Imagine that you are at the head of an insect-based snacks company based in Belgium
which has been up and running successfully for several years.
Until now, your products have always been sold in plastic packaging. However, consumers, the government
and the media are becoming more negative about the use of plastic because it is very polluting for the
environment. Therefore, you are considering changing the packaging of your products from plastic packaging
to eco-friendly, biodegradable packaging (based on paper).
Because the eco-friendly packaging is based on paper, it has an impact on the number of days you can keep
the products after purchase and thus the expiration date: with the plastic packaging your products remained
fresh for at least 10 days, whereas with the eco-friendly, biodegradable packaging, your products need to be
consumed within 5 days following purchase.
Because of this impact on the expiration date, before deciding to change the type of packaging, you want to do
a detailed market research to be sure that consumers will not stop buying your brand because of this change.
In other words, you want to have an indication of the impact of this change in packaging (and expiration period)
on your sales.
Work out the ideal research setup for this business question, based on the following concrete questions.
Research Problem and Goals (300-500 words) – 15% of score
1.1. Formulate the business objective of this market research case in one sentence.
1.2. Formulate the main research objective of this market research in one sentence.
1.3. Make a list of at least 6 possible specific research questions that could be included in this market research
to answer the research objective.
1.4. What kind of goal do you have in mind: exploring, describing or explaining. Please explain your choice.
General approach (300-500 words) – 15% of score
Would you choose to approach this market research question via quantitative or via qualitative market
research?
Give convincing arguments for your choice.
Sample (300-500 words) – 15% of score
3.1. Who? Define the research population of your market research, i.e. the people that are of interest for your
market research.
3.2. Number? How many people will you included in the research sample, i.e. how large will your sample size
be? Give the reasoning behind your choice.
3.3. Using the standard sample size formula (you can use z=1.96, which is associated with a confidence level
of 95%):
imagine that you estimate that 20% of your population will stop buying your products because of the change in
packaging and you can accept an error margin of only 2%, what is the sample size that you would need to
reach in that case? And what is the sample size that you would need to reach if you can accept an error margin
of 4%
Research method (300-400 words) – 15% of score
Which specific research method do you want to use? If you have chosen a quantitative approach in Question
2: are you going to use postal, telephone, personal or online interviews? Why? If you have chosen a qualitative
approach in Question 2: are you going to use individual interviews or focus groups? Why?
