Research Proposal of PowerAde

Research Proposal of PowerAde

A brief overview of the product/brand

PowerAde is a drink used in sports. The Coca-Cola Company is the one that creates, manufactures, and markets the brand. It competes with Gatorade, one of PepsiCo’s brands (Seco Sanz, 2015). PowerAde was first introduced by the Coca Cola Company back in 1988. The brand competes in the sports drink market with other brands such as Gatorade. When it comes to competitive advantage, Gatorade is more competitive than PowerAde. The reason behind this is that PowerAde lacks effective marketing. It covers a small market unlike Gatorade that covers approximately 77% of the market (Seco Sanz, 2015). PowerAde is designed to enhance athletic performance. It contains a wide range of flavors as well as different ingredients. The brand’s major ingredients include salt, sugar, together with citric acid. A high fructose corn syrup is used to sweeten the product. A vital notation is that PowerAde does not contain fats or proteins. People who engage in sports love products without fats or proteins for fitness purposes (Jones & Morgan, 2014). Therefore, PowerAde considered this idea when they were designing the brand. PowerAde contains a large portion of micronutrients, such as Vitamin B12, magnesium, and niacin. These nutrients are essential to our bodies.

Background of the problem and purpose of the research

Sports drinks face intense competition, and this is a critical issue that PowerAde focuses on. Gatorade competes well in the market more than PowerAde. PowerAde wants to be the leading brand in the market (Zaloznykh & Kaimashnikova, 2008). It wants to stay ahead of Gatorade and defeat it in terms of competitive advantage. As such, Coca-Cola is planning to use a special holder. The holder will be able to fit in a store cooler conveniently. Coca Cola believes that this strategy will succeed and put PowerAde on another level. Keeping their products on a store cooler will keep the products cool and offer an attractive as well as an organized display (Zaloznykh & Kaimashnikova, 2008). This is believed as a good way of attracting customers’ attention. Also, convenience store cooler allow employees to access and add stocks from behind. This will prevent obstructing customers’ view; hence, giving them enough accessibility to products. This will give the company a better product positioning that improves sales.

This research aims at conducting market research to prove that this strategy of Coca Cola Company will be successful. Currently, PowerAde is experienced low sales revenues (Tanwar, 2013). This is due to various issues. Their products are not designed as per customers’ requirements, unlike their rival Gatorade, which produces innovative products that meet the needs of their customers. As such, this research seeks to identify how the use of a special holder that fits in store- cooler would help in meeting customers’ needs. Developing and implementing this strategy requires Coca Cola to embrace recent technology to innovate the product (Seco Sanz, 2015). Coca Cola believes that embracing innovation is a key determinants of succeeding in the industry. The strategy Coca Cola is planning will generate positive results for PowerAde, including growth, increase sales revenue, and the product’s general performance.

Problem definition

PowerAde has been encountering stiff competition from its competitors in soft drinks like Gatorade. This is due to ineffective marketing. PowerAde is a global product and should have a large market share across the world. It needs an effective strategy to penetrate international markets (Proctor, 2014). One of the main reasons why PowerAde has not managed to penetrate well in global markets is ineffective advertising. Their advertisements do not demonstrate the benefits of using the product, unlike its rival, Gatorade, that offers a clear description of the benefits consumers get by using the product. As such, customers may see the products in the display and fail to understand its purpose and benefits (Tanwar, 2013). Coca Cola needs to ensure when advertising PowerAde, they give clear detailed regarding the use and benefits of this product. Effective advertisements attract more customers, and this can help in increasing the market share of PowerAde.

