Business Research Proposal: Understanding Consumer Perspectives on Zhengda Products

• User Profile: You are a junior consultant tasked with providing a clear research plan for a major B2C food industry client. You need a structured, defensible methodology to guide your work and deliver actionable insights.
• Problem Category: This is a Brand Health Assessment and Competitive Positioning analysis.
• Industry: B2C Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) in the food sector.
• Final Research Output: The ultimate goal is not just a report of findings, but a strategic playbook for Zhengda's brand and marketing teams. The final deliverable should include:
  1. A detailed SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the Zhengda brand across the specified food categories.
  2. Identification and detailed personas of 2-3 primary consumer segments for Zhengda to target.
  3. A clear Brand Positioning Statement for Zhengda, tailored to the most valuable target segment(s).
  4. Actionable recommendations for marketing communications, including key messages and potential channels for each target segment.
  5. Strategic recommendations for the product portfolio (e.g., which categories to emphasize, potential gaps to fill).

• Framework Teaching:
  • The STP framework is a foundational strategic marketing model. It provides a logical sequence for understanding a market and finding your unique place within it.
    • Segmentation (S): This is the process of dividing the broad, heterogeneous consumer market into smaller, distinct groups (segments) based on shared characteristics. These can be demographics (age, income), psychographics (lifestyle, values), needs (e.g., seeking convenience vs. seeking health), or behaviors (e.g., online shopper vs. wet market loyalist).
    • Targeting (T): After identifying the different segments, you can't be everything to everyone. Targeting is the process of evaluating the attractiveness of each segment (e.g., its size, growth potential, profitability) and selecting one or more segments to focus your marketing efforts on.
    • Positioning (P): Once you've chosen your target segment(s), positioning is about creating a clear, distinct, and desirable image of your brand and products in the minds of those consumers, especially in relation to your competitors.
• Applicability Explanation:
  • The STP framework is perfectly suited for this problem because your client's request is not just about "what" consumers think, but "who" thinks what, and "why."
  • Segmentation will help you move beyond the "general population" and identify specific, meaningful groups of consumers.
  • Targeting will allow you to provide a data-driven recommendation on which consumer groups offer the most value to Zhengda.
  • Positioning directly addresses the need to understand and improve competitive positioning and brand perception.
• Key Information to Collect for the Framework:
  • For Segmentation: Consumer demographics, lifestyles, food consumption habits, key needs and pain points related to food shopping (e.g., food safety concerns, desire for convenience, price sensitivity), and media consumption habits.
  • For Targeting: Market size and growth rate of different food categories, consumer spending power within each segment, and the competitive intensity for each segment.
  • For Positioning: Consumer awareness and perception of the Zhengda brand, perceptions of key competitors, key factors driving purchase decisions in each food category, and the unique strengths and weaknesses of Zhengda's products.

Phase 1: Information Collection

A. Web Search Content:

• Market & Consumer Trend Analysis:
  • Search Queries: "China ready-to-eat meals market size and trends 2025", "China poultry consumption trends report", "Chinese consumer attitudes towards food safety survey".
  • Purpose: To understand the macro environment. This data provides the quantitative backbone for the "Market Attractiveness" dimension of your analysis, helping to prioritize which food categories (e.g., ready-to-eat meals) have the highest growth potential. Understanding consumer attitudes, especially around food safety, is critical for brand messaging.
• Competitive Landscape Analysis:
  • Search Queries: "Zhengda Foods competitor analysis", "Hema, Dingdong Maicai, Yonghui Supermarket fresh food strategy".
  • Purpose: To identify and understand Zhengda's key competitors, from traditional food companies to new retail players. This information is essential for the "Positioning" part of the STP framework, as you need to know who you are positioning against. Analyzing the strategies of retail channels like Hema and Yonghui is also crucial as they are both partners and potential competitors with their own private-label brands.
• Zhengda Brand Information:
  • Search Queries: "CP Group China food business", "Zhengda Foods official website".
  • Purpose: To understand Zhengda's current brand image, product lines, and stated values from their own perspective. This forms a baseline to compare against actual consumer perceptions.

