Customer Research 2010.09-2011.01 (group work)
Customer Research in New Product Development
“Eating on the go”
Societal shifts such as irregular working hours, longer time spent in transit, and fragmented mealtimes are driving consumers to feel more time pressured. As a result, consumers are increasingly consuming food and drinks on-the-go. In this project, the emerging trends driving and potentially inhibiting on-the-go food and drinks consumption are to be explored in qualitative and quantitative research. Besides, insights can be used to develop and design a new and better’ eating on the go’ experience for LU, a biscuit company in the Netherlands.
“Eating on the go�
Project goal The research group aims to help LU in the process of designing a new set of foods/snacks that can be eaten on-thego. There can be problems or issues which people face while eating on-the-go. The group wants to explore and find these issues to help LU design better eating experiences.
Qualitative Research Target group Young student aging 15-25 years old, who are people with purchasing power.
Objective Understand human behavior when eating on-the-go and to gain some insights in solving or improving their situation when they eat while on the move.
Methods Observation methods: non-participant observation and participant observation Sampling methods: convenient sampling and intentional sampling
Food Locations Different kinds of food are bought and consumed in the observation. Observations are made in several places where more students are active.
Key findings In the analysis the research team categorizes eating on-the-go behavior and its related environment in several aspects.
“Eating on the go�
“Eating on the go”
Quantitative Research Objective The previous observation presents three main issues affecting eating on-the-go behavior: social interaction, multi-tasking and need of clean disposal. Next to that hypotheses of correlations between the issues are stated and a quantitative research is conducted to verify them.
Social Interaction Interaction within peer groups and interaction with the environment when people eat on-the-go
Multitasking The most common and difficult activity people perform simultaneously while eating on the go and people’s emotions
Clean Disposal The necessity, frequency and common way of cleaning hands before eating
Methods An online questionnaire is developed to collect quantitative data and 81 students participate in the study. There are total 19 questions which ideally enable respondents to finish in five minutes. The data is further analyzed via Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS). Findings and suggestions Gender and food preferences There is no significant gender based difference for food choice and there is no need to design an eating-on-the-go product specifically for one gender.
Bakery product and beverages
Easy-open package or portion The package or portion of the food should make it easier for consumers to do other activities such as using cell phone at the same time. So LU could develop smart package design which is easy to open with one hand or smaller portions for products.
Hands cleaning and disposal package Respondents emphasize on cleaning of hands and disposal of packages after eating on-the-go. LU could work on exploring packaging material that could be used as a tissue and disposed off easily after the food product is consumed.
Most of the respondents prefer bakery products and beverages. So it would be advisable to LU to develop a set of bakery products and beverages as a breakfast menu.