Furthermore, PowerAde is inconvenient to customers when it comes to its design. Its holder is not designed as per consumers’ specifications. The product does not fit well in store- cooler (Zaloznykh & Kaimashnikova, 2008). As a result, it is difficult to display the product properly to attract customers’ attention. The new strategy of using a special holder that fits well in store- cooler will give the product a good display that will capture customers’ attention. This strategy is designed to bring several benefits to the company. Firstly, Coca Cola anticipates that it will increase sales (Proctor, 2014). Maintaining cool air in store coolers with efficient energy free doors provides a comfortable environment for customers during shopping. It eliminates cold microclimates within the shopping environment, which may discourage customers from approaching the coolers (Proctor, 2014). When customers have a comfortable shopping experience, they tend to increase their frequency of shopping in the stores. This, in turn, increases the overall sales in stores. The use of convenient store coolers can increase PowerAde sales as they provide a comfortable shopping environment.

Besides, the new strategy of Coca Cola Company on PowerAde is likely to reduce the impact of fluctuations in energy prices. The use of special holders on store coolers is expected to reduce energy consumption in stores (Mules & HSIE, 2010). This may then reduce its operating budget. In turn, this may translate into increased sales revenue not only for the stores but also for PowerAde. Besides, the new strategy Coca Cola plans to implement is likely to improve the product’s safety (Jones & Morgan, 2014). Efficient store coolers can keep PowerAde products at proper temperatures. This may reduce the possibility of product spoilage before expiry data as well as reduce inventory waste. Coca Cola Company believes that this will increase their market share and late increase the products’ sales in stores. Besides, the new strategy will improve the PowerAde’s public image (Mules & HSIE, 2010). This is because if stores selling PowerAde products use store coolers to store and sell the products, retailers use less energy. This also reduced carbon footprint for both retailers and PowerAde. This can create positive public image for PowerAde, thus attract more customers because reducing energy usage promotes environmental sustainability. A positive public image is likely to increase PowerAde’s sales revenues because supporting environmental protection may improve the willingness of buyers to purchase PowerAde products (Mules & HSIE, 2010). This is a clear indication of increased market share for the company.

Identification and justification of research design

A descriptive research design will be used to conduct the study. Coca Cola Company prefers using this method because it answers questions like who, when, and how (McKelvey, 2006). Another importance of using this kind of research design is that it focuses on finding facts that lead to the formulation of key knowledgeable principles as well as solutions to key problems a study tries to solve. The researcher will carefully design the descriptive study for purposes of presenting a complete description of the study problem (McKelvey, 2006). This will also ensure that the study has minimum biasness during data collection alongside reducing errors that may occur when interpreting the collected data. The study design will target a particular population, which is athletes and other individuals who engage in sports activities both locally and internationally, where the PowerAde operates its business.

Identification and justification of the method of administration

The research will collect data through the use of questionnaires. Each respondent will be given a questionnaire to fill information or data. This data collection method will allow every respondent to have the same number of questions to answer. Coca Cola Company prefers using questionnaires in this study because it provides more comparable information compared to other methods of collecting data such as interviews (Banutu-Gomez, 2012). In addition, the study will consider the validity and reliability of the data collection method. In order to ensure that the data collection tools have valid, the research will incorporate specific questions in the questionnaires. This will ensure that the researcher captures particular information from respondents (Tanwar, 2013). The researcher will send questionnaires to respondents and collect them for evaluation. Also, a pre-test will be conducted on questionnaires to evaluate samples of respondents together with the acquired data (Banutu-Gomez, 2012). A pilot study will be conducted to determine the validity of the data collection methods and tools. When it comes to the reliability of tools of data collection, developed questionnaires will be sent to a selected number of respondents from every market, PowerAde sells its products (Tanwar, 2013). After that, the information gathered will be evaluated to determine if it is reliable. The researcher will assess the reliability of the questionnaires before commencing the study. Also, the information needed will be assessed and randomly distributed to respondents in all the markets.

