Ahead Limited: Marketing Research Project on Kiwi Fruit Customers

This project report presents the findings of a marketing research study conducted on Ahead Limited, a health-focused company specializing in Kiwi fruit products. The research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the company's current marketing strategies, understand customer purchasing habits, and gather suggestions for improvement. Data collection involved surveys, interviews, and observations, with a sample of 60 customers. The analysis reveals insights into customer demographics, buying patterns, and preferences, highlighting the importance of nutritional benefits as a key driver for Kiwi fruit purchases. Recommendations are provided to the marketing director, emphasizing the need to consider products and competition when devising marketing strategies, focusing on internet and television channels, educating customers on the nutritional benefits, and potentially reducing the cost of the Kiwi fruit to broaden the market base. The report concludes with actionable recommendations for Ahead Limited to enhance its marketing efforts and improve sales performance.

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Assignment 3
Marketing Research
Name:- Karan sarao
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The marketing manager of Ahead limited needs a thorough evaluation of the company in order to
decide the best marketing skills to employ and the adjustments to make in the company. This project
focusses on finding out the nature, suggestions and the purchasing habits of the existing customers of

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the company in order to discover patterns and trends to help in making the necessary steps to improve
sales, product quality and service quality. The main objective of the company is to make enough
discovery to advise the company’s marketing manager on the best practices to implement for sales
improvement. Sixty customers have been interviewed and the results of the interview analyzed and
recommendations made to the Ahead Company’s marketing director. Some of the recommendations
made to the marketing director were, the products and competition should be put into consideration
during the process of deciding the company’s marketing strategy, more focus should be put into the
internet and television as the marketing channels, since the KIWI fruit is a nutritional product customer
education is essential and the cost of the KIWI fruit should be reduced in order to increase the market
base.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.................................................................................................................................2

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CHAPTER 1...................................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................4
Importance..............................................................................................................................................5
Scope of Study.........................................................................................................................................5
Research Question...................................................................................................................................5
Objectives................................................................................................................................................6
CHAPTER 2...................................................................................................................................................6
DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................................................................6
Data.........................................................................................................................................................6
Qualitative Data.......................................................................................................................................6
Quantitative Data....................................................................................................................................6
Steps Involved.........................................................................................................................................6
Data Gathering/ Collection......................................................................................................................6
Data Processing.......................................................................................................................................7
Data Presentation....................................................................................................................................7
Data Collection Methods.........................................................................................................................7
Primary data........................................................................................................................................7
Data Samples...........................................................................................................................................7
Ethical Considerations.............................................................................................................................8
CHAPTER 3...................................................................................................................................................8
METHODOLOGY...........................................................................................................................................8
Sampling..................................................................................................................................................8
Probability sampling............................................................................................................................9
Determining Sample size.....................................................................................................................9
CHAPTER 4...................................................................................................................................................9
RESULTS ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................9
Results and Analysis................................................................................................................................9
Discussion..............................................................................................................................................19
CHAPTER 6.................................................................................................................................................21
CONCLUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................21
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................21
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................22

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CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
There are various strategies involved in marketing whereby every organization must choose carefully the
strategies which best fit them in order to make good sales and thus attain their objectives. When

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identifying the strategies to employ factors such as the target market, the product or service,
competition and the value of the product are put into consideration (Noble & Mokwa, 2009). Marketers
must have excellent business intelligence for them to upsurge response rates from customers. In
business marketing there are multiple influencers on the customer purchase decision which have to be
considered. Many businesses employ marketing specialists to help in pushing forward the marketing of
their products. Many large organizations have specialist who are highly specialized in a specific strategy
thus every strategy employed has a specialist in charge. With the ever changing world markets many
businesses rely on statistics in making decisions on the marketing strategy to use (Vorhies & Morgan,
2013). Organizations study the purchasing patterns of their customers and seek to find out from them
how they knew about their products in order to gauge the effectiveness of each strategy they have
employed. The marketing strategies used by organizations are such as the use of the internet, television,
traditional means such as newspapers and the use of sales people. In the modern society traditional
means such as the use of the newspapers and sales people seem less effective for many businesses thus
they opt for modern means such as the use of the internet (Kotler & Scheff, 2007). This project is based
on the Ahead Limited located in Auckland Region and has served customers for the past 13 years. Ahead
limited is a health based company with products that promote health diet such as the Kiwi fruit. The
marketing director of the company has requested that a thorough research be conducted on the
effectiveness of their marketing strategies, suggestions from the customers on the best marketing
methods to be employed and how to improve the products and the opinion of the customers on their
company in general. The director has suggested that main focus of the project to be Kiwi fruit.
Importance
The purpose of this research is to provide recommendations to the Ahead Limited marketing director on
the best marketing strategies to employ in order to ensure improved sales in the company.
Scope of Study
This project is based on the survey on the customers of Ahead Limited located in Auckland Region. A
market research is to be done on the Kiwi Fruit product with the aim of providing recommendations to
the client on how to improve the product’s marketing and the company services in general.
Research Question
This research is aimed at answering various questions such as:
a. Who are the customer of Ahead limited?
A thorough description of the customers will be done with consideration of factors such as occupation,
income, educational attainment and the age.
b. What are the customer’s buying habits?
A thorough research will be done to show the buying habits of this customers with the aim of finding out
the best marketing strategies for the company’s goods and services.
c. Why do customers buy the Kiwi Fruit?

