Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment

Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment

SHOP, SWIPE, PAY FOR GROCERIES FROM HOME

Prof. Bhavani Shankar

Submitted By: TARANDEEP SINGH 2012PGP401

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Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment

Contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 3 1. RESEARCH PROBLEM ................................................................................................................. 3 2. QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUES TO BE USED ............................................................................. 4 3. RATIONALE FOR CHOSEN TECHINIQUES.............................................................................. 4 4. PROFILING OF THE RESPONDENTS FOR THE PROPOSED STUDY ................................... 5 5. QUESTIONS AND DATA COLLECTION..................................................................................... 5 6. PLAN FOR ANALYSIS OF DATA ................................................................................................. 7 7. EXPECTATIONS FROM THE STUDY ......................................................................................... 7 REFRENCES ........................................................................................................................................ 8

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Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment

INTRODUCTION
Groceries sell regardless of the state of the economy. One can decline going to the restaurants and cinema, but there's no way one can live without vegetables, soap, shampoo and other groceries required for day today living. Caught between long working hours hou and tiresome commuting, most people don't have the time to buy groceries or would like to avoid. People now have become quite comfortable ordering apparel, electronics, shoes etc online. With this improving confidence and comfort with online payments, selling groceries online has become a potent viable option.

With a huge customer base and ever increasing penetration of Internet connectivity (partly through smart phones) ) and growing popularity of online shopping, some entrepreneurs have seen the potential in creating e-stores stores for groceries. AaramShop.com, EkStop.com, BigBasket.com, AtMyDoorSteps.com, MyGrahak.com, ZopNow.com, are some of the online stores retailing groceries. Most of the existing retailers offer their service in metros and major urban centers. c Still there are a lot of people who prefer present brick and mortar model due to the touch and feel involvement of the consumer. From our research we need to get an idea about the sustainability ability of the online grocery shopping means and can it replace e the current brick and mortar model?
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Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment

1. RESEARCH PROBLEM
The purpose of this study is to know the perception of the people towards online grocery shopping and the future of the online grocery market. And if possible then to get a fair idea about the problems faced by the current users and the reasons for a customer for not shifting from current mode of shopping to the other. Based on above objectives we can define following research questions: R1: Will online shopping be able to sustain its present growth momentum? R2: Can it replace the current brick and mortar model?

2. QUALITATIVE TECHNIQUES TO BE USED

Defining the target audience become very important before deciding upon the appropriate qualitative technique/s to be used for obtaining data. In our case we can look at two set of people one those who shop online and other those who do not. Well get a complete different set of data from both of them. First well focus on getting the outline of the research using the Focused Group Discussions as itll help us in getting a range of opinions. The participants will be selected on the basis of their prior trial. Focused group discussion will enable us to learn about how a particular group approaches the idea of online shopping of groceries. Once we have a fair idea about the patterns and approach of a set of people we can proceed with Semi-Structured Interviews for vivid picture of the participants perspective on online grocery shopping. For the interview questions will be designed in a manner as if the interviewee is an expert. Well have to take care of prior biases if any. Semi-Structured Interviews

Sampling

Focused Group Discussions

Data Analysis

3. RATIONALE FOR CHOSEN TECHINIQUES

First well focus on getting the outline of the research using the Focused Group Discussions, which even thought is economic, but still helps us in getting a range of opinions and increases the apparent validity of the research. It is used since we need more than just the plain knowledge about agreement or disagreement on the idea of online grocery shopping, we need the opinion about a consumer\non consumer. Through focused group discussion well get a fair idea how people perceive online shopping and what all areas we need to focus while conducting the SemiPage 4

Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment Structured interviews. Focus group interviews might provide quality controls because participants tend to provide checks and balances on one another that can serve to curb false or extreme views but theyll still solve the purpose of drawing a frame work for the next step in research. Once we have a fair idea about the patterns and approach of a set of people we can proceed with Semi-Structured Interviews for vivid picture of the participants perspective on online grocery shopping. Semi-Structured interviews are useful when detailed information about a persons thoughts and behaviors are required. Interviews are often used to provide context to other data (such as outcome data), offering a more complete picture of what happened in the program and why. Semi-Structured interview is important in this research as only it can provide the sort of depth in data required, the insights of a consumer/non consumer on why theyll adopt or decline to adopt the online medium of grocery shopping.

