Qualitative ResearchQualitative Research

Market Market

Raymond's Park Avenue beer shampoo ad 'Cheers to Man Hair' seeks to promote a new categoryRaymond's Park Avenue beer shampoo ad 'Cheers to Man Hair' seeks to promote a new category

Soham SarkarSoham Sarkar 2012 PGP 3652012 PGP 365

1. Conceptualization of the research problem

To determine the level of awareness amongst Indian males about the benefits of using beer as an ingredient for shampoo. To ascertain the awareness levels we need to subdivide awareness into 2 levels and try to understand each one individually. So we will try to understand the following in sequence I. II. III. II.IV. The level of awareness about the company The level of awareness of the product itself Is there compatibility in the new product and the parent brand? what is the customer perception or belief about the new entrant in the brand arsenal?

2. Identification of the appropriate qualitative technique/s to be used for obtaining data

Since the research problem itself is subdivided into two parts we can use different qualitative techniques for each independent of each other.

Research problem

Identification of appropriate techniques

Awareness about the company

Phenomenological focussed group discussion

Awareness about the product

In-depth interviews

For determining the level of awareness about the company we can use Phenomenological Focus group discussion. For determining the level of awareness about the product we can use In-depth interview.

3. Rationale for choosing a particular technique/s

For determining the level of awareness about the company we will use Phenomenological Focus group discussion for the following reasons
a) We require a general opinion, experience, outlook about the brand, the perceived image of the company. We need to know what the company is associated with in general like is it a low cost player or does it cater to the luxury segment?, is the brand seen as a macho brand or not? etc. b) The company is known to have high brand value; therefore we can use the Phenomenological Focused Group Discussion to conform to it. We can quickly gather the views and check whether the product is in accordance to the perception of the brand itself or not. c) It is more cost effective than In-depth interview which also could have been used for similar purposes. d) It is more time effective also than In-depth interview so a lot of data can be gathered in short span of time so that we can move to the next phase of the problem. e) We need to build a better rapport with the participant as we need to delve deeper into his mind and need to know what he thinks about shampoo in general, which ingredients he think is good for hair his connotations about beer etc f) The participant is seldom distracted in an IDI as opposed to the FGD and there is no interference of opinions from others which might contaminate his views. g) In a FGD there might be a significant amount of non-participation but IDI has no such issues. It depends on the moderator to ensure that the participants speak up. To ensure this, researcher can inform the respondents about the topic and take their consent. h) With IDIs, each participant has more time and opportunity to share feelings, perspectives, and attitudes. The interviewer has plenty of time to probe and obtain in-depth responses since respondents tend to express themselves more freely. i) In many projects, researchers make findings during the interview that lead to discoveries. It usually requires only a few IDIs to make the discovery and

For determining the level of awareness about the product we will use Indepth interview for the following reasons. Would it not be better if you conduct FGD? In short span of time you will be able to get more information from respondents. Also more respondents can be covered that way. As it is a life style product, you will not have any serious issues for conduct of FGDs.

implement change, where at least one focus group is required to do so, and in some cases two are needed. The sooner researchers can identify an issue, the fewer resources it will spend on a flawed design.

4. Detailed profiling of the respondents for the proposed study

Park Avenue Beer Shampoo has created a path-breaking category in the hair care segment by launching the first-ever shampoo for men in India. What is this category? The product that has been launched was targeted at men in the age group of 21-25 years. According to business director at Raymond's FMCG arm JK Helene Curtis. "The product is targeted at the stylish young Indians, who want to groom themselves with innovative products". There are many other similar products. Though Beer shampoo targets stylish young Indians as a whole, they are mainly focusing on male market segment to foster their growth in India. Increased interest level in physical appearance and grooming are mainly fostering the growth of male cosmetic sector. Other important factors fuelling market growth are product innovations, growing middleclass consumer base, and changing customer needs. In fact, these factors have promoted the introduction of new product categories (like hair care and skin care) rather than traditional men grooming products like shaving creams and deodorants. So, we can see that the target segments are: The stylish young Indian males in an age group of about 21-25 years majority of whom might be from the growing middle class.