Data collection form

1. Gender:

Male [ ]

Female [ ]

2. Age:

18-30 [ ]

31-40 [ ]

41-50 [ ]

Above 50 [ ]

3. Duration of using PowerAde products

2 years and below [ ]

3-6 years [ ]

7 -9 years [ ]

10 years and above [ ]

4. Do you agree with the idea of using a special holder in PowerAde?

Yes [ ]

No [ ]

5. How would you rate our product?

Excellent [ ]

Good [ ]

Fair [ ]

Poor [ ]

6. State the challenges you face when using our product?

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

7. Explain the measures that PowerAde needs to develop to improve our product?

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

Thank you for your cooperation

Sampling technique

This research will use stratified sampling procedures. This will help in selecting a sample that will represent the whole population. Coca Cola Company prefers this procedure because it will allow the researcher to divide the entire population into subgroups and, after that, take a sample from each subgroup (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). Another important reason why the company prefers using this sampling design is that it will allow the representation of particular subgroups within the population in the sample in a manner that is proportional to its actual population. The company also prefers using this sampling design because it ensures that all the target population is given equal opportunity of getting selected (Jones & Morgan, 2014). It also includes small groups that are likely to be completely omitted in other sampling methods. Therefore, the researcher will use this sampling procedure as it will ensure that every population and subgroups will be included in the study. The procedure will classify the population into subgroups. It will also give every target population equal chances of getting selected (Ferrell & Hartline, 2012). As such, the sample size will be 50% to represent the targeted population.

Ethical considerations

This research will be conducted as per ethical considerations related to conducting research. The research will expect no ethical issues to emerge during the process of conducting the study. Firstly, proposing the research topic together with data collection methods will be done following the ethical standards required when conducting research or study. Another ethical consideration to be considered in this research is biasness. The researcher will ensure that political and commercial influences do not interfere with the way respondents answer questionnaires. Also, the research will ensure that the human rights of people participating in the study are respected. Respondents will be assured that their confidential information is not disclosed. Finally, the research will make sure it is done as per laws and rules regarding conducting research. It will ensure that it does not violate any government rule or policy surrounding data collection.

Potential limitations

This research is expected to face various limitations. Firstly, some respondents may lack confidentiality when answering questionnaires. This may result in them giving incomplete information. The reason behind this is that they may have fears that their information, especially confidential ones, might be revealed, thus, compromising their privacy. Secondly, some respondents are likely to fail to cooperate. This is because some of them will want to be offered money to participate in the study. No one should be paid to participate in a study. Lack of cooperation may lead respondents to provide inadequate information. Another limitation is that some respondents may lack awareness of PowerAde products. This may lead them to give irrelevant information. Time management may be a limitation in this study. Poor time management by both the researcher and respondent may lead to an inadequate collection of data. Therefore, both need to manage their time properly.

References

Banutu-Gomez, M. B. (2012). Coca-Cola: International business strategy for globalization. The Business & Management Review, 3(1), 155.

Ferrell, O. C., & Hartline, M. (2012). Marketing strategy, text and cases. Nelson Education.

Jones, G. G., & Morgan, N. J. (2014). Adding value (RLE marketing): brands and marketing in food and drink. Routledge.

Koschmann, A., & Sheth, J. N. (2016). Do brands compete or coexist? Evidence from the cola wars. Kilts Center for Marketing at Chicago Booth–Nielsen Dataset Paper Series, 2-051.

McKelvey, S. M. (2006). Coca-Cola vs. PepsiCo-A” Super” Battleground for the Cola Wars?. Sport Marketing Quarterly, 15(2), 114.

Mules, R., & HSIE, H. T. (2010). The ethics of marketing sports drinks to a youth market.

Proctor, T. (2014). Strategic marketing: an introduction. Routledge.

Seco Sanz, M. (2015). Marketing Plan development: Powerade Padel tour.

Tanwar, R. (2013). Porter’s generic competitive strategies. Journal of business and management, 15(1), 11-17.

Zaloznykh, K., & Kaimashnikova, K. (2008). COCA-COLA: A POWERFUL BRAND–AN EFFECTIVE MARKETING STRATEGY.