Investigating Customer Value Impact on HK Confectionery Loyalty

This research proposal investigates the impact of customer perceived value on customer satisfaction and loyalty within the confectionery industry in Hong Kong, focusing on Ameyokocho stores. The study aims to understand how customer perceptions of value influence their satisfaction levels and subsequent loyalty towards confectionery brands. The research will address specific objectives, including assessing customer perceived value, analyzing its effect on satisfaction and loyalty, identifying strategies to enhance perceived value, and recommending methods for delivering valuable products. The research will employ a quantitative approach, utilizing online surveys and potentially store manager interviews to collect primary data. The collected data will be analyzed using SPSS to perform statistical analyses such as reliability tests, descriptive analysis, correlation analysis, exploratory analysis, and regression modeling. The proposal outlines a detailed plan, including a timeline and research methodology, to guide the investigation and contribute to the existing literature on customer behavior in the food industry. The research will also explore strategies used by Ameyokocho stores to enhance perceived value for customer satisfaction and loyalty. The final dissertation will encompass an extensive literature review, data analysis, and discussion of findings. The proposal also outlines the research questions and objectives to guide the research direction.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Table of Contents
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY................................................................................................1
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................................2
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.............................................................................................................3
RATIONALE...................................................................................................................................3
PROPOSAL PLAN..........................................................................................................................4
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................7
RESEARCH MODEL...................................................................................................................13
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS........................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15

Topic: To investigate the impact of customer perceived value on customers satisfaction and
loyalty in food industry of Hong Kong. A case of Ameyokocho stores.
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Customers are the most significant element for any business organization. It has been
observed that consumers never purchase products primarily for their functions (Hazée and Van
Vaerenbergh, 2020). However, they make purchase of specific goods with an intention to get
perceived benefits the clients is getting from the product. While at the time of purchase it has
been identified that customer values products much more than the functions of goods. In today's
competitive environment it has been seen that in food industry sector there are extra barriers that
have been generated in order to achieve customers loyalty and it becomes difficult to satisfy the
desires and requirements of each consumer. Consumers loyalty is highly important in order to
improve overall performance of the firm and build better relationship with their potential clients
(Ali and Bhasin, 2019). The creation of high amount of consumer satisfaction, customer loyalty
and customer perceived value it is highly important to create a positive relationship among the
clients. The organization which strongly boosts up the overall performance of the firm resulting
in fulfilment of desires of consumers which automatically provides complete satisfaction.
There are many factors that influences the satisfaction as well as loyalty level within the
customers with the help of giving them perceived value of the offered products (AL-Ghaswyneh,
2020). It has been stated and seen that the food quality highly influences the customers to make
purchase of goods irrespective of prices up to certain extent. Food quality defines itself with the
collection of all the food chunks into one final product that are going to be offer to customers
and in return they have to give payment to the firm. Thus in order to meet the requirements
related to the food quality there are certain characteristics that needs to be focused by the
confectionery shops or even overall food industry such as freshness of food, food presentation,
taste, variety of item available, food temperature and innovation of food highly influences the
customers towards the product in order to make the purchase or not. After getting the product
the another factor works which decides that whether the customers feel satisfied or not and thus
they will be loyal customer for the firm or not in their future terms.
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Apart from food quality, the service quality of the employees that are working within the
establishment and offer the product directly to the clients along with the prices at which the firm
offer their goods are also highly important factors that affects the purchase and overall sales of
the organisation in most effectual manner (Jiang and et.al., 2018). Monetary and time costs
extremely affects the perceived value of customers while perceived service quality points out
higher level of perceived value. Customers also gives their complete focus on convenience in
order to get the product. Customers more likely to make purchase if they find that the product or
the company makes the use of their time more efficient. The combination of all the elements are
able to make products and services most successful in nature and thus fulfils the requirement of
customer perceived value in complete manner. In simple words it has been summarised that
company develop its brand value and market their products, customers are the ones who
ultimately determine the ways to understand and react accordingly towards the marketing
messages.
The confectionery industry has been chosen by the scholar for study as this is one of the
most dynamically growing and innovative food sectors in Hong Kong. The global confectionery
market was valued at £210billion in 2020 and is projected to reach at £271billion by 2025.
Confectionery industry includes wide range of products such as chocolates, cookies, gummies,
candy, bars and many more. It is important to fulfil the requirements of customers as it gets keep
on changing constantly. Their habits, tastes and preferences changes day by day. All such things
involves the innovation in the field of confectionery that drives the overall market growth.
