Marketing Research

1. McDonalds have developed a new healthy meal (100% vegetarian) that tastes almost identical to their Burger

meals. McDonalds are going to skip test Marketing and launch in the UK. What are the advantages and disadvantages

of doing this for a company like McDonalds?
2. Describe some independent and dependent variables that could be used in food consumer experiments (give 4

examples of the types of variables that Could be tested in an experiment)?
Hint: Dependent variable: A variable whose value is thought to be affected by one or more independent variables.

For instance, sales (dependent variable) are likely to be a function of advertising, availability, price, degree of

competitive advantage, customer tastes, etc. Independent variable: A variable over which the researcher is able to

exert some control with a view to studying its effect upon a dependent variable. For instance, an experiment may be

conducted where the price (independent variable) of a dozen boxed chocolates is varied and the sales (dependent

variable) is observed at each price set.
3. EU are going to open a restaurant bar. They are going to sell 3 types of sandwich: Jamon, Chorizo and Vegetarian

(salad). Design an experiment to determine which type of sandwich the students will prefer.
4. Various effects can compromise experimental validity. Two potential effects are Maturation and History.

Maturation effects are changes to subjects throughout the course of experiment (subjects get tired, hungry etc).

History effects refer to any variable or event other than those manipulated by the researcher between the beginning

and the end of the experiment. For example: in a test done on Pasta sauce by a company X a rival company Y launched

a pasta sauce quickly to interfere with the results of the test.
Explain or describe potentially how these two effects could be controlled or avoided in Marketing Research

experiments. Give 3 examples in other industries (non-food) where these effects could be potentially seen (e.g.

half way through a car test the legislation changes and consumers are wary/worried about the technology that the

car manufacturer is using).