Hubbard Foods Marketing Research: Proposal on Sales Improvement

This marketing research proposal addresses the declining sales faced by Hubbard Foods Limited, a New Zealand-based breakfast product company. The research aims to identify the factors affecting sales through a combination of primary and secondary data sources. Primary data will be collected via an online survey to understand consumer attributes and preferences, while secondary data will be gathered from Hubbard Foods Limited's official website, the New Zealand Data Portal, and other government sources to analyze sales data, product pricing, and market demographics. The research employs quantitative methods, including surveys, quasi-experimental research (casual comparative research), and regression analysis, to determine the impact of product type, price, and location on sales, as well as the influence of consumer attributes. The proposal includes detailed research objectives, questions, hypotheses, information sources, data collection methods, sampling methods, a project timeline, and cost estimates. It also addresses potential sampling and non-sampling errors and outlines the design of research instruments, including pre-testing and revision of the questionnaire. The ultimate goal is to provide Hubbard Foods Limited with actionable recommendations to increase sales and regain profitability.

MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)

MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.....................................................................................................................4
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION AND RESEARCH PURPOSE.............................................4
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES.................................................................................................................4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS...................................................................................................................5
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES...............................................................................................................6
INFORMATION SOURCES....................................................................................................................7
RESEARCH APPROACH.......................................................................................................................8
SURVEY................................................................................................................................................8
QUASI EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (CASUAL COMPARATIVE RESEARCH)...................9
REGRESSION ANALYSIS................................................................................................................10
DATA COLLECTION............................................................................................................................12
SAMPLING METHODS........................................................................................................................13
PROBABILITY SAMPLING METHODS........................................................................................13
NON PROBABILITY SAMPLING METHODS..............................................................................13
SAMPLE SIZE DETERMINATION.................................................................................................14
PROJECT TIMELINE AND INDICATED COST..............................................................................15
SAMPLING AND NON SAMPLING ERRORS...................................................................................17
SAMPLING ERRORS........................................................................................................................17
NON SAMPLING ERRORS..............................................................................................................18
RESEARCH INSTRUMENT DESIGN.................................................................................................19
PRE-TEST QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN.........................................................................................19
PRE-TESTING AND REVISION......................................................................................................21
REVISED QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN.......................................................................................22
MEASUREMENT SCALES...............................................................................................................24
INFORMATION SHEET (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED RESEARCH SURVEY)...................27
CONSENT FORM (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED RESEARCH SURVEY)..............................30
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................32
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
INTRODUCTION
The biggest challenge currently facing many companies or firms that are pioneers in their
specific industries is reduction in sales (Anthony & Johnson, 2008). This is attributed to a
number of factors such as advances in technology, change in consumer behavior, attributes and
preferences as well as new market entries. These factors have overwhelmed the pioneer firms
making their advantage in experience ineffective (Gamble, Thompson, Strickland, & John,
2010). However, the largest challenge facing these firms is lack of data. The challenge of not
having enough data cuts across all the factors that lead to the reduction in sales. Availability of
data is a key aspect in determining the causes and remedies to reduction in sales (Ireland,
Hoskisson, & Hitt, 2008), (Farris & Neil, 2010).
Hubbard Foods Limited is a New Zealand based company that produces breakfast
products. The products produced and sold by the Hubbard Foods Limited are; Muesli, Porridge,
Thank Goodness Gluten Free, Light and Right, Outward Bound, Cereals and Bran, with each of
the products having several varieties. The company has been in existence since it was founded by
Dick Hubbard in 1989. The Hubbard Food Limited can therefore be said to be among the pioneer
companies in the food industry in New Zealand having been in existence for the past 29 years.
