Mgt 240, Assignment 1

1) In developing a new product such as our cereal, a focus group is an excellent way to receive feedback. We can use these groups to gage consumer perceptions, opinions, or beliefs about our product, methods of advertising, or packaging. We will have a total of three focus groups separated by demographics to make offering their opinion as comfortable as possible. One group will consist of 16 to 30 year-olds. Another will be made up of 31 to 50 year-olds. Lastly, our third group will comprise of 50 to 75 year olds. Since our cereal is of the healthier nature, we will not be marketing our product to the youngsters. Each focus group will consist of ten individuals split evenly by sex. These individuals will be offered anything from cash to additional products we offer, but it will be contingent upon their answers. This will hopefully provide the motivation required for productive, honest feedback. We will also try to make the atmosphere as comfortable as possible to hopefully cause the introverts to be expressive as possible. Once is the room, each person will be given 3 bowls of cereals (2 competitor brands). We will assess what their likes and dislikes for each is, and which cereal would they prefer and why before releasing the identity of our brand.

Additional questions: How do you like the texture? Is it too soft/hard in milk? What are your thoughts on packaging? How often do you buy cereal? How often do you eat breakfast? Would you feed this to your children? Is this a product you see yourself buying over other products? What would you suggest for our product to make improvements?

When determining how to proceed with the feedback we have received, we need to realize that we have taken the time and money to achieve decent-sized focus groups. Our sample size representing our consumers as a whole is not lacking. Who we need to be concerned about are those individuals who were not motivated and just spit out answers. We need to cut through the weeds and...