Nothing Bundt Cakes Survey Findings
Kaleb Beatty Bethany Dotson Gil Marom Sarah Waller Christine Walsh
Table of Contents 3
Introduction
4
Respondent Demographics
6
Questionnaire Rationale
8
Analysis
10
Conclusion
Introduction
In 1977, Dena Tripp and Debbie Shwetz founded Nothing Bundt Cakes in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Nothing Bundt Cakes brand plays a prominent role in society for 20 - 49 year olds. The price and presentation of merchandise appeals to the more mature spectrum of the target audience age bracket, and the stylish, trendy, vibrate and young brand image entices young buyers. Group 8 also consulted MRI data and survey research methods to confirm this statement. According to the gathered 244 results from a variety of respondents residing in 28 different states, the following conclusions were made.
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Respondent Demographics The survey contained six demographic questions on sex, age, ethnicity, income, marital status, and whether the respondent had children. As seen in figure 1, respondents were overwhelmingly female.
According to figure 3, the majority of respondents identified as Caucasian, with smaller amount identifying at Hispanic.
Figure 3 Figure 1 As seen in figure 2, most respondents were also young, with the majority of them between the ages of 18 to 23. A significant number also fell in the 24 to 35 years old category.
Figure 2
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In figure 4 the income differences between the 18 to 23 group and 24 to 35 year old group can be seen. Most of the respondents make less than $45,000 yearly, but a large portion of them make over $60,000 annually as well.
Figure 4
In figure 5 it is apparent that most of the respondents are single. However, a significant number of them say they’re in a relationship or married as well.
As so many respondents reported themselves as single, it is unsurprising that most of them reported that they do not have children in figure 6.
Figure 5
Figure 6
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Questionnaire Rationale
Group 8 conducted a focus group prior to survey research. The focus group questions placed emphasis on brand recognition, buying motives and competition and revealed sample information on impulse buying, holiday and special event influence to cake purchasing, portion preference, proximity importance and more. Group 8 created a 26-question survey using the snowball survey method to take this information a step further. Expanding more on the focus group findings, Group 8 drafted questions that specifically targeted several points of possible leverage when it came to sweet treat purchasing. Three questions were free response; 2 were based on a rating scale; and 21 were multiple choice. These questions included:
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·What is your favorite sweet treat? ·Where do you receive your news? ·What is your favorite holiday season? ·In which occasions do you usually purchase a cake? ·On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least and 5 being the most important, what do you value most when purchasing a cake? ·How often do you use coupons? ·On average, how often do you buy a sweet treat for yourself? ·How much are you willing to spend of a sweet treat for yourself? ·On average, how often do you buy a sweet treat for someone else? ·How much are you willing to spend of a sweet treat for someone else? ·Where are you most likely to buy a sweet treats from? ·On a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the least and 5 being the most important, how important are celebrity endorsements to you?
·How do you usually indulge in sweet treats? ·Have your ever heard of a bundt cake? From the following cake flavors, which one sounds the best to you? ·Are food allergens a factor of your cake purchase? ·How do you usually indulge in sweet treats? ·Where are you most likely to purchase sweet treats from? ·How much are you willing to spend on a sweet for someone else? ·On average, how often do you purchase a sweet for someone else? ·On average, how often do you purchase a sweet for yourself? ·How often do you use coupons? ·How much are you willing to spend on a sweet for yourself? ·What do you value most in cake purchasing? ·In which occasions do you usually purchase a cake? ·Where do you receive your news?
