Marketing Strategy of Portland Drake Beverages-Free-Samples

Question: Evaluate the marketing research conducted by Portland Drake Beverages in this case. Using your knowledge of the research process, discuss the research approach(es) undertaken, how they contributed to addressing the marketing research problem, and if the research would be enough to finalise the positioning strategy for Crescent Pure. Answer: Market research is defined as the activity of collecting, analyzing and interpreting information regarding a specific market regarding a product or service which is going to be introduced in the market (Babin and Zikmund, 2015). The research also collects and analyze information about the past, current and potential future customers of the product. The information set of the customers include data regarding the characteristics, ability to spend and preferences of the customers. This in turn helps the organizations to determine the target market where it will introduce the product and determine the target audience for the product in an effective manner (Xie et al., 2017). Presently market research is considered to be the backbone of all new successful business ventures. In the context of the given case study the key problem of PDB was regarding the positioning of its newly acquired product Crescent Pure. Some people of the management team suggested that as Crescent contains some energizing ingredients it should position its products in the energy drinks segment. On the other hand, some of the other people suggested that Crescent should be introduced in the sports drinks segment as it contains hydrating elements. Now the vice president of Portland Drake beverages (BDB) is credited with the responsibility of determining the benefits and drawbacks of the available positioning strategies and determining which will be the appropriate segment where launching Crescent would be beneficial for PDB. The data obtained by conducting a market research on the energy drinks market suggest that, the market was expanding and since 2010 to 2012 the market has expanded by more than 40%. It was projected that the market for energy drinks will reach $8.5 billion in 2031 in the United States and it will be worth of $13.5 billion by 2018. In relation to the consumer data it has been observed that most of the consumers are aged between 18 to 35. While analyzing the responses obtained it was observed that most of the energy drinks were consumed by the individuals who had a monthly income less than $25,000. In the context of competitors also in has been observed that Crescent will face significant competition in the energy drinks segment. As most of the renowned organizations like Together, Razor, Torque and Stellar comprise 85% of the market share while the rest 15% of the market are shared between other nearly thirty different regional drink manufacturers. As the consumers are becoming concerned about their health promoting an energy drink with lower level of caffeine and with more pure ingredients would attract the attention of the customers (Rothschild, 2014). This can be considered as an opportunity to the company. In the context of threats it can be stated that news stories are highlighting several facts about the energy drinks. Due to this 32% of the consumers aged over 18 stated that in the last six month they had consumed energy drink while 11% stated that they have consumed less than they used to a year ago. In relation to the sports drink market the collected consumer responses suggested that nearly half of the men population consume sports drinks while only one third of women consume sports drinks. Nearly 40% of the male and 27% of the female found sports drinks to be refreshing. Sports drinks are more appealing to the younger customers. There are two major competitors in the market Gleam and Drip who possess 73% and 21% of the total market share respectively while the rest of the 6% market share is fairly shared by almost 20 producers. As people are becoming more concerned about the childhood obesity which resulted in government-mandated rule of removing high calorie sugary foods (Munsell et al., 2016). Developing a new drink with low sugar and diet components may be an area of growth for the organization. From 2012 to 2017 the market for diet and low sugar sports drinks were expected to increase from $1.4 billion to $2.97 billion. As per the customer analysis it can be observed that taste of the drink appeals to most of the customers and after knowing the amount of caffeine contents only 25% of them remained concerned about the energy component. There were some customers who stated that Crescent is just a drink they wanted as a beverage for long, its healthy ingredients, better taste and energy contents made it stand out from the crowd. This specific criteria thrown a focus on health and wellness which attracted a specific demographic segment. On the basis of the market research analysis Ryan came to the decision that younger population who are health conscious would be the prospective customers for Crescent. Hence a third broad appeal segment has been considered which is the organic refreshment drink which takes the advantage of the growth of organic food and beverage industry. Reference List Babin, B.J. and Zikmund, W.G., 2015.Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning. Munsell, C.R., Harris, J.L., Sarda, V. and Schwartz, M.B., 2016. Parents beliefs about the healthfulness of sugary drink options: opportunities to address misperceptions.Public health nutrition,19(1), pp.46-54. Rothschild, A.R., 2014.System and method for adding an advertisement to a personal communication. U.S. Patent 8,645,211. Xie, W., Bivins, M.A., Jones, S., Deng, K.K., Schiller, B., Sullivan, J., Terrazas, A. and Sheppard, M., Nielsen Co (US) LLC, 2017.Context-based image recognition for consumer market research. U.S. Patent 9,569,692.