4. PROFILING OF THE RESPONDENTS

ASSUMPTION: The respondents the respondents have a fair idea about the concept. For the focused group the participants will be purposefully selected from all the sectors of socio-economic strata because of their unique experiences. There will be different groups for the people who have had a prior experience of the online grocery shopping and a different group for those who have never tried shopping online. Profile of current users of the online medium can be collected from any website which offers such services and non users can be accumulated at any grocery store. Since online shopping is not restricted to any age group so that would not be a factor while profiling. For Semi-Structured interview an e-mail will be sent to the prospective participants asking them whether they would be interested in participating in a research study. Each participant will be contacted and a convenient location and time will be determined for the interview. Prior to the interview the researcher will ask the participants to sign a consent form and completed a demographic form of relevant background data. The researcher will conduct the pilot study using a questionnaire and moderately structured interviewing techniques; asking-open-ended questions to the participants about their unique experiences about the online shopping and trying to understand their preferences, beliefs and practices from the same.
Demographic Age group- Doesnt Matter Gender- equal representation of both males and females Location Metro, Tier-1 cities and Tier-2 cities Economic status- Middle, Upper-Middle and Higher Class Psychographic Profile Tech savy people Information seekers, try to be aware and inquisitive about latest trends

Open to experimentation
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Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment

5. QUESTIONS AND DATA COLLECTION

FOCUSED GROUP DISCUSSION TOPICS
Will online grocery shopping be a norm in future? Can online grocery shopping replace the current brick and mortar model? Online grocery shopping vs Shopping in a store

QUESTIONNAIRE
DEMOGRAPHIC DATA

This section captures the demographic data. This can be used to correlate the demographics with the awareness for brands/attributes. 1. Age ____
AWARENESS

2. Gender _____

3. Monthly Family Income __________

Here we look at the unaided awareness of the customers. The website mentioned first has top of the mind recall while the others form the complete awareness set of the customer. 4. HAVE YOU EVER BOUGHT ANYTHING ONLINE? Yes No 5. A) ARE YOU AWARE OF ANY ONLINE FOOD AND GROCERY SHOPPING WEBSITE? Yes No
B) IF YES, MENTION ALL ONLINE FOOD AND GROCERY SHOPPING WEBSITE THAT COME TO YOUR MIND (Unaided)

First brand ________ Other brands _____________________________________________________

TRIAL EXPERIENCE

Here we first check if a participant has tried the online medium of grocery shopping or not and if yes then how was the experience.
6. HAVE YOU EVER BOUGHT ANY GROCERY ONLINE?

Yes ( _____, a rough estimate of number of times) No

7. IF YES, THEN HOW WAS THE EXPERIENCE?

Pleasant Unpleasant
8. WHAT STOPS YOU FROM FUTURE USE/TRIAL OF ONLINE GROCEY SHOPPING?

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Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ After these MANDATORY questions the interviewer can proceed with more on the spot questions based on the replies of the above questions to gather deeper insights. From here on the interview will be shaped by the answers of the interviewee.

6. PLAN FOR ANALYSIS OF DATA

The qualitative data would be analysed by following the below 5 steps and explanation is given for each step: 1. Compiling Post the FGD and interview, all the transcripts would be digitised, i.e. computer files would be made and backup taken for all the files. Print copies would be made to give to each researcher 2. Disassembling - Reflective notes would be made from the data recorded to identify the emergent themes, factors and relationships. They would be grouped under the 3 heads- current user, prospective user, and migrator. 3. Reassembling In this stage, we would be looking for patterns through the data matrix i.e. all the narratives, would be written down under each label. 4. Interpreting The narratives would be re-read, analysed to interpret the data. Based on them, it would be identified what divides the consumers in all the three heads and the reasons for same. 5. Concluding Recommendations would be provided based on the interpretations made. The findings of the researchers would be cross-validated and any contradicting findings would be rechecked. A Narrative Analysis approach would be followed as It helps draw from participants, an account of something they have experienced. It recognizes the extent to which the stories we tell provide insight into lived experiences. It requires that we are able to detect the main themes to emerge from the stories. The themes are used to interpret how these participants make sense of their lives or experiences. Analysis would be done to segregate the consumers who would be prone to switching or who can be future target customers also about the possibility of switching from one medium to another and the reasons for same. There will be some amount of quantitative data as well which can be analysed corroborating the qualitative part.

7. EXPECTATIONS FROM THE STUDY

The value of qualitative research is immense but it is interesting to note that the combination of both qualitative and quantitative approaches can add even more value. Neither qualitative nor quantitative have universal applicability, but qualitative methods can be used to determine the plausibility of quantitative research.

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Qualitative Marketing Research Assignment The proposed study follows a qualitative research approach, involving semi-structured interview and FGD as the crucial data collection techniques to collect information from customers about the sustainability of the online grocery shopping means and if it can replace the current brick and mortar model? Considering the limitations of the research, the expectations from the study are to provide a basic idea about a consumers perception about online grocery shopping but itll be difficult to predict the number of people switching their mode of shopping in the future.

REFRENCES
1. Qualitative Research and Marketing Management John Milliken 2. Conducting Semi-Structured Interviews Carolyn Boyce and Palena Neale 3. A Digital Life: The good, bad and gross of online grocery shopping
http://gigaom.com/2013/07/24/a-digital-life-the-good-bad-and-gross-of-online-grocery-shopping/

4. It's back to the shops! Why were fed up with buying groceries online
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2006005/Grocery-shopping-online-Were-fed-shops.html 5. A fresh look at online shopping https://www.atkearney.com/paper/-/asset_publisher/dVxv4Hz2h8bS/content/a-fresh-look-atonline-grocery/10192

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