Nutriboost Communication Research Project
Team:
Son Phung; My Nguyen; Hung Tran [me];
Thang Hoang; Brian Nguyen
Executive Summary
The following research contains confirmations and data that the researching team has conducted and analysed in order to provide an analysis and evaluation for Coca Cola’s branch company - Minute Maid - about one of their latest product: Nutriboost, in order to understand their competitors in term of reasons that make consumers decide to stay loyal to the product line, or the vice versa.
This research will use survey questions to identify findings in order to apply it through social networks, as well as interviews. There were interesting reasonings came up based on the Nutriboost product line if they are viable to compete within the local Vietnamese market against their well established competitors or not, thus developing strategies based on quantitative findings to retain Nutriboost’ competitive edge.
Background and Objectives
With establishment of Vinamilk due to their longer history in Vietnam since the debut of the brand in 1976 (Vinamilk, 2018), and the other major player in the dairy product for the Vietnamese market, Milo by Nestle that was launched in 1994 as powder milk product. Nutriboost then eventually made its debut to the Vietnamese market in 2010 by Coca Cola.
Nutriboost is one of Coca Cola’s product that aims to distinguish itself as to be an everyday nutrients dairy beverage for an active life. However, with Nutriboost well established contenders with longer history such as Vinamilk and Milo Milk that compete within the same segment, Nutriboost is now struggling to maintain shares in the Vietnamese dairy market (Nielsen, 2018). Not only that, interesting enough, the intended target audience that was defined by Coca Cola, shifted their brand loyalty to Vinamilk and Milo after consuming Nutriboost, according to the client’s brief.
There are two primary objectives of this research project, according to the client’s brief. One is to identify the triggers and barriers behind the consuming behavior about Vinamilk and Milo by Nutriboost drinkers: young Vietnamese adults from the age of 18 to 29 with an active lifestyle as Nutriboost’ main demographic. Two is to understand the consumer’s profile of Vinamilk and Milo, questions to answer include: who they are, what age group they belong to, where they live and their preferences on milk and consuming behaviour.
For the survey, there were 10 composed questions to reveal and understand more about the target audience’s consumption mentality for a dairy product whether it’s due to taste preferences, packaging visuals, childhood preferences, or peer pressures. In addition, there will also be included sub-category factors that may include the textures and as well as nutritious contribution to make the drink more appealing. Some more specific psychographic and geographic sampling methods can be applied based on the Vietnamese mindset due to brand-obsessed consumption (Pham, Richards, 2015), perhaps due to the influence of the Western brand may be a contributing factor by swaying the consumer’s decision on whether or not they would remain loyal with Nutriboost as it is a Coca Cola’s product, or simply move on.
Methodology
To sample and extract insights from the target public group, the research applied two different approaches: Online survey using Google Forms as questionnaire for Quantitative Research; while Individual interview would be applied for Qualitative Research.
Quantitative Research
The quantitative research requires 54 attendees to take online questionnaire, with ten questions that were based on materials of the client’s brief and direct research within the dairy market. Two samples of dairy product surveys were referred beforehand (Nguyen, P., Academia) (Trần, Nhuận, Academia) After that, survey dataset would be available to view and evaluate from Google Form Responses.
The main purpose of doing online survey is to gain general insights from consumers, which are divided into three main categories: opinions and impression about the product, the percentage of product awareness (Brand Perception), channels and factors that they’ve contacted with which affect and shape their product choice (Preferences; Consumption Motivation).
Sampling is an essential process of this research as it increases the tendency of collecting samples that can represent the population or a group of chosen target public (UC Davis, University of California, ‘Types of Samples’). By applying sampling to the research, the representatives’ insights will represent the target public’s as a whole - from their behaviours to opinions, which can save researching time and resources while ensuring the research’s quality (QMSS, Samples and Sampling).