Hubbard Foods Limited being a pioneer company in the food industry is faced with
reduction in sales just like other pioneer companies globally. This proposed research therefore
aims at collecting and analyzing data to help understand the causes of the reduction in the sales
of Hubbard Foods Limited. The proposed research will also provide Hubbard Foods Limited
with suggestions and recommendations to assist in increasing the sales of the company.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION AND RESEARCH PURPOSE
Hubbard Foods Limited is faced with a reduction in the sales of its products. The
purpose of the research is to investigate this sales problem faced by the company. The results
from the analysis in the research will provide Hubbard Foods Limited with sufficient information
for them to make informed decisions that have statistical backing. These decisions will enable
the company to return to profit making as a result of increased sales.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the research will be;
 Establishing what are the factors that affect the sales of products produced by Hubbard
Foods Limited.
Other general objectives that will be investigated in the research will be to;
 Determine which product line has the highest sales among the Hubbard Foods Limited
production lines.
 Compare the prices and sales of the different product lines of the Hubbard Foods
Limited production lines.
 Determine which city in New Zealand has the highest sales for the Hubbard Foods
Limited products.
 Determine which product line among the Hubbard Foods Limited production lines has
the high sales in which of the cities in New Zealand.
 Compare the sales of the Hubbard Foods Limited products in the different cities in New
Zealand.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
 Determine the favorite or most popular product among the customers of the Hubbard
Foods Limited.
 Determine the gender composition and sales per gender of the Hubbard Foods Limited
customers.
 Determine the average monthly spending per person on Hubbard Foods Limited
products.
 Determine the average frequency of purchase per person of the Hubbard Foods Limited
products per month.
 Determine the average monthly expenditure percentage ratio between the monthly
expenditure on Hubbard Foods Limited products and the overall monthly expenditure on
breakfast products.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The research will focus on two research questions:
1. Do product type, product price and city where a product is sold affect the sales of the
products from Hubbard Foods Limited?
2. How are the sakes of Hubbard Foods Limited affected by consumer attributes and
preferences?
RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
The research will consider two hypotheses for the research questions:
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
1. The sales at Hubbard Foods Limited are affected by product type, product price and the
city where the product is sold. Mathematical representation is given below;
H0: Hubbard Sales are not affected by product type, product price and the city where the
product is sold.
H1: Hubbard Sales are affected by product type, product price and the city where the
product is sold.
2. The sales at Hubbard Foods Limited are affected by consumer attributes and preferences.
Mathematical representation is given below;
H0: Hubbard Sales are not affected by consumer attributes and preferences.
H1: Hubbard Sales are affected by consumer attributes and preferences.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
INFORMATION SOURCES
The research will make use of both the primary and secondary data sources. The primary
source for the data that will be collected and analyzed in the research will be an online survey.
The questionnaire will be in the form of a questionnaire in google forms.
The secondary data will be collected from four different sources. These secondary
sources will be:
 The Hubbard Foods Limited official website (Hubbards Foods Limited, 2018). This
source is going to provide information on the sales of the Hubbard Foods Limited.
Having access to the annual report of the company will give data on price by unit of
each of the product, the different product types and their sales, the sales for different
periods and different cities in New Zealand.
 The Hubbard Foods Limited official website (Hubbard Foods Limited, 2018). This
source is going to provide information on the different production lines on the Hubbard
Foods Limited production.
 The New Zealand Data Portal (New Zealand Government, 2018). This source will
provide information on the population of New Zealand as well as the gender
composition of the general population of New Zealand.
 The New Zealand Government (New Zealand Government, 2018). This source will give
information on the regions and cities in New Zealand.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
RESEARCH APPROACH
The research will apply a quantitative research approach. Three quantitative research
techniques are going to be applied. These are: Survey, Quasi Experimental Research (Casual
Comparison Research) and Regression Analysis.
SURVEY
A survey can be described as a statistical process that involves the collection or gathering
of quantitative information on various aspects of the elements in a population (McNabb, 2008).
The research applies the survey technique in the data collection stage. The technique will be
conducted in the form of questionnaires issued in an online survey. The questionnaires will be
sent to the emails of the respondents as google forms’ links. The respondents will be expected to
fill the questionnaires and submit the filled google forms.
