Research Design
The main goal of the research brief is to set clear objectives in the form of questions and design appropriate research. The key objectives are to understand consumers’ intentions towards the category of food provided by the company and estimate market penetration in the given category of products. In addition, the goal includes estimating purchase intentions and identifying the most appropriate distribution and communication channels. All these objective will be manifested in the questions of the questionnaire. The data collection method will be in a form questionnaire, anobjectivesstions will address the customers’ attitude towards the product. The questions will also categorize the consumers by market segments, depending on the characteristic of interest, such as income, age, or family size. In addition, it is important to find out shopping habits and consumer preferences to find a niche. Lastly, media consumption preferences will be asked, which will help during the marketing process.
The overall design will be exploratory with qualitative research methods. Qualitative research is a method widely used by scientists and researchers studying human behavior and habits. A high-quality research method is useful for product developers who want to make their products popular. To assess the popularity of the finished product, another research method is used – quantitative. Qualitative research is often regarded as the forerunner of the quantitative method, in which it is often used to generate possible conclusions and ideas that can be used to formulate a realistic and testable hypothesis. Then this hypothesis can be comprehensively tested and mathematically analyzed using standard quantitative research methods. That is why qualitative methods are often associated with interviews, surveys, and case studies to strengthen and evaluate results over a wider range. A study completed before the experiment may show a forecast of the popularity of specific brands from the many. In the next stage, a quantitative experiment developed based on the results will save time, money, and resources.
The main reason is the fact that the given design is best suited for the unknown field of studies, where acquiring some insight is essential. The questions will be mostly open-ended without predetermined questions. The exploratory approach will be useful in the preliminary understanding phase, where various hidden processes require some exploring. Particular attention should be paid to such criteria for evaluating work as transparency of interpretations, their documentation, argumentativeness, the presence of the author’s reflective position in the text, and its dilution with the opinions and opinions of respondents. In addition, it is important to show the need to justify the choice of a particular method of analysis, their compliance with the goals and objectives of the study, as well as adequacy for the study of a particular subject area. The main validation strategies to be included within the research process, ethical principles and rules for sampling, dialogue with respondents, and working with their personal data should be discussed. The development of a quality standard is an important factor in the institutionalization of quality research in any marketing questionnaire.
Sample
The population of interest consists of people who identify themselves as vegetarian and vegan because these are most likely to be the target group for plant-based meat. The sampling process will be qualitative due to the exploratory nature of the research and the open-ended design of questions. The sampling approach will be a mixture of quota sampling and simple random distribution within the given quota. To minimize the overall costs of the research, it is important to determine a smaller sample size with minimal margin error. It is stated that 1000 people will be the most suited sample size, where a further increase in the sample will not yield better results (Hair et al., 2017). However, it will still be costly, which means that the sample size will involve 384 people, which an overall cost of $7689 based on the estimation that each person will cost $20 (Hair et al., 2017). Only vegetarians and vegans will be eligible for the sampling.
In the study, it is important to formulate the problem and relevance of the selected topic. In addition, the goals, objectives, objects, and subjects of research are important. In the case of methodological qualification work, which provides an illustrative empirical part, a clear separation of methodological and empirical goals, objectives, object, and the subject of study is necessary. The next step is to justify the sample where the sample size in a qualitative study varies from a single case to a series of interviews or surveys. Focus groups or selection of documents for analysis should guarantee stable trends, which should be argued that further expansion of the selection or volumes of materials will not lead to fundamentally new results.
The formulation of hypotheses has its own specifics in the case of qualitative research of a search type, the purpose of which is not testing a theory, but empirical generalizations. In a qualitative study of a search type, hypotheses are formulated in the form of general statements that indicate the direction of a research search. In the process of research, such hypotheses are not so much verified as complemented, specified, transformed. In research of a search type, the absence of hypotheses is also allowed, in which case, hypotheses can be replaced by research questions or a description of the logic and principles of the search research.
The survey and theoretical section of the qualitative work, which examines the main mechanisms, phenomena, and phenomena that are the object and subject of research, includes an analytical review of the studies. The latter is necessary for the declared subject topic and the analysis of methodological and methodological approaches to the research topic. Therefore, this should be part of the summary of the theoretical overview and analytical part with the justification of the choice and construction of a strategy for a specific study. The empirical part of the qualification work should describe the design and planning of qualitative research, the research procedure is presented in detail, its results are described, and their theoretical discussion is proposed. In the description of the qualitative research procedure, a detailed justification and description of the research sample should be presented. In addition, it is important to include a detailed rationale and a detailed description of the methods and procedures for collecting data. It is possible to write down the formal characteristics of the material obtained and a detailed justification and a detailed description of the methods and procedures for data analysis.