The criteria for sampling them would base on the target’s age, ranging from 20 - 29; Saigon, Vietnam would be where they live with medium financial status; they’d have access to the internet, and people at their age would be active on social medias, making them easier to be exposed to advertisements.
Measurement
All the data would later be analysed and estimated using pie charts included in the questionnaire, measured using nominal approach.
For the scales of this approach, questions that measure the attendees’ ages, brands that they’d choose visiting visit the stores, … would return back percentages based on 54 responses - calculated by Google Form Responses.
Qualitative Research
For the qualitative research, there were 5 project researchers within the group, and each members interviewed 10 individual each, making the overall numbers 50 interviewees. Thus the research group tries to round up similar answers in order to have a consensus for the findings.
Conducting the individual interview for Qualitative Research requires another set of questions and samples of Nutriboost for each researcher’s 10 attendees. Each interviewing section was carried out from the places that the target audiences would visit to purchase like convenience stores (Circle K, Family Mart,…) and general stores. Then open-ended questions that triggered their personal opinions would be delivered during their product testing to enable the researchers to build synergy with the attendees and gain more information than their initial responses.
Questions for this research have to be open-ended to yield the most of information from attendees while maintaining their answers under the questions’ answerable field:
While choosing random representatives to reduce the amount of biased information sounds plausible, the “mathematical theorems which justify most frequentist statistical procedures” can apply only to random samples, making it more reasonable to research and choose attendees based on criteria (University of Texas at Austin, ‘Why Is Random Sampling Important’).
Secondary Research
Beside collecting offline and direct datas from the target public, they also produce valuable information that carry different opinions and insights by themselves - journals, articles and even from social networks, as they are also getting closer in providing news sources for people, with the increasing percentage of mobile users up to 82% based on the research in US (Knight Foundation, 2016, ‘Mobile-first News: How People Use Smartphones To Access Information’).
Therefore, a secondary research must be conducted using Social Heat as a social network analysing tool. By observing and collecting a mass amount of targeted users’ conversations per day from social platforms - from Facebook, Youtube to online newspapers and forums, … researchers can summarise or visualise the collected datas then apply to the research.
Social Heat works by inserting and excluding specific keywords that are mentioned on social networks - along with appropriate syntax input, which can help researchers monitor targeted users’ online activities inputting suitable keywords to Social Heat, letting it gather live datas from users per day which will return search results in graphs, charts, statistics, specific individuals who have influences and how positive / negative the result is.
Research Result and Findings
Quantitative Research / Online Survey
Quantitative research aims to verify the relationships between variables (Punch, 2013). Variables are things whose status can change and do not hold an absolute values such as company revenues (Punch, 2013). Quantitative research works from an deductive approach, that means collecting data based on certain hypothesis (Punch, 2013). In this project, our hypothesis is that childhood preferences and taste play a crucial role in consumer’s buying behaviour.
For the result of the quantitative research -- the impression and users opinions towards the products, there are 75.5% of users perceive Nutriboost as a dairy product (Appendix 1). While there are other numerous brands and other dairy products used in the market for the target audiences, it is still Milo and Vinamilk are the favorable usage products (Appendix 2).
When proceeding further on preferences and motivations on purchase decision for the product, the results continuously favors for Milo and Vinamilk (Appendix 3). Furthermore, the main reason that leads these favorable results, mainly due to childhood preferences (Appendix 4). However, while childhood preferences is one of the reason, there are other reasons that factor on the users purchase decisions. The other reasons were peer pressures with 11.3% of the sample. Packaging of the product is one of the reason draws the users to purchase the product. The biggest factor that users love using Nutriboost is the taste. (Appendix 5).
