Market Research Case

1. The product development process of Cucina Fresca Pasta is more streamlined. The steps of idea generation, concept screening, product development and testing and quantification of volume helped to both develop the appropriate product and test the products with the focus group. In all the steps of this process, the focus was actually on the market need and consumers’ expectations from the product. TruEarth identified the consumer need, which was not fulfilled by any other company. As it was a new product segment, they were not sure of the demand and consumers’ reaction for the products. Therefore, they worked with a market research organization BASES to estimate the potential sales and other product specific tests. In addition, it helped to decide on the different combinations of pastas and sauces. Since they tested the demand for the product with the market research, they were able to match the demand for the product appropriately, unlike past.
The Pizza opportunity is on the same base as pasta, the healthy whole grain fresh food. However, the market situation for the pizza is different from the pasta. The preferences of the consumers were more towards freshly baked pizza rather than frozen pasta. There were also major competitors existed in the market and the consumer segment existed were 30% bigger than pasta. TruEarth used the same approach of designing product with consumers’ demand in mind and used the focus groups for brainstorming. BASES used in-home product usage test to test the product how it performs at home, which they never did for pasta. They also used the existing pasta consumers to test the pizza. They also did the demand and supply analysis as they did for pasta, which helped them to analyze the investment cost needed to start the pizza unit. In addition, this helped them to calculate the breakeven point and return on investment for the pizza unit.
Thus, the product development process for both pizza and pasta was very similar.