So this group of the population can be selected for our study.

5. Detailed guide with relevant questions to facilitate data collection

The main purpose of the Focused Group Discussion is to conform about awareness of the company Raymond and the Brand value of Park Avenue. For conforming about the awareness of the company we can go with either of the following methods:I. Unaided awareness:-Unaided awareness is the extent to which consumers think of a company or product on a top-of-mind basis. For example, we might ask, "When you think of companies that provide these kinds of products, which first come to mind?" Aided awareness:- Aided awareness is the extent to which consumers who know about acompany or product are familiar with that company or product. For example, we might ask, "How familiar are you with this company? Would you say you are very familiar, somewhat familiar, or not familiar?"

II.

Here we can go with Unaided or unaided awareness approach. As the company it-self is very famous and its tagline The complete man is instantaneously recognizable

We require a general opinion, experience, outlook about the brand, the perceived image of the company. We need to know what the company is associated with in general. As we are conducting a Focused Group Discussion we need to select certain topics for the discussion amongst the participants so the broad topics of discussions or questions could be as follows:I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. Overall reputation Quality and appeal of products or services Convenience (location, hours, etc.) Sales and marketing effectiveness could you be more specific, you mean promotional efforts? Or anything specific in promotion? Customer service Delivery Timeliness these three are taken care by the retailer and it is FMCG Costs Resolution of problems and complaints

Formatted: Highlight Formatted: Highlight

For getting an insight about the brand we can pith the following topic:I. II. III. Is the brand seen as a macho brand or not? Is it a low cost player or does it cater to the luxury segment? look into the price. What do they understand by the tagline The complete man, can you relate that with a shampoo?

For the product, Beer Shampoo it-self we can pitch the following questions in the In-depth interview:I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. Do they make a conscious effort to groom themselves and why? How much they pay or are willing to pay for men grooming products? What are their current preferences for hair care? Are they surrogate users that is, are they comfortable using women shampoo? What they think are the ingredients that are good for their hair? How much they are willing to pay for a hair-care shampoo? Do they have any negative connotation surrounding beer as an ingredient? How aware are they about the benefits of using beer as an ingredient for their shampoo?

6. Plan for carrying out analysis of data

As per previous studies, it has been found that the analysis and interpretation of focus group data require a great deal of judgment and care, just as any other scientific approach, and regardless of whether the analysis relies on quantitative or qualitative procedures. A great deal of the skepticism about the value of focus groups probably arises from the perception that focus group data are subjective and difficult to interpret. Berkowitz (1997) suggested six questions when coding and analyzing qualitative data: What common themes emerge in responses about specific topics? How do these patterns (or lack thereof) help to illuminate the broader central question(s)?

Are there deviations from these patterns? If so, are there any factors that might explain these deviations? How are participants' environments or past experiences related to their behavior and attitudes? What interesting stories emerge from the responses? How do they help illuminate the central question(s)? Do any of these patterns suggest that additional data may be needed? Do any of the central questions need to be revised? Are the patterns that emerge similar to the findings of other studies on the same topic? If not, what might explain these discrepancies?

First of all, I will transcribe the focused group discussion as well as the interviews. However, the most prominent problem of qualitative analysis is the validation aspect. In order to validate the transcription of group discussion and the interviews, we will approach an expert who will listen to them and validate the transcribed document. The second stage of analysis involves frequency count of words. We will do the frequency count of repeated words to come up with a theme. For, example if the word brand was used with the highest frequency then we can say that the focus is on brand. The third stage of analysis is finding out the sub-themes and main themes. Some of the sub themes that emerge from the study can be conglomerated to form a theme. For example, a theme likely to emerge can be importance of ingredients in branded products.

7. Expectations from the study

The study will give an insight on the values that the customers want from the product whether actual or notional like perception of beer as an ingredient in shampoo. So, the company can focus on the above identified aspects for making the brand a success. The consumers might not actually be aware of the benefits of beer as an ingredient in shampoo but they still might be lured to use the product just for the sake of brand value and macho factor.