The responses from the survey will form the data variables that will be used as either
independent or dependent variables in the analysis stage of the research.
QUASI EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (CASUAL COMPARATIVE
RESEARCH)
The Quasi Experimental Research (casual comparative research) is a research techniques
that compares the attributes of different categories of a given data variable in a dataset (Babbie,
2010). This technique singles out the categorical data variable of interest and then records the
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
attributes (with respect to a numerical data variable in the same dataset) for comparative analysis
(Brians, 2011).
In the research, the Quasi Experimental Research is going to be applied in the following
cases;
 Comparing the prices and sales of the different product lines of the Hubbard Foods
Limited production lines. Here the different categories of the Product Type variable are
going to be compared with respect to the Sales variable. Also the categories of the
Product Type variable will be compared with respect to the Price per Unit Variable. The
dataset for this analysis will be from the annual report from the Hubbard Foods Limited
official website (Hubbards Foods Limited, 2018).
 Comparing the sales of the Hubbard Foods Limited products in the different cities in New
Zealand. Here the different cities under the City variable will be compared with respect to
the Sales variable. The dataset for this analysis will be from the annual report from the
Hubbard Foods Limited official website (Hubbards Foods Limited, 2018).
 Determining the sales per gender of the Hubbard Foods Limited customers. Here the
categories of the Gender variable are going to be compared with respect to the Monthly
Expenditure Variable. The dataset for this analysis will be from the online survey carried
out.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
Regression analysis is a statistical analysis tool that represents the relationship between
variables in the form of an equation (Galit, Peter, Inbal, Patel, & Kenneth, 2018). The variable of
interest, Dependent variable, forms the subject of the equation while the remaining variables,
independent variables, form the explanatory components on the right-hand side of the equation.
The general form a regression model line is:
y ( i ) =c +m(ij) x (ij)+e (ij),
The y is the dependent variable, the x represents the independent variable, i represents the
observation and j represent the specific independent variable (Tri & Jugal, 2015).
In the research, the regression analysis is going to be applied in the following case;
establishing what are the factors that affect the sales of products produced by Hubbard Foods
Limited. Here the Regression Analysis will be carried out twice as explained below;
 Regression Analysis on the annual report dataset from the Hubbard Foods Limited
official website (Hubbards Foods Limited, 2018). In this analysis, the Sales variable will
be the dependent variable while the independent variables will the Product Type, Product
Price and City. The analysis will aim at establishing the nature of the relationship
between the Sales of products from Hubbard Foods Limited and, the Type of product,
Price of Product and the City in which the Product is sold.
 Regression Analysis on the dataset from the online survey carried out. In this analysis,
the Monthly Expenditure variable will be the dependent variable while the independent
variables will be the Price, Product Type, City, Product Variety and Gender.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
The conclusions from the two above regression analysis will give both the producer and
consumer perspective on the relationship that Sales has with other variables.
This research will also apply the use of graphs to represent the nature of the various data
variables in both datasets.
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MARKETTING RESEARCH PROPOSAL (HUBBARD FOODS LIMITED)
DATA COLLECTION
The data that will be used for the analysis in the research will come from both the
primary and secondary sources. The data from the secondary source will be collected as
explained in INFORMATION SOURCES above.
The survey technique will be used for the collection of data from the primary source. The
survey is a data collection technique that gathers the quantitative information of elements in a
population (McNabb, 2008). The survey will be conducted in the form of questionnaires issued
in an online survey. The questionnaires will be sent to the emails of the respondents as google
forms’ links. The respondents will be expected to fill the questionnaires and submit the filled
google forms. The responses from the survey will for the data variables that will be used as either
independent or dependent variables in the analysis stage of the research.
Conducting an online survey is the most effective method of collecting information from
the customers of Hubbard Foods Limited. The options of observation and experimentation are
non-applicable for the context of Hubbard Foods Limited. The online survey allows the
respondents to fill in the questionnaires at their own comfort. This method is also cost effective
as opposed to conducting a physical survey involving physical data collection from consumers.
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