Nonetheless, Coca-Cola as a mothership brand does not make any impacts on the product purchase decision. There are 64.2% of the sample claims that they are not aware Nutriboost as a Coca-Cola product. Yet, even if trying to promote Nutriboost as a Coca-Cola product, it would not make any impacts on purchase decision of users. (Appendix 6, 7)
Qualitative Research
The survey of qualitative research firstly inquires each individual interviewees their exposure on the product. While most of the interviewees drink Nutriboost, 35 out of 50 state that they just drink once in a while, 7 within the 35 specifically counted that every two weeks. On the other hand, 25 out of 50 finds the packaging stand-out, especially for the scenario of convenience store, when products are easier to find. Additionally, the taste is the biggest reason why the users stays with the product. 5 interviewees are loyal to the Nutriboost product line, because of the taste. 5 other interviewees also finds the taste matches with the image of the product and the brand, which is fun and upbeat.
10 of the interviewees associates Nutriboost with the upbeat image and the fun, fruity taste with time or mood to drink the drink, for example, when you are stressed while on the job, or when you have low energy. Yet, they have not associate Nutriboost as a supplement drink. The interviewees state that, besides the packaging of the product, the upbeat of banners and posters featuring Phan Anh, a well-known MC and celebrity, also get their first attention. 10 out of 50 interviewees catch Nutriboost banners and posters on the road. Other 20 interviewees find it in supermarket. The remaining 20 of the interviewees do not recall the first time they see these banners and posters, but 5 within the 20 do recall the advertisement of the product. This shows the effectiveness of marketing of Nutriboost, since interviewees cannot recall the product.
However, the flavor of the product is also its own weakness. 10 out of 50 within the group stated that the flavor gives a confused message towards of the product, whether it is a juice product or a milk product. 15 other interviewees stop drinking because they are not different, compared to YoMost. 10 interviewees do not know how to categorize the product whether it is dairy or supplement. They state that similar to YoMost, it is an alternative beverage. It is not a substitute for daily dairy usage. In addition, the remaining 5 individuals question the product, when they claim on their product its ‘nutritious’, or ‘energetic’. The group did not find the product energetic.
Proceeding further into understanding the brand, 35 out of 50 interviewees are not aware that Nutriboost belongs to Coca-Cola company. On the other hand, after finding out that Nutriboost is a Coca-Cola’s product, 5 individuals have non-favorable impression on the product, since the interviewees perceive soft drink as unhealthy. Furthermore, when asking about the interpretation of ‘active life’ from Nutriboost image, the interviewees associate with athletic, sporty supplement. Thus, the supposed target audience misunderstand the product image, which is just simply encouraging whoever use the product being more active in general.
The sample group tell stories when they recall the time they started to use the product. 20 consumers start to use Milo because their parents / guardians keep buying it for them during youth as a form . Thus, it form a habit for them in the early days. Peer pressure is a clear trend from these scenarios. 10 others find the image of Milo friendliness appeal to them. They state that the usage of green color and an energetic image of a boy playing football appropriates with their aimed target audiences. They find the brand image executed well.
For Vinamilk, 40 out of the group recall the constant advertisement, especially on TV. This gives Vinamilk easily top-of-the-mind because of its strong marketing efforts and also its longevity in Vietnam. All interviewees cannot recall the times they use Vinamilk. However, 10 interviewees find the brand image of Vinamilk more robust, because they offer more lines of products than many diary brands.
The price of these dairy products, according to the target audiences, are affordable. Yet, if they had a chance to pick between all three products, all of interviewees agreed that they would recommend Vinamilk and Milo for their peers over Nutriboost. Furthermore, given how the interviewees had exposure of Milo and Vinamilk, and also considered the established history of the two brands in Vietnam, the favor is clear (Vinamilk, 2018) (NestleMilo, 2018), regardless of Nutriboosts consistency on their marketing and the excellence on the product. Additionally, Nutriboosts identity crisis is also shown, through the interviews.
Key Insights and Recommendations
Key Insights
Some of the key insights from the consumers about Nutriboost is that one of the main challenges for the product is simply because Nutriboost is still in its youth in terms of brand establishment comparing to Vinamilk and Milo.
