Consumer Behavior M&M’s Company – Assignment

Do you think that it was a good segmentation for M&M’s to develop a new version targeting adults? In observing how M&M’s have changed over time from the addition of peanut butter and almonds to the changing of colors and sizes I think that was a great segmentation strategy to develop a new version targeting adults. The new line of M&M’s is 55 percent larger in size and they come in colors that are appealing to adults in its design (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2007).

According to spokeswoman Joan Buyce of Masterfoods USA this creation is designed with adults in mind and “It broadens our portfolio so there’s something for everyone” (M&M’s get mega-sized, 2012, p. 1). Buyce also states that the new M&M’s are available in milk chocolate as well as peanut varieties and come with an adult-oriented color scheme which includes teal, beige, gold, maroon, brown and blue-gray (M&M’s get mega-sized, 2012).

Due to the new line of M&M’s including aspects that target adults I think that it is a great segmentation strategy because appealing aspects are included in the development of the new version. Discuss three basic types of research of design (exploratory, descriptive and casual). The three basic types of designs are exploratory, descriptive and casual research. In the explorative research there is systematic and flexible and allows the researcher to investigate desires (Marketing Research Design, 2012).

Explorative research is also most commonly unstructured, informal research that is undertaken to gain background information about the general nature of the research problem (Marketing Research Design, 2012). While descriptive research describes and measure marketing phenomena at a point in time (Marketing Research Design, 2012). This type of research is classified as a cross sectional study, because it is a one-time measurement, which is established in market research, outnumbering longitudinal studies and casual studies (Marketing Research Design, 2012).

Casual research is performed to determine causality or to make “if-then” statements (Marketing Research Design, 2012, p. 1). This type of research uses one or more independent variables as well as the guidance of addition intervening variables (Marketing Research Design, 2012). The exploratory, descriptive and casual research mechanisms include different variables, features and methods that can be implemented in designs to make the outcomes both profitable and successful. Discuss use of research design for each method.

Uses of exploratory, descriptive and casual research can be implemented in many different methods. Explorative research design is utilized to gain background information when the problem has not been clearly formulated (Marketing Research Design, 2012). This type of research is also used to define terms and concepts in addition to clarifying problems and hypotheses which allows the researcher to define the problem more precisely and to generate a hypothesis for the upcoming study (Marketing Research Design, 2012).

Establishing research priorities is also used in exploratory research to prioritize research topics in order of importance, especially when it is faced with conducting several research studies (Marketing Research Design, 2012). While the uses of descriptive research is an experiment because it is defined as manipulating an independent variable to see how it affects a dependent variable, while also controlling the effects of additional extraneous variables (Marketing Research Design, 2012).

The types of experiments that are utilized in description research are laboratory and field experiments in addition to test marketing (Marketing Research Design, 2012). Casual research is used to measure what impact a specific change will have on the existing norms and allows market researchers to predict hypothetical scenarios (Marketing Research Design, 2012). Methods that are used in casual research design are scientific and controlled experimentation, or cause and effect experiments which it ensures that any difference in the outcome is due to different treatments of the variable under the study (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2007).

When implementing uses of exploratory, descriptive and casual research it is important to utilize the appropriate method for the classification of research in order to receive successful results. Differentiate appropriate research design methods to use in consumer habits analysis. The appropriate research design methods are used in consumer habits analysis to understand which variables are the cause and which variables are the effect the aspects. This process is performed to determine the nature of the relationship between the causal variables, the effect to be predicted, and methods that are used (Perner, 2010).

Businesses study how the consumers feel and think about options that are available about different products or brands which are consumer habits to enhance their market strategy (Perner, 2010). The market research is necessary to ensure that we provide the desires of the customer and not our desires for the customer (Perner, 2010). There are two research design methods to analyze consumer behavior which are the primary and secondary research methods (Perner, 2010). Primary research is called research at first hand because it is the research that is designed and conducted by you (Perner, 2010).

Secondary research is the research that is driven from previous information which is considered to be a by- product of primary research (Perner, 2010). This type of research involves using information that other people have already formulated (Perner, 2010). Overall, the difference between the types of research is that primary research is driven by collecting original information while secondary research is a finished product that is developed from primary research. ? References

M&M’s get mega-sized. (2012). Cable News Network. Retrieved from http://money. cnn. com/2005/08/04/news/funny/m_and_ms/ Marketing Research Design. (2012). SlideShare Inc. Retrieved from: http://www. slideshare. net/nbairstow/marketing-research-design Perner, L. (2010). Consumer Behavior: The Psychology of Marketing. Lars Perner. Retrieved from: http://www. consumerpsychologist. com/ Schiffman, L. & Kanuk, L. (2007). Consumer Behavior 9th Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ, Pearson Education, Inc.