JAIPURIA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, JAIPUR

3rd Trimester (Batch 2019-21)

END TERM EXAMINATIONS
Course Name BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODS Course Code OM 301
Max. Time 3 Hours Max. Marks 40

Instructions: Answer all the questions.

 Step 1: Keep your laptop/desktop with internet connection ready.

 Step 2: Login to your personal Moodle account. Check your login into Moodle at least 30 minutes
prior to starting (in case you face any difficulty, please contact Mr. Raj Singh immediately on his
mobile 9887283825)
 Step 3: Access and download the question paper of your course
 Step 4: Provide your answers in word document (Before submitting the word document kindly
ensure that you have entered page numbers in the document. Also the word attachment should
be named as Roll Number_Name.
 Step 5: Upload your completed answer sheet, in word document, as attachment

I. Read the following case and answer the question given below.

Donatos: Finding the New Pizza

Some strategic windows remain open for an extended period of time; other, don’t. One of those slim
windows faced Tom Krouse, chief concept officer with Donato’s, an independent premium pizza restaurant
chain, headquartered in Columbus (Ohio). Krouse, who is responsible for new product development, had to
answer a question facing many restaurants regarding responding to the trend?
“Restaurants are influenced my many factors: product, message, weather, reputation, and competition, to
name a few. But mostly we are influenced by changing eating habits. As a result, we monitor a variety of
sources. One of these is syndicated research obtained from The Yankelovich Monitor and NPD Eating
Trends. Another is e-mail comments from customers received via our web site. We also hold monthly
WASSUP Meetings,” shared Krouse, “where each employee brings knowledge of an element from popular
culture and explains its affect on Donatos.” Donatos, recently divested by fast -food giant McDonald’s,
had, for four years, access to tremendous amounts of research on the eating habits of Americans. In late
July, according to the 2013 HealthFocus Trend Report, 26% of eaters were “carb aware.” “This meant that
they were incorporating low-carb habits into their diets. We had a multitude of evidence, over several
months, that the interest in low-carb eating plans was increasing,” concluded Krouse.
The time was July 2013. Krouse, who himself was following the Atkins diet, was noticing that at company
meetings, where pizza is a staple refreshment, “little piles of crust” were being left behind. “At first, we
worried that something might be wrong with the crust,” shared Krouse. While to some degree food quality
is important to any restaurant, Donatos stakes its reputation and its position in the pizza segment on two
factors: premium quality and an abundance of toppings—Edge to Edge® as its slogan goes. Donatos
discovered that nothing was wrong with the crust; its employees were avoiding the carbohydrates inherent
in the grain-based foundation of every pizza on the market at that time.

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Convinced the low-carb craze permeating the media was no fad, Donatos started its research-based product
development process. The process typically starts with developing the product prototype, followed by
employee taste testing, concept screens (where participants, usually in a central location, are shown
photographs of food products, and then queried about the item’s uniqueness, brand fit, price attractiveness,
and the likelihood of purchase if the product were available), and ultimately in-restaurant tests in two or
more restaurants within the chain.3 In-restaurant tests also include participants completing a self-
administered intercept survey or, for delivery customers, a callback phone survey.
In the product prototype phase, Donatos was running into problems. “We were getting in low-carb crusts,
and they were awful. ‘Awful’ is not a good fit with who we are,” emphasized Krouse. “Then we had one of
those creative recognitions— people were willing to eat the toppings without the crust.” That changed
Donatos direction: could the company market a pizza without crust. “Our director of distribution said,
‘That’s just goofy enough to take off,’” chuckled Krouse. “With all the emphasis on quality toppings, a no-
dough pizza captured our personality.”
By November 1, Donatos had decided to proceed with the concept of a dough-free pizza. One break-
through came in finding the plate. “Simplicity of innovation is sometimes the best innovation,” explained
Krouse, “especially when your product is made by 16–17 year olds.” Donatos found a make-bake-serve
plate. “It’s made of paper, but obviously one that can stand intense heat.” But in employee taste tests of the
first prototypes, something wasn’t quite right. Donatos did central location taste tests to test some recipe
variations. “We introduced a recipe which includes soy crisps, to give it texture and added protein without
the carbs.” Statistically, the recipe with soy crisps was only a marginal winner over the recipe without the
crisps. And adding the crisps would add significant cost to the new product. “Sometimes you have to step
away from the numbers, and look at the central issue of what and who you are. We pride ourselves on
being the very best. Adding protein for those customers watching carbohydrates was what we should be
doing.” Due to the somewhat negative connotation that soy has in the marketplace, Donatos’ special
ingredient isn’t mentioned in its ads or on its Web site. They describe the pizza as having “protein-enriched
crumbles.”
A pizza without dough is built essentially the same as one with dough, with one obvious difference. The
doughless pizza is layered on a plate with sauce first, followed by the protein crumbles and then the
toppings. For every pizza, Donatos’ measures all its topping servings to .01 of a pound to ensure
consistency from pizza to pizza and restaurant to restaurant. So from a production standpoint, the dough-
less pizza would not require new equipment or much new training of store-level employees.
So what do you name a doughless pizza? Do you use the “No Carb” or “Low Carb” banner as did many
new food entries in the latter months of 2013, or do you choose a name in keeping with your positioning?
“We toyed with almost 70 names. Some were clever, like ‘NADA pizza,’ even ‘Not-A-Pizza,’ and we put
several through trademark search. Finally, we put three names to the test using a weekend omnibus phone
survey. No Dough® was the winner for clarity of message and understanding of the low-carb benefits.
All this time Donatos was watching the calendar. By December 22 it was testing the new product in two
stores in Columbus. Ads proclaiming the new No Dough® pizza were featured in restaurant windows of the
test stores. “Starting January 2, we usually see a 25% increase in salad sales,” described Krouse. Not
surprising, given that for years “losing weight” has been one of Americans’ top three New Year’s
resolutions. “And we wanted to own the idea of a crust-free pizza; we saw it as a significant marketing
advantage.” So a new product development process that routinely takes 12 to 14 months took just 6½
months—to take advantage of what Donatos saw as a very important strategic window. On January 19,
Donato’s rolled its No Dough® pizza into all its 184 stores. “We like to think of ourselves as a ‘smart speed
organization,’” explained Krouse. “Wehave the discipline to make fact-based decisions but move quickly.”
When you order a Donato’s pizza, No Dough® is one of three crust options, so people wanting to eat low-
carb can do so without changing their pizza topping preference. According to Valen Group, a Cincinnati-
based marketing research firm, in January 2014 about 28 percent of all Americans—59 million people—
were watching their intake of carbohydrates. And how has that market segment responded? Donatos is
tracking interest and response through a variety of techniques: ongoing telephone tracking studies
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conducted every quarter using a sample of approximately 600 to 800 adults (done by Wilkerson and
Associates, Louisville, Kentucky), as well as customer e-mail sent through the Donatos’ Web site, and in-
restaurant comment cards. “No Dough® is meeting our expectations,” shared Krouse. “And we are getting
incremental business, as well as more frequent visits/calls from regular customers.” But one big surprise in
this story is the gluten-free market segment, a segment Donatos had not identified. “We are getting e-mails
that say, “Thank you! Now I can eat pizza again!”