Together with the statistics collected from the survey (quantitative research) and the data recorded from the interviews (qualitative research), the group identify some of the influential elements to consuming behaviors along with personal preferences regarding milk products. As mentioned in the background and objectives section, this research is to understand the consumers profile and identify the triggers and barriers behind the consumption of Vinamilk and Milo by Nutriboost drinkers. Therefore, the elements listed below will serve to illuminate these objectives.
The consumers profile gains us insight into who the target public/consumers are. The target public were chosen because they all have been Nutriboost drinkers at one point and that they also consume Vinamilk and Milo. They belong to the age group of young adults, from 20 to 29. The target public are job holders, either full-time or part-time as students, and are able to secure a stable income, thus, they are not financially constrained when it comes to daily spending. The target public reportedly have an active lifestyle with a variety of activities ranging from jobs to school works. They all live in Ho Chi Minh city and have access to the internet and social media. And they are exposed to a diversity of beverage products, including milk. The target public have a few certain elements that would influence their consuming behaviour.
To understand triggers and barriers when it comes to consuming Vinamilk and Milo, it is crucial that we regroup influential elements that have been mentioned in the research results & findings.
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Flavor of the milk
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Peer pressure
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Appeal to personality
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Brand longevity (childhood preferences)
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Constant advertisement
These five elements can intertwine with one another. They will influence either individually or as a group on why the target public would choose Vinamilk or Milo over Nutriboost and vice versa.
Recommendation
From the initial findings, the sample group that has responded to the survey think that Nutriboost is good, mainly due to its taste and great packaging design for the bottle. It is recommended that Coca Cola - Minute Maid should continue with their R&D effort to update the package design in a timely manner to follow up with the market trend for a better edge in competing against the other dairy competitors, as well as expanding the flavor profile of Nutriboost.
However, the first problem that Coca-Cola has to take into consideration is the product identity issue. Since many participants couldn’t distinguish Nutriboost from other milk products (Dutch Lady, Vinamilk, Milo, Yomost, etc), Coca-Cola should classify it as one specific product - either it’s a dairy product, fruit juice or a supplement drink in order to avoid confusion and solving the identity crisis.
Secondly, in terms of building long-term customer loyalty and knowledge about the brand’s nutritious product line, they should redirect their strategy for younger target audience from the age of 6 to 11. By being part of their growth and development, Coca-Cola will be able to exert premature influence with positive brand image. For instance, they can approach kids under 11 years old by organizing exciting events and after playing some outdoor activities, the company representative will give Nutriboost products as prizes for each kids. This action could be the turning point for Coca-Cola’s reputation in developing milk-drinking behavior from the early age because they can prove that beside offering soft drinks, the brand also strives for a better community with their nutritious products.
Finally, time is the essence, as Nutriboost is one of the youngest brand comparing to Vinamilk and Milo. Therefore in the Vietnamese market, it will take much longer time for the consumer to finally adopt the Nutriboost brand and integrating into their life activities. To simply put: let the brand mature over time.
Limitation
One of the important factors that affect the survey quality is lacking in numbers of responses. When designing the questionnaire with closed ended questions, if not having adequate consumer insights, it would limit survey response options. For instance, the question “Do you think your childhood may affect your milk brand preferences during adulthood?”, the survey can only receive an “Yes/No” answer. Without observing, the survey misses other potential reasons why respondents repeat their purchases from the same milk brands over time and why they switch to another brand’s product, during adulthood.
If researchers could reach out to more people, the response rate might be much higher than expected. For the qualitative research, Moore and McCabe (2006) claimed that the limitation can also came from sampling during the research. The result can be biased since the researcher picked the attendees based on criteria, which can affect the sampling process. But random sampling can also return random result by chance since there’s no guarantee that the result would return suitable datas. So the result would be more stable and reliable if the group has more criterias to sample additional suitable attendees for future research.
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Appendix
