Marketing Management II

CASE III - The “Popeye’s Chicken”

Section-B

Submitted to: Prof. Shyam Vyas, Ph.D. Submitted by: Group No.- 8

Due date: 27/10/2010 Submitted on: 27/10/2010

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CASE SUMMARY

Jay Mary had been in the food business for many years. He worked in his family-owned

chain of supermarkets. In 1983, A National Chain decided to buy out the Mary Company, to

which the family agreed.

There were many reasons for the sale of the company. Prominent among them was that the

family had long considered moving from the supermarket business to the fast-food business,

as they had expected that the proportion of people who ate out was on the rise. Also, Changes

in consumers’ lifestyles and increased competition from the national chains made the Mary

Company less and less profitable through the years.

Mary had read in Industry publications that Sales in the chicken segment were excellent and

were predicted to increase by 20 percent on a year basis and fast-food chicken products were

demonstrating the most growth.

Mary decided that if research indicated that people in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area liked

hot-and-spicy Cajun-style chicken, he would purchase a Popeye’s Famous Fried Chicken and

Biscuits, Inc. franchise which sold this uniquely prepared food.

In 1983 Popeye’s had about 400 restaurants in 30 states and in several foreign countries. The

typical Popeye’s’ customer was supposedly upbeat, young, employed, and equally male and

female and black and white. Marketers at Popeye’s claimed that Popeye’s’ hot-and-spicy

chicken had universal appeal. Popeye’s was the third-largest fast-food chicken company.

Although Mary was interested in purchasing a Popeye’s’ franchise, he had serious concerns

about whether a sufficient number of people in the St. Paul – Minneapolis area would react

favorably to the hot-and-spicy chicken. Unless he could comfortably predict that reaction

would be positive, he would not undertake the venture.

A survey of one thousand adults was conducted to gather information concerning their age,

sex, amount spent, and frequency of eating at fast-food restaurants; also the industry analysts

claimed that fast-food companies have a bright future.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Do you believe Mary has adequate inputs to decision-making – or is it that he really

needs a real and good research?

No. Mary doesn’t have adequate inputs to decision-making, because most of his data

were taken up from readings and publications (secondary sources), which may tend to

deviate from the real scenario.

Mary needs a real and good research done specifically for northern states of America

as he is planning to take up the franchise in Minnesota.

The survey reports on which he has analyzed were based on national data and not on

the region where the joint was.

What is your group’s understanding of market research?

Market research is an objective, systematic, process of identifying, gathering,

recording, storing, retrieving, sorting, analyzing etc– along with all other related

activities – performed to aid business & marketing decision-making.

Market Research is an on-going process and reduces uncertainty for a manager.

What might be in your group’s opinion characteristics of good market research?

Market research should have a clear objective.

Marketing research should be systematic.

A good market research should be timely. Because a market research not completed

on time is of no use.

It should be relevant. As in this case, the market research should be conducted for the

northern states of America.

A good market research must be efficient.

Market research should be accurate. As market research reduces the uncertainty for

the manager an accurate market research is most desired.

Good marketing researchers show little reliance upon glib or stereotyped assumptions made by managers about how a market works.

What kind of information and what type of research does J Mary need?

J Mary needs information from primary data and secondary data to determine

awareness levels, consumer preferences and the usage levels as regard to the

consumers in northern American states.

He needs information on consumer behavior. This includes the spending pattern

according to the various environmental factors like economic environment, social-

culture environment, demographic environment, etc.

A Descriptive market research is required to determine satisfaction, factors influential

in consumer decision-making and to determine consumer demographics associated

with purchase and consumption.

If Mary conducts a survey, what contact techniques and sample plan should he use?

Can you draw up a research plan for him?

Mail Questionnaires, Personal Interviews, Telephone Interviews, Online Interviews

are the contact techniques that Mary should use.

Sampling Plan is used to get the representative sample by making decisions such as

Sample unit, Sample Size, Sample Selection Decisions (Probability & Non

Probability Sample Selection Techniques).

Sample should be representative of the target market. So J Mary needs to have a

sample of people eating out in the northern American states.

Research plan for Mary may include: data sources (mainly primary), research

approaches (survey research, experimental research), research instruments ( hybrid

questionnaires), sampling plan, contact method, information collection, analysis of

information, conclusions and finally decisions.

Should open-end or closed-end questions be used? Does Mary have a need for a

marketing information system at this time?

Mary should use a hybrid questionnaire i.e. one containing both open-ended and

closed-ended questions. Thus a mix of both should be used as closed questions will

give us facts and open questions will provide us with opinions and feelings.

Yes Mary needs a marketing information system at this time as he is going into a new

business and he doesn’t have much information about it. The information he has may

not be relevant for him. It will provide the information necessary to develop

marketing strategy.

The Marketing Information System will enable the identification of emerging market

segments, and the monitoring of the market environment for changes in consumer

behavior, competitor activities, and new technologies.

Can you identify any businesses in Indian context that may be in similar situation as

projected in this case and may benefit from research? Please discuss.

Taking up a franchise of a retail outlet like Shoppers Stop in a B-1 Indian city. The

purchasing behavior of people living in the metropolitan cities of India and also of the

A cities is different from the purchasing behavior of B-1 or B-2 cities.

Consumer behavior is different as people of the metropolitan are more brand

conscious whereas the people of B cities care more about the value for money.

Market research would give all the information one would require before entering into

such business and would also help in taking better decisions like which brands to keep

or what the price range should be.

RELATIONSHIP TO CONCEPTS

Market Research: This case emphasises on the importance of market research. Mary needs

to know about the behaviour and preferences of the consumers before going for the franchises

and for that a good market research is necessary. It makes a lot of differences in success of

any business. The various marketing research tools, if applied correctly, can make any

business model successful.

Consumer Behaviour: The case talks about the eating habit of people across America.

People of different age groups, gender have different consumption habits. It relates various

demographical attributes to the buying behaviour of a consumer.