Furthermore, the trend of gifting confectionery products has enable to propel the market growth
in recent years but also in order to satisfy the requirements of customers. Thus, the topic is
extremely important to study in detailed manner to get all the necessary view points completely.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
Aim
To evaluate the impact of customer perceived value on customer satisfaction and loyalty
of Ameyokocho stores.
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Research Objectives
 To achieve complete apprehension about the customer perceived value in food industry
of Hong Kong.
 To analyse impact of customer perceived value on customer satisfaction and loyalty of
Ameyokocho stores.
 To identify strategies used by Ameyokocho stores to enhance perceived value for
customer satisfaction and loyalty.
 To recommend various methods that can be used by company to deliver valuable
products to customers for its growth and development.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 How the conception of customer perceived value is addressed by food and confectionery
industry?
 What are the impacts of customer perceived value over customer satisfaction and
loyalty?
 What strategies utilised by food industry to increase customer perceived value?
 What are different recommendations to deliver valuable services and products to the
customers?
RATIONALE
The topic impact of customer perceived value on customer satisfaction and loyalty on
food industry of Hong Kong is extremely important to study as the success of any product or
service is largely dependent upon whether the customer believe in that specific product or not
regarding the fulfilment of their needs and wants in order to make them completely satisfied. In
another words it can be described as when any organization develops its brand and market its
products and services, customers ultimately determine the ways to interpret and react to the
marketing content. It has been examined that when a customer attaches high expectations or
level of perceived credibility to any product or any organization, then they are more likely or
interested to purchase that product or do share business activities with them with more
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interestingly manner (Calvo-Porral and Lévy-Mangin, 2017). Consumers are generally more
likely to pay more for the brands with a reputable within the market space in terms of their
quality and effective services. With credibility, it comes with high level of trust and satisfaction
level among the consumers. It majorly defines the importance of that particular product to that
customer and at what cost he or she will ready to purchase that specific item.
Worth is the word that defines the ultimate feelings of the consumers that whether they
are feeling getting benefits from the services they are getting in return to the amount they are
paid. The organization can evaluate their value of products and services within the market place
with evaluating certain categories which involves calculation of total number of purchases over
the customer's life time, average purchase value, purchase frequency, number of products and
services purchased, time duration or gap between each purchase, number of referrals generated
and many other. Customer perceived value is extremely important for any organisation as there
are thousands of similar firms available in the market space which are also offering more or less
similar kind of food items or products so, an excellent perceived value will help the firm to stand
out in front of their competitors (Alhider, 2018). In order to fulfil the requirements of creating
high amount of customer perceived value within the market space in the eyes of the consumers,
company have to present their products and services in a manner that customer realises the real
value of the product and thus save revenue or money or going continuously save the money in
longer duration of time by keep using the items of that particular establishment. Thus, with the
involvement of strategies such as advertising, giving efficient services, great quality, etc. will
enables the firm to convince clients in order to purchase their products. With the offering of
multi channel support, collect feedbacks time to time manner in order to modify the products
and services according to their desires, measure regularly customer satisfaction level, take
actions on clients complaints and on negative reviews in fast and quick manner (Abebe, 2019).
PROPOSAL PLAN
Activities 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Research
topic
selection
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Developme
nt of
research
aim,
objectives
and
questions
related to
the study
about the
specific
topic
Drafting of
brief
research
proposal
Analysing
secondary
sources for
developmen
t of brief
thesis
Selection
and
assessment
of research
methods
Drafting
questionnair
e referring
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to open
ended as
well as
close ended
questions
along with
recommend
ations
Collection
of primary
data with
the help of
questionnair
e
Collection
and
evaluation
of gathered
data set
Giving
conclusions
Recommend
ing
alternative
solutions for
growth as
per the
issues and
challenges
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assessed
Arrangemen
t of file in
structured
format
Consulting
with tutor
about the
study and
final
outcomes
will be
derived in
detailed
manner
Modificatio
ns in the
existing
study
according to
the
comments
given by the
tutor in
order to
make the
research
more
appropriate
and up to
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date
Final
submission
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research methodology is a course of action through which the researchers are able to
complete their investigation towards the specific topic. It defines the directions through which
scholars are trying their best to identify problems, aims and objectives of the study and represent
their final evaluation or analysis that has been acquired during the period of whole research that
has been identified in order to complete the same. The investigation arrangements and
methodology shows the ways through which the final outcome of the examination at the end will
be received with proper meeting the objectives of the investigation which is the major purpose
of doing the whole exercise. In order to complete the analysis of the research, scholar utilises
mixture of strategies because the data that have been obtained from all features during the time
in which the whole study goes continuously (Oviedo‐García and et.al., 2017). The basic and
primary purpose of the research methodology is to satisfy the research planning and time
duration which has been defined by the scholar. The procedure of research methodology
involves research type, research approaches, research design, philosophy, data collection,
sampling, data analysis, ethical consideration, research limitations and reliability and validity.
