What's Up With Pasta
Q1: We need to understand and research why the Spaniards are spending relatively less on Pasta than its European neighbors.

Current market research done by AEFPA offers insufficient data, so we need to improve data quality. The main goal is the get a clear demographic segmented market overview. One of the problems is that we cannot clearly identify the potential and current pasta consumers clearly – we simply do not know enough about of core target group. In addition we need insights on consumer behavior and habits as we do not know what drives the consumer decision when choosing pasta and when declining pasta. Another advantage of a broad market study would be that it would become clear if there are segments in the …show more content…

Next step we passively and discretely monitor the consumer at point-of-buying using the “5 S’s” approach (See appendix 2). We will be present in all the distribution channels mentioned. This can be done via video or via physical presents. It is paramount the customer is unaware she/he is being monitored as this potentially would influence the buying habits. The consumer segments found above – the consumer and non-consumer - will be specifically targeted in the monitoring. I.e. when a consumer fits one of the segments, the monitoring will be initiated. We wish to focus on these segments due to costs, but could increase the sampling to all customers across all segments if budget would allow. As the quantitative research should not stand alone, we would initiate in-depth interviews with more open-ended questions to better grasp the motivation behind the choice made by the customer. Such questions could be “Why did you buy pasta”, “What type of pasta do you normally buy”, “why did you buy pasta instead of rice or potatoes. “. For the non-consumers questions could be “Why do you choose rice/potatoes instead of pasta”, ”Which pasta products are you missing in the shop” etc. We believe the quantitative and qualitative output of this extensive research plan, by identifying the two interesting segments and dwell into their motivations behind their choice, would form an excellent base for developing an effective