Questions:

a) What is the management decision problem (dilemma) before the management of ‘Donato’ restaurants?
Justify your statement of MDP. [2 marks]
b) Develop research questions and objectives for the research. [3 Marks]
c) Suggest an appropriate research design and briefly outline research process to implement the same.
[5 Marks]
II.Suggest the appropriate SCALE to be used in the following situations. Also justify your answer. [10
Marks]
a) Priority (Scale of 7)
b) Knowledge of Action (Scale of 7)
c) Level of Awareness (Scale of 5)
d) Level of Desirability (Scale of 5)
e) Frequency (Scale of 5)

III. Define the management decision problem for both of the following situations. Formulate research
problems/research questions for both of the situations.

(a) A medium size manufacturer of calculators was introducing a new scientific model. The company
wants to communicate the same through an advertising programme. There was a discussion between the
Marketing manager and Vice-President-Marketing regarding this. The marketing manager was of the
opinion that emphasis in the advertisement should be on features, since that would generate more sales. The
vice president is of the opinion that the advertisement should emphasis on price, discounts, etc. Since there
was a difference in opinion, a market research agency was called and told to suggest a research design,
which would aid in making a final decision about the advertising programme.
[5 Marks]

(b) Television has become an important medium of entertainment and information dissipation in urban and
rural households in India and has wide geographical, social, economic and cultural reach. Many business
enterprises have realized that the impact of TV is considerable on the audience. Several enterprises are
using TV advertisements, although cost of such advertisements is high. So, small and medium firms are
somewhat reluctant towards it. ABC Company is interested to use TV for advertising some of its products,
in particular canned soyabean food. The CEO of the company wants to satisfy about the effectiveness of
TV advertising especially for this product.
[5 Marks]

IV. In this increasingly competitive diaper market, Procter & Gamble’s marketing department wanted to
formulate new approaches to the construction and marketing of Pampers to position them effectively
against its competitors.

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They surveyed 300 mothers of infants. Each was given a randomly selected brand of diaper and asked to
rate that diaper on four attributes (price of the box, count per box, absorbency and comfort) and also to rate
her overall purchase preference for the brand. Purchase-preferences and diaper ratings on four attributes
were obtained on a 7-point Likert-type scale.

Analyze the data and suggest the appropriate production and marketing strategy to Procter & Gamble’s
marketing department so that Procter & Gamble would have an edge over its competitors vis-à-vis other
competitors. [10 Marks]

SUMMARY OUTPUT
Regression Statistics  
Multiple R 0.8508
R Square 0.7239
Adjusted R Square 0.7202
Standard Error 1.0382
Observations 300

ANOVA
  df SS MS F Sig. F
Regression 4 833.9022 208.4756 193.4107 3.788E-81
Residual 295 317.9777 1.0778    
Total 299 1151.88      

Upper
  Coefficients St. Error t Stat P-value Lower 95% 95%
Intercept -3.3297 0.3058 -10.8874 1.983E-23 -3.9316 -2.7278
Price 0.5232 0.1167 4.4805 1.066E-05 0.2934 0.7530
Count 0.1035 0.1195 0.8665 0.3869 -0.1316 0.3388
Absorbency 0.4338 0.0494 8.7756 1.396E-16 0.3365 0.5310
Comfort 0.6547 0.0608 10.7545 5.605E-23 0.5349 0.7745

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