed as follows: identify and describe the kinds of women who use cranberry

sauce, to provide an understanding of what consumers are seeking in choosing

between complementary products for us – in salads, and with main food courses, to

look into the consumption of various food types as sources and potential sources of

cranberry sauce usage, to describe consumer usage patterns with regard to cranberry

sauce, to identify broad media types for OSC sauce in getting across its message to

consumers and to investigate new product or line extension possibilities. These were

formed from three components that included: positioning, market target and buying

incentives.

These research objectives meet the need to understand the plateau in sales and

the slight decrease seen in 1971 focusing on the sauce rather than the overall brand

and planning to only reposition that segment. I agree with the objectives but would like

to seek more information into both genders, not just women, since although this time

period saw the age of women running the house but at the time there were also men

included in the decision making process.

The Brand Manager of Ocean Spray’s cranberry sauce products and the

Manager of Marketing Research at Ocean Spray participated in the design of the study.

The Manager of Marketing Research played mainly an advisor in the definition and

planning stages. He also would maintain contact with the research team Appel, Haley

and Fouriezos, Inc. He would do this by participating in the interpretation phases of

each study with the brand manager as well. In addition, the brand manager took the

initiative to suggest the project and seeked the approval for the budget. Another

manager, the Group Product Manager, was involved. In this specific study he decided

that the study would only focus on the sauce product category and not investigate the

other OSC products. All of these three positions along with the OSC research decided

the project should have three phases with a final report. It would cost approximately

$45,000 for the three phases. They decided these three phases would include (1)

exploration of areas to be covered (2) development of measurement tools and (3)

measurement of the market on a national basis.

I believe that the management’s participation in the design of the study also meet

the requirements needed. The budget fits the average $200,000 for marketing since the

sauce is one of five products of the OSC brand. The three phases and final

recommendation should produce the needed results to understand the market and seek

the blue ocean to stand apart from competitors and make OSC the choice for cranberry

sauce.

2. Evaluate Phase One and Two of the study. How do the research methods relate

to the strategic objectives of the study?

In Phase One of the study the purpose was to define the competitive environment and

compile lists of product attributes, consumer beliefs, and personality and life-style

characteristics of special relevance for cranberry sauce consumption. This was to

mainly explore the areas that were being covered in the overall research. It clearly

seeks to look at the competitors as well as define the brand overall. The hypothesis for

heavy users was formed by the Manager of Marketing Research and stated that these

users: use cranberry sauce with a variety of meats and numerous preparations,

perceive sauce as a part of the meal rather than a garnish or a symbol of tradition, have

sauce in their kitchen as a staple year-round, often make their own sauce or relish when

fresh cranberries are available, feel sauce has a food value as well as an attractive

appearance and good taste, often use sauce as an ingredient in cooking, and consider

sauce a convenient, inexpensive food item. The hypothesis also stated that these types

of users typically are larger families, have a higher family income, have more education,

have a female head of house and are the up-scale of the socioeconomic characteristics.

Their life-style typically includes a wife or mother that enjoys cooking, plans a budget

and shopping that is more concerned of nutrition and natural foods and has active

participation in the community. The brand manager gave the team his list of usage

hypotheses that expressed that usage depended on someone that had more occasional

formal meals and that other garnishes were cutting into the sauce market.

In addition to these hypotheses phase one also had two focus group sessions. In the

first group the women were 10 heavy users. In the second focus group the women were

light users that had not used sauce in the past month and had only used one can in the

past year. The focus groups revealed that the women were concerned about making

their meals more colorful but heavy users chose cranberry sauce while light users

chose vegetables because cranberry sauce was only considered a traditional food.

Also, 20 women were also the subjects for a perceptual mapping exercise that had the

participants make judgments about two out of a set of three food items that were most

alike and developed perceived similarities in the data. The map was focused on spicy

vs. non-spicy and condiment vs. side. Cranberries were perceived as average spicy-

ness and more of a side dish or fruit than a condiment. The perceptual map has

cranberries as most similar to spiced apples and least comparable to different sauces

such as catsup and tarter sauce.

In Phase Two of the study the qualitative results from Phase 1 were used to make a

questionnaire that was modified by the marketing management and had lengthy

questions on product attributes, opinions and feelings of the sauce, personality and life-

style characteristics, usage of the product and various demographical variables. The

pilot test conducted in fall 1971 tried to determine which of the many items best

reflected strong consumer dimensions in the cranberry sauce market that existed and

was believe by both the marketing management and research team. The pilot test

began with interviews of 200 females in 10 different market areas that had been

screened to determine if they had purchased in the past year, and this interview lasted

around 30 minutes. The personal questions covered the earlier mentioned variables.

Then a self-administered questionnaire containing questions about the subjective areas

was given at the end of the interview in exchange to be completed for a gift.

The research methods relate to the strategic objectives of the study because they

identified and described the women into known categories and learned each segment’s

choice process, consumption and usage patterns. The research method in phase one

and two did not learn the media types of these women or investigate many new product

possibilities. Phase one even went into more detail looking at the competitors of OSC

and phase two did a great job having more in-depth focus groups with who they thought

were the potential heavy and light user groups to later relate their hypotheses with their

responses and the questionnaire. I also believe having questions formed by the

research team and modified by marketing in a joint effort was executed well since the

researchers know the best questions for a survey and the marketing management

knows the best for their specific market in food consumption.

3. Provide statistical support for the recommendations made. Hint: Research the

exhibits pertaining to the cluster analysis, discriminant analysis and factor

analysis conducted?

The research team stated that the central marketing problems for cranberry sauce were

relatively low per capita use and an aging franchise. The team recommended that there

were five ways to increase consumption and these included: promoting cranberry as a

versatile poultry and meat accompaniment, change people’s perceptions of cranberry

sauce, remind people to use it, focus communications efforts more sharply on

potentially productive market segments and introduce new products. They found that

four attitudinal segments were found in the sauce market that included: convenience,

enthusiastic cooks, disinterest and decorators.

The cluster analysis provides a way to form similar groups of respondents from a larger

dissimilar group. The statistical output shows that in both of the outputs to be compared

that no more than four was the best number of clusters. The two halves proved very

similar with having numbers such as 159 and 153 as the highest ratio between group

variations to within group average for the 4 belief scales organized into four clusters for

the respondents.

The discriminant analysis provides the statistical differences between the given number

of existing groups found in the cluster analysis. It will also predict which existing group a

new individual is most likely to become classified with; it will interpret and classify. The

multiple discriminant analysis provided that the four clusters were similar in size with the

fourth being the smallest of 97 people. The factor analysis provides that among the four

factors in “traditional,” “cook and bake,” “serving interest,” and “food value” cluster 1,2

and 3 were similar in traditional, cluster 2 was the highest for cook and bake, cluster 4

was the highest for serving interest yet all clusters were high in this category compared

to the other factors and for food value cluster 1 was the highest but all were once again

high overall. The classification for the probability of group membership also provided

that each respondent was clearly meant for one specific group. The only groups that

appear similar to each other are group 1 and 3 with close correlations for a participant.

This appears to correlate with the findings because since those two groups are

convenience and disinterest, respectively, people that would buy products for the

convenience would also be more disinterested in providing a very formal meal.

4. Had you conducted the analysis would you have anything different? If so, why?

If not, why not?

If I had conducted the analysis I would have done very similar proceedings with the

research. It provided very clear cut results. One other thing I may have done would be

to learn even more about competitors to see how the sample judged them to be able to

find more of a blue sea in the middle of sameness. It also appears that most consumers

like the sauce over the jelly. I would want to seek more insight into what types of

products would raise sales to make a new extension of the brand.