MKTG 4110 Coop Case Study
Marla Nichols
Professor Elizabeth Lowry
MKTG 4110-21
4 February 2015
The Coop: Market Research Daryl Buckmeister was facing a difficult problem that many business owners encounter. After much success, his quick-service chicken restaurant, The Chicken Coop, was seeing a sales decline in 20 of The Coop’s 76 stores. The average decline in sales for these 20 stores was 6%. His top two managers, Anita McMichael, VP of Quality and Trevor Wallace, VP of Marketing, were working with Buckmeister to figure out why customers weren’t spending as much money in those stores and to determine the best way to correct this problem. There were three key parts to Buckmeister’s decision: (1) should he invest in market research, and if so, (2) how much money should he spend and (3) which programs should he fund. Additionally, Buckmeister was considering implementing potential growth opportunities: (1) cobranding with Margie’s Muffins and (2) offering a home delivery service. Buckmeister himself believed that focus groups were an appealing option. They were a cheap, fast, way to talk to consumers in the areas where Coop store sales were slumping. Each focus group would contain 8-12 consumers and would last about two hours. The supplier would write a report, and The Coop management team could also observe the interviews. Three focus groups would cost about $15,000. Buckmeister also was in favor of implementing the use of customer feedback cards to help gather information on customer satisfaction. The feedback cards were small and inexpensive questionnaires to be placed in a conspicuous location near the case register in each Coop restaurant, and satisfied or unsatisfied guests could fill out the surveys as they pleased. Buckmeister is looking to have his dollar stretch the farthest, while also gaining insights on a small sample of customers’ perceptions. McMichael’s proposal focused on two primary methods of getting to the bottom of the declining sales problem: (1) performing
Professor Elizabeth Lowry
MKTG 4110-21
4 February 2015
The Coop: Market Research Daryl Buckmeister was facing a difficult problem that many business owners encounter. After much success, his quick-service chicken restaurant, The Chicken Coop, was seeing a sales decline in 20 of The Coop’s 76 stores. The average decline in sales for these 20 stores was 6%. His top two managers, Anita McMichael, VP of Quality and Trevor Wallace, VP of Marketing, were working with Buckmeister to figure out why customers weren’t spending as much money in those stores and to determine the best way to correct this problem. There were three key parts to Buckmeister’s decision: (1) should he invest in market research, and if so, (2) how much money should he spend and (3) which programs should he fund. Additionally, Buckmeister was considering implementing potential growth opportunities: (1) cobranding with Margie’s Muffins and (2) offering a home delivery service. Buckmeister himself believed that focus groups were an appealing option. They were a cheap, fast, way to talk to consumers in the areas where Coop store sales were slumping. Each focus group would contain 8-12 consumers and would last about two hours. The supplier would write a report, and The Coop management team could also observe the interviews. Three focus groups would cost about $15,000. Buckmeister also was in favor of implementing the use of customer feedback cards to help gather information on customer satisfaction. The feedback cards were small and inexpensive questionnaires to be placed in a conspicuous location near the case register in each Coop restaurant, and satisfied or unsatisfied guests could fill out the surveys as they pleased. Buckmeister is looking to have his dollar stretch the farthest, while also gaining insights on a small sample of customers’ perceptions. McMichael’s proposal focused on two primary methods of getting to the bottom of the declining sales problem: (1) performing