Research Type
Investigation is a elaborated thought process of survey about a particular topic with the
help of utilising various knowledge base actions. Basically, it is an organized communicating to
justify, expound, examine, evaluate and relation to the observations of the research. Research
can be categorised into two parts i.e. Qualitative and Quantitative. Qualitative research is a
process which provide its complete focus on collection of data through informal and open ended
communique. It includes the gathering and evaluation of non numerical data in order to
understand the thoughts, representation and experiences regarding the study. It can be utilised in
order to collect detailed information about the decided topic and thus generate new and
innovative ideas after evaluation of potential as well as existing problems regarding the
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investigation. On the other hand, Quantitative research is an operational activity which consists
of aggregation and scrutiny of data into numerical terms. This specific method is used to find
magnitude relation and averages, make articulation and final determination the outcome to wider
unit of accumulation. It is a method to systematically investigate the whole physical process and
development by gathering the data and perform statistical, proceeding and definite quantity
techniques (Babii, 2020). In this present study, in order to identify the impacts of customer
perceived value on consumers loyalty and their expectation within food industry, quantitative
research type method will be chosen because quantitative research type method helps the scholar
in order to gaining control exact or accurate along with elaborated optical perceptual experience
about the topic that has been utilised in order to finish the whole procedure. It includes all the
necessary methods through which it becomes accessible to gain exact results related to the study.
Research Approach
These are the plans and approaches that has been utilised by the researchers in order to do
investigation about the specific topic. It includes various and different announcements and
operations that continue the course from wide expectation to expand method acting of data
fabrication, cognitive content and investigation. Unemotional views, research method acting and
research arrangement are the major elements of the research approach. Research approach has
been divided into two parts i.e. Deductive research approach and Inductive investigation
approach. Deductive approach is influenced with improvement of possibility which are prepared
on the basis of existent theories and after then designing of research strategy have been
generated in order to test those possibilities into function. The deductive approach prefers huge
amount of resources as well as takes minimal duration of time with an intention to finish the
study in appropriate manner (Haydon and van der Riet, 2017). However, the Inductive approach
generates with the measurement and explanation who proposed within the investigation at the
final outcome of the research procedure which are also based on the observations. Moreover,
inductive approach takes longer duration of time than deductive approach but it provides exact
methodology in the longer duration of time towards the investigation of the whole study. In
order to measure the customer perceived value, inductive research approach is applied because it
allows huge amount of adaptability to the study.
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Research Philosophy
It is a kind of impression about the demeanour in which the data should be gathered,
analysed and utilised effectively. The study which includes the research philosophy are able to
enhance the ability to resolve issues related to the study and the writing skills which enables the
report more substantive and intent. It is basically deals with the development of knowledge
which nature and source are acknowledged. Research philosophies has been divided into two
categories such as Interpretivism and Positivism. Interpretivism philosophy is based on the
values which describes that the scholar carry a specific role while intercepting the world to
collect information related to the topic on which the whole investigation has been conducted.
According to this philosophy it has been identified that investigation is completely dependent
upon the interests of the researcher. On the other hand positivism research philosophy claims
that the world can be understood with the help of comfortable methods. According to this
philosophy the researcher is an verifiable proficient (Pallesen, 2017). For the evaluation of the
current study philosophy methods will be utilised because the final result that are coming at the
end of the investigation are rely on the numerical and statistical data which enables the scholar
to prove that problems relies in research are in societal context that can never be measured with
the help of qualitative research type approach.
Research Design
It is a concept which deliberately provide an appropriate out frame to the report. This
procedure includes various interconnected judgements. The first part of the study includes well
mannered questionnaire along with the detailed consultation to complete the research in
effective way. It generally shows frame work of research methods and techniques utilised by the
researcher. Research design is also classified into two categories such as Descriptive and
Experimental. Descriptive research design is completely theory based structure which is
generated with the help of examining, collected and representation of gathered data. While the
experimental research design is involves the relationship of final result and reason of any
particular situation (Ahlgren and Walberg, 2017). It is very informal kind of design structure.
For the completion of above research, descriptive design method will be utilised to get detailed
information about the study and knowledge about the topic along with their cause and after
effects of studying this particular issue.
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