1. 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
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
