Marketing Engineering for Excel Case Version

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Karthik considered Anupama’s comments: “We should try and optimize our marketing spends to sustain MahaLacto and Nutrine for the time being. I’d like Anand to conduct market research to assess Nutrine’s equity and evaluate if we can extend it across other categories, including mints and gum. We should also assess MahaLacto; given its growing brand equity, it may be wise to see if MahaLacto can be leveraged for other brand extensions.”

Preface to Customer Research

To start, Anand invited the marketing team and regional sales heads to a meeting and explained the Core Model that he planned to use. The Core Model would help them understand how customers perceive brands, as well as how they perceive other confectionary categories (e.g., mints and gum categories).

The Core Model consists of five groups of elements: those elements that customers perceive as Core to a brand or category, those elements that represent Supporters of the brand or category, elements that are Peripheral to the brand or category, elements that seemingly should be included but are Absent, and finally elements that act as Detractors from the brand or category in question.

The Core Model

Anand explained that before they could begin customer research, the first step was for them to define a Core Model for confectionaries in general. Doing so meant achieving a consensus opinion about which Core, Supporter, and Peripheral elements would be common across all confectionary categories. Then, customer research could focus on brands such as Nutrine and MahaLacto, as well as on categories such as mints and gum, to compare the research outcomes with the Core Model for confectionaries, identify any Absentee elements, and highlight Detractors, if any.

After two hours of spirited discussions, the marketing team arrived at a Core Model for confectionaries (see Appendix 5). The Core elements included Taste, Indulgence, Flavors, Colors, and Fun. As Supporter elements, the team listed Crunchy, Soft/Chewy, Sweet, Sour, and others. Peripheral elements included Friends, Outgoing, Sporty, and Stylish.

“This Core Model for confectionaries will be useful when we complete our focus group discussions with customers, with regard to Nutrine, MahaLacto, and the new categories,” explained Anand. “It will be the basis on which we identify Absentee elements, as well as determine the degree of commonality in perceptions across brands and categories—all very valuable in deciding if

4 Appendix 4 details the brand architectures of NCC’s key competitors.

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existing perceptions make a case for an umbrella brand extended into new categories.”

Focus Group Research

After careful evaluation of the proposals of various market research firms, Anand chose to work with iMA Advisory to conduct focus group discussions (FGD) with customers. The FGDs would target 8 to 14 year old consumers and be conducted in various locations across India. Anand chose Chennai, Vijayawada, Kochi, Kolkata, Ranchi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Delhi, and Kanpur as sites for the FGDs. He directed iMA to conduct at least two FGDs at each location.5

The FGD sessions were planned to last one hour, and 12 participants were invited to each session to ensure the attendance of at least 8–10 children. The parents of the children were called in advance and informed about the FGD’s objectives; all children participating in the discussions received gift baskets.

Because the participants were children, the moderators of the FGDs were expected to play a more controlling role than in typical FGDs with adults, to encourage the children express themselves without fear. A facilitation guide with key questions was developed and mailed to the moderators in advance. The assistant moderators were in charge of taking notes, and all sessions were recorded. In each FGD, two key questions served to stimulate discussion:

What thoughts come to your mind when you think of ____ ? (Insert brand names such as Nutrine or MahaLacto, or categories such as mints or gum)

This question might not have elicited enough responses from the young participants, so the researchers were also trained to modify the question if needed, as follows:

How would you describe the world of _____ ? (Insert brand names such as Nutrine or MahaLacto, or categories such as mints or gum)

How would you describe the “_____” boy or girl? (Insert brand names such as Nutrine or MahaLacto, or categories such as mints or gum)

With these preparations, Anand expected that the FGDs would product rich information that would help them complete the elements of the Core Model for the Nutrine and MahaLacto brands, as well as the gum and mints categories.

Results from the Focus Group Research

Anand painstakingly reviewed all the transcripts for information to help build the Core Model for Nutrine, MahaLacto, and the two focal categories of mints and gum. The completed Core Models appear in Appendix 8.

Assignment

The marketing team at NCC is looking to build on the rich insights they gained from the FGDs and then captured in the Core Models.

Using the information in the Core Models for mints and gum and with some managerial judgment, the marketing team has narrowed down key attributes perceived as relevant for these categories. They hope to use these attributes

5 Appendices 6 and 7 display the FGD plan used, the levels of interactions at various locations, and the process followed to identify the FGD participants.

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to build perceptual maps for both mints and gum. To produce such perceptual maps, consumers of mints and gum need to rate Nutrine and MahaLacto (as well as relevant competitors in these categories) on the selected attributes. Furthermore, consumers would be asked to imagine their “ideal” mint -and gum (which will likely be fictional) and rate them on the same key attributes.

This exercise would generate the data needed to produce perceptual maps for mints and gum. The maps in turn could illustrate consumers’