'I just love the taste of Chocolate'

Hello my blog visitors,

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

Survey is awaiting for your answers!!!

Hello readers,
Here is a survey which is a part of my incestigation project, please don't be shy and go on it. It will take maximum 2 minutes of your time to complete the survey! As promised - results of the analysis will be published on the blog. Thank you very very much! You can see the survey down below:

SURVEY

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https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe4jlhV6tTD0ozeeZeQ7UkE3U3hxIqEHA15kccw5d_om1xmDg/viewform

Loyalty- is it a myth or reality?

Hello to my readers and thank you for following,

This time I wanted to look at a theme called 'loyalty'. What does loyalty stand for in English?! According to dictionary.com loyalty as a noun, plural is:

1.The state or quality of being loyal; faithfulness to commitments or obligations
2. Faithful adherence to a sovereign, government, leader, cause, etc.

Loyalty, allegiance, fidelity all imply sense of duty or of devoted attachment to something or someone. Loyalty connotes sentiment and the feeling of devotion that one holds for one's country, creed, family, friends, etc. I would mark the two words – devoted attachment. If we are looking at the previous blog post which was about branding, one of the keys of successful brand is positive customer experience with the brand. Customers will become loyal to a brand if their previous experience has been positive. Customer loyalty encourages people to shop more often therefore spend more money. With the positive experience customers spread the word and might potentially encourage other people to brand switch.

There are two types of brand loyalty – Monogamous and Polygamous loyalty. Lets take a deeper look in these terms. Monogamous loyalty: for example a person shops in Asda, Farmfoods and Savers unfailingly shop at all three. The person who shops in these 3 shops is then loyal to them but not to others and yet 100% loyal to none. A customer could purchase brand 'A' 70% of a time, brand 'B' 20% of the time and Brand 'C' 10% of time. In the real life to find 100% loyal customer is hard. The studies show that in majority of cases to make customers completely loyal is unrealistic. Polygamous loyalty is a better description of actual consumer behavior than either brand switching or promiscuity. Many researches think that a definition of loyalty is a summary of history of actions, feelings and intentions towards the brand or commercial relationship.

Now, this makes me think, is there no 100% loyalty to a brand? But how about the "I'' geeks, who will stand in a 12h que for a brand new IPhone, what about Xbox or PlayStation fans? I am sure that you have at least two friends who are either Xbox or PlayStation fans and they will never brand switch but what makes them stay with the brands if even the technologies are at the same level, even the pricing for games are at the same level. I do understand for example loyalty towards food shops, personally I would shop at a store which is affordable and close to my location. Sainsbury's is not my favorite store but I shop there the most because I live 2 minutes away from the store, I would rather shop at Asda but it is too far away and I do not have a car. Speaking about cars, my family is loyal to Audi car brand, from my Grandpa to my sister and if I would need to chose one I would go for Audi as well. My explanation is simple, I have grown up with this brand and my family haven't said anything bad about it, so my experience (without even driving the car) has been positive and the influence of my family plays a big role in my decisions – their opinion is important. You could ask yourself few questions as well, are you a loyal customer, to what brands and why?! This post is just an insight of the term 'loyalty', further instigations will show more in depth detail.

I will be carrying out an Investigation on loyalty by making a market research. In the next blog posts you will able to see the results of the investigation. If you are interested to take a part in the investigation you can get in touch with me to discuss details.

Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

Justine


Resources:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/loyalty
http://prloyaltymarketing.com/customer-loyalty/what-is-customer-loyalty/

Hello My Readers,

Today i wanted to look at a theme called 'Branding' as in now days branding has a bigger meaning as it was historically, a brand can be a company as well as a person or a country. Brand is not just a logo or a name it also represents a personality of a company, also how a company connects with their audience and how the company is being perceived and seen by the audience.
Recently on the news there was a scandal in between two Kylie's – Kylie Minogue and Kylie Jenner. These both were arguing about – who owns the 'Kylie' Trademark.  After a legal battle Kylie Minogue, an Australian  popstar and charity activist has won the case but despite to the arguments with Kylie Minogue, Kylie Jenner who is known as a TV star from 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' is still planning on producing cosmetic products under the brand 'Kylie'.  Another funny case study -  a South Korean fried chicken restaurant lost a case to a fashion brand Louis Vuitton as the court agreed that the name of the restaurant was too similar to the big fashion brand. The name was Louis Vuitton Dak, obviously similar and totally not in the same direction as the fashion brand. As well as the name, the logo was similar to the fashion brand and even the packaging had the famous imagery. The chicken restaurant was fined for 14,5 million dollars for non compliance, I think that was a good lesion not to 'copy-paste' a brands ID. By looking at the differences, companies still could invest in not common direction products or services for example an internationally known brand called TATA produces cars and lorries as well as mineral water and owns a hotel business.

Did you know that a well know British sandwich shop 'Pret a Manger' is owned by Mc Donald's big chain company? First of all the name of the sandwich shop does not sound British at all, the first thought that comes in mind is French. By looking at the dictionary it's meaning is 'ready to eat' which is an adaptation from French expression prêt à porter (ready to wear), the name was inspired by French delicatessen Rees. Secondly the brand values include freshness and quality but a lot of people know the reputation of Mc Donald's – unhealthy, cheap frozen food which is full of fats and bad ingredients. Pret A Manger is the opposite direction of Mc Donald's chain. Mc Donald's itself recently started a re-branding process, changing the look and values of the company, promoting themselves as a healthier brand and with modern looks. The healthiness is tied in the packaging - offering customers more organic, recycled packaging and even the design of the new restaurants has a more 'nature' kind of look tying in the greens with the yellows. Even few adverts which I have seen was Mc Donald's promoting their food as healthy because it is coming form natural British sources and they are starting to offer deli meals which are more expensive and more exclusive.  In the big burger competition in now days Mc Donald's has to change their ways or their loyal customers could turn to other brands with better offers. It's good to see the changes already but they will need to work and invest a lot to improve their brand image.

My personal opinion about branding is to be creative. There is no need of copying others, the originality and the idea are  the main things in business. Copying others will just cause trouble, lawsuits and money loss. As many would say 'any kind of reputation is good reputation' is not always true because for example Mc Donald's had to invest a lot of money just to change customers perceptions about their brand by trying to look more natural and more as a restaurant by even considering to improve table service.
  
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed this post and at last -  have great day!
Justine

 Sources:  1. https://www.trademarknow.com/blog/9-nasty-trademark-infringement-cases-and-how-to-avoid-them
2.https://www.marketingweek.com/2015/11/04/how-mcdonalds-is-shifting-quality-perceptions-with-its-premium-burger-launch/
3. Book:  Melissa Davis "The Fundimentals of Branding" 

Hello and Welcome!

Hello readers,
This blog has been created for study purposes and it will give you an insight of marketing, brands, loyalty systems and psychology in now days. Every week there will be at least one post about recent findings and news. Feel free to follow and any feedback or comments would be very appreciated.

Thank you
 😃 😃 😃