B. User Interview Planning:

• Interview Subjects: You need to interview a diverse set of consumers. I recommend creating three core recruitment groups:
  1. Zhengda Loyalists: Consumers who frequently and knowingly purchase Zhengda products.
  2. Competitor Loyalists: Consumers who frequently purchase competitor products (e.g., other major brands in the same category).
  3. Category Users (Brand Agnostic): Consumers who buy products in these categories but don't have a strong brand preference.
  • Screening criteria should ensure a mix of demographics (age, income, family structure) and city tiers (Tier 1 vs. Tier 2/3) within these groups.
• Interview Purpose: To gather qualitative data for the Segmentation and Positioning stages. You want to understand their "Job-to-be-Done" when buying food, their brand awareness and associations, and the key drivers of their purchase decisions.
• Core Interview Questions:
  1. "Walk me through your most recent grocery shopping trip where you bought fresh meat, eggs, or a frozen/ready-to-eat meal. What were you trying to accomplish?"
     • Analysis Purpose: This uncovers the consumer's journey, context, and the "job" they are hiring the food for (e.g., a quick weeknight dinner, a healthy meal for kids, ingredients for a weekend feast).
  2. "When you think of the brand 'Zhengda' in the context of food, what words, images, or feelings come to mind?"
     • Analysis Purpose: This directly probes brand awareness and perception, revealing top-of-mind associations (e.g., "big company," "chicken," "safe," or perhaps, "unclear").
  3. "Tell me about a time you decided to buy a specific brand of eggs/packaged meat. What made you choose that one over others on the shelf?"
     • Analysis Purpose: This identifies the key purchase factors (e.g., price, packaging, perceived freshness, brand trust, promotions) and their relative importance in a real-world context.
  4. "If you were to compare Zhengda with [Key Competitor Brand A] and [Key Competitor Brand B], what are the main strengths and weaknesses of each?"
     • Analysis Purpose: This provides direct input for competitive positioning and helps build a perceptual map of the market from the consumer's viewpoint.

Phase 2: Information Analysis

1. Analysis Step 1: Segmentation
   • How to Execute: Take your user interview transcripts and look for patterns. Group consumers based on their answers. Don't just use demographics. Focus on their needs and behaviors. For example, you might identify segments like:
     • The Safety-Conscious Parent: Prioritizes food safety, traceability, and quality above all else; willing to pay a premium.
     • The Busy Urban Professional: Prioritizes convenience, speed, and ease of preparation (e.g., loves ready-to-eat meals).
     • The Value-Driven Shopper: Highly price-sensitive, actively looks for promotions, and is less brand-loyal.
   • How to Use the Data: Use interview quotes to bring each segment to life. Use web search data on market trends (e.g., growth of the ready-to-eat market) to add quantitative weight to your segment descriptions.
2. Analysis Step 2: Targeting
   • How to Execute: Create a simple 2x2 matrix. On one axis, plot "Segment Attractiveness" (using market size, growth, and spending power data from your web search). On the other axis, plot "Company Fit" (using interview data on how well Zhengda's current brand perception and product strengths align with the segment's needs).
   • How to Use the Data: The segments that land in the "High Attractiveness / High Fit" quadrant are your primary targets. The goal is to provide a clear recommendation: "Zhengda should focus its efforts on the 'Safety-Conscious Parent' and the 'Busy Urban Professional' segments."
3. Analysis Step 3: Positioning
   • How to Execute: For each target segment, you need to define how Zhengda can win. A great tool here is the Perceptual Map.
     1. Identify Key Dimensions: Based on your interviews, what are the two most important factors consumers use to differentiate brands in a category? (e.g., for ready-to-eat meals, it might be

        Taste/Quality

        vs.

        Price

        ).
     2. Map the Brands: Place Zhengda and its key competitors on the map based on the perceptions you gathered in the interviews.
     3. Find the Opportunity: Look for an uncrowded space on the map that aligns with Zhengda's strengths and the target segment's desires. This is your target position.
   • How to Use the Data: This analysis allows you to formulate a precise positioning statement, which is the core of your strategy: "For the [Target Segment], Zhengda is the brand of [Food Category] that delivers [Unique Differentiating Benefit] because [Reason to Believe, e.g., our integrated supply chain]."
4. Analysis Step 4: Formulating Final Recommendations
   • How to Execute: Translate your STP analysis into the actionable outputs defined at the start.
     • SWOT: Use your analysis to fill this in. Strengths/Weaknesses come from consumer perceptions (interviews). Opportunities/Threats come from market trends and competitor actions (web search).
     • Marketing Recommendations: Based on the positioning statement and segment profile, what should the key message be? Where should it be delivered (e.g., online grocery platforms, social media, in-store marketing)?
     • Product Recommendations: Does the target segment have needs that Zhengda's current portfolio doesn't meet? For instance, if the 'Busy Urban Professional' is a key target, are there opportunities for more premium, single-serving ready-to-eat options?