As said before, I will post all the results of investigation process on the blog, so far I have completed one survey and two focus groups. Today I will reveal the results of my second focus group and In future blog posts – results of other.
Most of the people like sweets and especially chocolate, so I decided to make a focus group of product (chocolate) testing. There were 5 people in different age groups (17-25; 26-35; 36-50)- who took a part in the focus group. There were four different milk chocolate brands chosen for the focus group – Cadbury's, Sainsbury's, Galaxy and Malka. For the test I took 5 bowls to put the chocolate in, broke apart the chocolate bar in irregular pieces and flipped them over, facing down because some of the chocolates had brand name on them. That was done so the participants don't have a clue what the brand is. The participants were invited to try out all chocolate samples and take time to assess them, after that there were questions asked.
The participants had to choose their favorite from all samples, the opinions split in half. Younger audience preferred Milka and the older ones preferred Cadbury's chocolate, but at that moment they did not know what were the brands. Four of five people said that they did not like the sample of Sainsbury's chocolate although one person pointed at Galaxy. Another person said that they love chocolate in general and the person doesn't have a least favorite one. The reasons why people disliked Sainsbury's sample was because it felt like it stuck to teeth and gums indicating for a poor quality and another reason was that the chocolate tasted too dark for a milk chocolate. Four of five people said that Cadbury's sample seemed to be more expensive because it had more flavor, was soft, smoth and chunkier than other samples. One participant said that they like Milka more than others because it was the smoothest of all the samples.
One question asked the participants to name their favorite brands. Only two participants (from the older audience) have said that their favorite brand is Cadbury's, knowing that it has one of the biggest chocolate range in supermarkets hovever one of the reason why they liked it is because the chocolate brand is well known and trusted. Another reason was because it reminds them of childhood, their family members used to buy it. This only means that this participant was influenced by their family on their purchasing decisions and the fact that the brand has been around for a while. One participant mentioned Milka as they like the packaging and Bounty because they like coconut mixed with chocolate. Another participant mentioned more expensive Lindlt chocolate saying that they like the flavor. One said that they actually do not know the brand but the chocolate contains alcohol, the person would recognize the chocolate by the chocolate's packaging. This means that maybe the brand has not advertised themselves too much in UK if the consumer can't even tell the brand. If the brand would do a re-branding and change the packaging, there is a big chance that the consumer would not recognize the product and potentially not purchase it.
As there were two samples of the same chocolate I asked the participants if any of the samples tasted similar. 3 participants (younger audience) answered correctly pointing at the right samples. The older audience pointed at two different – Sainsbury's and Galaxy; Galaxy and Cadbury's. A reason why they did not get it right might be because with age people are starting to lose the sense of taste as well as other senses. Or the participants did not take the time to actually analyze the samples. One of the questions asked the participants to recognize the products – which of the samples is galaxy and which one is Cadbury's. The trick was that two of the five samples were Galaxy. Three of five participants pointed out correctly where two people pointed out at Sainsbury's chocolate. Interesting is the fact that the same people disliked Sainsbury's chocolate sample and said their favorite one is Cadbury's. It means that the experiment worked as they did not recognize the flavor of their favorite chocolate bar.
This Focus group test analysis shows that the experiment has worked and people got fooled by the many options of chocolate. Few of the participants thought they like a brand but in real life they preferred other. The only thing I hoped for was that someone would chose Sainsbury's as their favorite choice over other brands as it is a budget chocolate. As the experiment shows sometimes it is cheap because of the quality of the product and those extra 30 pennies do matter. The participants said that they would not buy budget chocolate over big brands. Some of the participants who are students said that sometimes they chose the cheap option if they have a restricted budget and if they are craving for a treat. So even one pound for a chocolate bar sometimes is expensive. To be quite honest if I compare the pries for a chocolate bar in Latvia, where I am originally from – they are more expensive than in UK. Milka would cost around the same as in UK but other brands are roughly about £1,20 for a chocolate bar when in UK the average is £1.
I love the taste of chocolate on a 'cheat day', what about yourself, what do you have for your 'cheat day'?
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed the post!
Have a wonderful day!
Justine