Questionnaire
Due to the overall qualitative structure of the research, it is important to design a questionnaire with structured and open-ended questions because the brief already established key research characteristics. The presentation of the results within any chosen method should be accompanied by citations and empirical material confirming the analysis and conclusions of the researcher. The text of the study should include the most striking and characteristic illustrations. A discussion of the results is presented in work as a description in the framework of professional terminology and the identified phenomena, phenomena, their relationships, mechanisms. It is necessary to assume their interpretation in the disciplinary context of psychological concepts stated in the survey-theoretical part, as well as in the context of the goals and objectives of the study. Conclusions should contain meaningful answers to formulated problems or confirmed and unconfirmed hypotheses.
In the conclusive segment, a general summary of the study, including the empirical and theoretical parts, is summarized. Due to the incomplete representation of most of the traditions of qualitative research, it is imperative that literature is included in the bibliography. Whenever possible, the application should fully present the entire array of raw materials such as transcripts, completed forms, transcripts of interviews, analytical tables and notes, and visual material. If this is not possible due to the extraordinary volume, then the data should be provided at the first request of the experts considering the work. Fragments of the analysis of empirical material should also be included in the appendices, allowing for tracking the researcher’s application of the claimed analysis method and the validity of his analytical conclusions.
The criteria for the validity of the study at the planning stage of the study and data collection are the validity of the relevance of the chosen topic, and the presence of reflective explication by the researcher of his own theoretical positions and ideas about the topic being studied, work experience in the claimed research field. It is also important to consider the validity of the choice of a qualitative approach to the study of this problem, and the validity of sampling, methods of data collection and processing. Systematic monitoring of the context and conditions of the study and systematic description of dialogical relationships with respondents are important components of the questionnaire. This is necessary to reflect the richness of the data collected, their relevance to the research problem.
At the stage of data analysis, the argumentativeness, logicality, and coherence of the analysis, and the justification of the clear relationships between analytical conclusions and specific data are important. Separation of factual descriptions, semantic generalizations and theoretical interpretations of data, and stylistic, rhetorical, discursive literacy of analysis are the main criteria for a correct study.
Questions
- Please select the most appropriate answer. How important the presence of plant-based meat in your diet?
- Highly important, I consume plant-based meat daily.
- Important, I consume plant-based meat weekly
- Not important, I consume plant-based meat less than once a week.
- Irrelevant, I never intentionally purchase or consume plant-based meat.
- Please choose the most representative answer regarding meat products in the context of wellness?
- 1. Meat is essential for wellness.
- Meat plays a minor role in wellness.
- Meat does not contribute to wellness.
- Meat is detrimental to wellness.
- Please state what wellness food products do you prefer?
- Please select your age group.
- 1-24
- 25-34
- 35-50
- 51 and above
- Please select your annual income range. (You may omit this question if you find it inappropriate or wish not to disclose).
- $20000 or less
- $20001 – 40000
- $40001 – 60000
- $60001 – 80000
- $80001 – 100000
- $100001 or above
- Please select your education level.
- High School
- College
- Bachelor’s Degree
- Master’s Degree
- PhD
- No education
- Please select your gender.
- Male
- Female
- Other
- Please select the family size.
- 2 or less
- 3
- 4
- 5 or more
- Please rate the following plant-based meat products according to your preferences, where (1 – I do not like it, and 5 – I like it the most).
- Burger
- Minced meat
- Sausages
- Nuggets
- Tuna
- Where do you purchase plant-based burgers? If you do.
- Supermarkets
- Local grocery stores
- Butchers
- Traditional stores
- Delicatessen stores
- Other
- Where do you purchase plant-based minced meat? If you do.
- Supermarkets
- Local grocery stores
- Butchers
- Traditional stores
- Delicatessen stores
- Other
- Where do you purchase plant-based sausages? If you do.
- Supermarkets
- Local grocery stores
- Butchers
- Traditional stores
- Delicatessen stores
- Other
- Where do you purchase plant-based nuggets? If you do.
- Supermarkets
- Local grocery stores
- Butchers
- Traditional stores
- Delicatessen stores
- Other
- Where do you purchase plant-based tuna? If you do.
- Supermarkets
- Local grocery stores
- Butchers
- Traditional stores
- Delicatessen stores
- Other
- Which of the following is your main source of information (you may select more than one option)?
- Reading Local newspaper
- Watching TV
- Listening to FM radio
- Social Network sites
- Websites
- Reading magazines
References
Hair, J. F., Celsi, M. W., Ortinau, D. J., & Bush, R. P. (2017). Essentials of marketing research. McGraw-Hill.