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This will be aimed at finding the main reason why customers buy the product with the objective of
improving the product even further to improve sales.
d. Any customer suggestions and recommendations?
This will be aimed at showing the perspective of the customers on how they would like the company to
be like where there should be improvements and where they commend the efforts employed by the
company (Andreasen, Kotler & Parher, 2008).
Objectives
 Analyze Ahead limited customer data
 Analyze the market of the Kiwi Fruit from the company
 Develop recommendations on how to improve services, products and marketing strategies in
the company
CHAPTER 2
DATA COLLECTION
Data
These are statistics and facts collected together for analysis or reference. Data can be categorized in to
two main classes, qualitative and quantitate data.
Qualitative Data
This is data that cannot be expressed numerically but represented using other variables in this project
an example is the suggestions from customers on the best marketing strategies to employ in Ahead
limited.
Quantitative Data
This is data that can be expressed in numerical form, the data has been keyed in in excel representing
the perception of the customers on the marketing strategies and the business in general.
Steps Involved
The following steps were involved in data collection to the analysis stage.
Data Gathering/ Collection
This was the first step and it involved collecting data. The data in this project was gathered from the
existing company customers through sending them emails, calling them and administering
questionnaires physically.

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The questions asked were the same in all the channels of surveying. Besides the method of observation
was applied on the company’s operations in order to discover any anomalies and find out the company
strengths.
Data Processing
The data was processed using the excel formulas and functions, tables and charts were developed to
simplify the data and make it easily interpretable (Gronroos, 2007).
Data Presentation
The final computed data has been presented in order to finalize any data analysis project using charts
and tables.
Data Collection Methods
Primary data
The primary data for the project has been gathered to help in analyzing the current sales of Ahead
limited and evaluate the effectiveness of the current strategies employed by the company. The primary
data was gathered through the following strategies:
Survey
Surveys were conducted by mail and online.
Observation
Customer trends were observed to discover patterns
Interviews
Interviews were carried out some of them being by telephone and some face to face
Questionnaires
Some of the chosen customers were given questionnaires to fill both online and by mail (Kohli &
Jaworski, 2010)
Data Samples
The collected data was tabulated in excel as follows:

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Figure showing the collected data from customers documented in excel.
Ethical Considerations
To ensure that the project will uphold ethical standard certain things were put into consideration during
the research process. The principle of informed consent was applied in that the respondents were
informed on the study and its objectives before their consent was sought to take part in the interview.
CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
The project was successful since data was corrected and analyzed and recommendations made.
Sampling
The project will dealt with a medium sized sample since a large sample has the disadvantage of
increasing the cost and time of the project. Since both quantitative and qualitative data were used in
this project the sample size did not influence the project that much. The research picked a sample size of
60 participants to take part in the marketing research investigation (Andreasen, 2005).
Probability sampling
The method of stratified random sampling was used to sample the customers. This involved the
grouping of the customers into various classes considering factors such as gender, socioeconomic status

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and the age. It was ensured that all the strata did not have overlaps. The final list was selected from this
strata.
Determining Sample size
The sample was picked from the customers of the Ahead limited who have purchased the Kiwi fruit
using the probability sampling method. The sample size was calculated using the formula:
Sample Size = (Z-score)2 * StdDev*(1-StdDev) / (margin of error)2
Z-score= 1.96
Margin of error = +/- 5%
= 60
60 customers have been chosen as the respondents in this project.
(Stoelhorst & Van, 2014)
This process was practical and easily executable since it enabled the covering of all the various customer
categories. The customers were classified using factors such as gender, socioeconomic status and the
age. Thus all groups were well covered.
CHAPTER 4
RESULTS ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Results and Analysis
 Age of the respondents

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The table shows the mean of the age of respondents.
The average age of respondents was 38 years thus most of the customers of the Kiwi Fruit are the
elderly.
 Occupation of the respondents
The table shows the percentage and frequency of the occupation of respondents

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The chart shows the percentage of the occupation of respondents
The statistics show that there are more medical practitioners in the customers of the kiwi fruit than the
other professions
 Income range of respondents per month
The table shows the percentage and frequency of the respondent’s income

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The chart shows the percentage of the respondent’s income
The statistics show that high income earners buy the kiwi fruit more as compared to lower income
earners
 Educational attainment of respondents
The table shows the percentage and frequency of the educational attainment of respondents