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Analysis
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Team 8 needed to discover when and where the market wants to purchase sweets. Seventy-seven percent of surveyed consumers buy large sweets during holidays, according to secondary research, so Team 8 asked what are consumers’ favorite holiday seasons. Almost three-fourths of respondents claim Christmas as their favorite holiday. Thirty-one respondents chose Thanksgiving, and 18 respondents wrote Halloween. Although when asked which occasions warrant a cake purchase, 95.49 percent of responses favored birthdays. Respondents with a $60,000+ salary also selected baby showers as a cake buying event a staggering 58 percent of the time. Where are these customers buying these special cakes? Thirty-five percent of respondents shop at a grocery store while 33 percent shop at a bakery. Married respondents shop at bakeries 43 percent of the time, which is a significant difference from the average. Also, respondents with children will frequent the local bakery more often than singles. Obviously, these occasions do not occur every day. Team 8 explored the possibility of everyday treats to increase sales. Comfort food, a reason 62.55 percent of responders admitted caused sweet indulgence, and rewards, a cause 54.73 percent of responders buy sweets for, are apt motivations for Nothing Bundt Cakes to tap into. Eighty-three percent of respondents who earn between $45,000-49,999 buy cakes as comfort food, which is a large difference from the average. Forty-six percent of responders admitted they purchase a sweet once a week for themselves, and 36 percent of users buy a sweet treat once a month as a splurge. We also asked respondents how often they purchase sweet treats for someone else. More than half of responders agreed they would buy a sweet treat for someone else once a month. Next, team 8 needed to specify which treat consumers prefered. Twenty percent of the surveyed population prefer ice cream. The second most popular treat was chocolate, with 18.85 percent response, and the third highest response was a tie between cake and cookies with 17.21 percent each. When asked to pick from a list of 10 cake flavors, 28 percent selected Red Velvet. With fifty-two percent of respondents value taste over all other factors, Nothing Bundt Cakes clearly as favorite potential. Surprisingly, 36 percent of responses did not care to know the
health factors or ingredients when purchasing sweet treats. Food allergies only affect 14 percent of the target surveyed. To discover what motivates the consumers to buy their favorite tweets, team 8 asked a variety of purchase-decision based questions. First, team 8 wanted to discover where people viewed news, and 92.21 percent of responders selected social media as one of their favored news outlet while 60.66 percent of responders selected television. The social media dependency could work in Nothing Bundt Cakes favor by telling the thrilling story or offering deals. Team 8 hypothesized coupons were a motivator, and 43.85 percent of responders claim sometimes using coupons if it is applicable to purchase. However, 34.43 percent of responders said they hardly ever use coupons. Married respondents were 17 percent more likely to use coupons than their single counterparts. Most consumers, 79.81 percent of those surveyed, would spend up to $10, but no more than $20 when indulging on themselves. When asked how much they would be willing to spend on someone else, responders were divided between the $10 and $10-$20 categories. Forty-five percent of responders would not spend more than $10, and 46.50 percent of responders agreed on spending $10$20 when buying a sweet treat for someone else. Fifty-three percent of responders claim celebrity endorsements are not a priority in the decision-making process. Nothing Bundt Cakes fits within these price-ranges, currently offers some coupons and never uses celebrity endorsement. With a sample from so many different states, Team 8 was eager to see if the surveyed population identified with the brand. Before this point in the survey, responders had not seen bundt cakes. When asked if they had heard of the product, 87.65 percent of the respondents said yes, but when asked if they had heard of Nothing Bundt Cakes, only 33.74 percent of responders said yes. With respondents from around the country, team 8 was not surprised by the lack of brand awareness. Thankfully, only two out of 51 people claimed they have had an unpleasant experience with Nothing Bundt Cakes. Even if Nothing Bundt Cakes is not well-known, it appears to provide satisfactory customer service.
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Conclusion
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Team 8 infers Nothing Bundt Cakes offers a unique service to the sweets industry. Research indicates consumers generally purchase sweet treats in large quantities in groups for Christmas, birthdays and baby showers celebrations. In terms of competition, buyers enjoy the availability of grocery stores and the quaintness of bakeries for desserts. Although the purchase rate increases during holiday seasons, family and friends engage in sweet treat comfort foods together. This implication ques Nothing Bundt Cakes to take advantage of the consumer need. Reaching these year-round buyers is Nothing Bundt Cakes’ main objective. Majority of our survey respondents aren’t familiar with the Nothing Bundt Cakes brand despite it’s chain prominence. To increase presence among Nothing Bundt Cakes’ target audience, the brand should utilize social media and television advertisements. Should Nothing Bundt Cakes effectively market and engage with their consumers through these heavily used mediums, consumers will create a greater and more positive brand impression of Nothing Bundt Cakes. In return, they will be more likely to purchase and ever prefer Nothing Bundt Cakes over the competition. In terms of limitations, our survey lacked ethnic and age variety. As a result, using cross tabs became difficult and ineffective in several situations. To compensate for this issue in the future, Team 8 would distribute the survey more randomly to different demographics residing around the country in order to gain a well-rounded opinion of Nothing Bundt Cakes. Including images of Nothing Bundt Cakes and competitor items for survey respondents to pick which one is more visually appetizing is another consideration for future research. Overall, Nothing Bundt Cakes successfully pleases their consumers with their homemade-oriented brand image and products. Fine polishing will establish this brand and launch it ahead of the competition.