Red Bull wants to conduct research on how consumers would react to a proposed new vitamin-enriched water drink sold under the Red Bull name. Red Bull currently dominates the worldwide energy drink water. The proposed research might call for the following specific information:
• The demographic, economic, and lifestyle characteristics of current Red Bull customers. Do current customers also consume enhanced-water products? Are such products consistent with their lifestyles? Or would Red Bull need to target a new segment of consumers?
• Research the characteristics and usage patterns of the broader population of enhanced-water users: What do they need and expect from such products, where do they buy them, when and how do they use them, and what existing brands and price points are most popular? (The new Red Bull product would need strong, relevant positioning in the large enhanced-water market.)
• Research retailer reactions to the proposed new product line. Would they stock and support it? Where would they display it? (Failure to get retailer support would hurt sales of the new drink.)
• Research forecasts of sales of both the new and current Red Bull products. Will the new enhanced waters create new sales or simply take sales away from current Red Bull products? Will the new product increase Red Bull’s overall profits?
• Red Bull’s marketers will need these and many other types of information to decide whether and how to introduce the new product.
I would start by gathering secondary data. For example, Nielsen sells shopper insight data from a consumer panel or more than 260,000 households in 27 countries worldwide, with measures of trial and repeat purchasing, brand loyalty, and...