“Using market survey to support decision making”-A case study on Mitsubishi Corporation in Bangladesh

Organizations that operate in the business-to-consumer (B2C) market are increasingly turning to market survey to support their decision making processes. This case study focuses on how Mitsubishi Corporation uses market survey to support and develop a new product launching opportunity in Bangladesh. In the Foods (Commodity) Division, they are making efforts to strengthen overseas procurement and processing plants to meet market needs, which requires the product to be both safe and price competitive, and to secure food resources.

Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) is a global integrated business enterprise that develops and operates businesses across virtually every industry including industrial finance, energy, metals, machinery, chemicals, foods, and environmental business. It has more than 200 offices & subsidiaries in approximately 90 countries worldwide and a network of over 500 group companies.

Context

In the beginning of 2012 Mitsubishi Corporation wanted to introduce a food supplement, Furikake, for the poor people of Bangladesh. Furikake is a seasoning rich in Vitamins and necessary minerals, and is used in Japan as a sprinkle or topping to flavour rice, vegetables, and soups. It typically consists of a mixture of dried and ground fish, sesame seeds, chopped seaweed, sugar, salt.

Cooked white rice is principal food of Japanese. In traditional Japanese diet, rice and miso soup is a regular combination of Japanese meal whether it is for breakfast or dinner. Furikake is widely used in Japan. The Japanese people like it as one of the traditional food and they take it with their food in the morning. It is often used also for box lunch. Taking many different kinds of food ingredients without having big volume is one of the qualifications of Furikake. Because of that, it is also recommended from nutritional view point.

The food market here in Bangladesh is quiet different; although our basic food is cooked rice and fish which is similar to Japan. Mitsubishi Corporation thinks that the incidence of malnutrition and malnourishment is pervasive among the poorer communities in Bangladesh who only take basic rice with some chilies or onions in the morning; in addition to flavoring the Furikake mix also provides an energy boost to increase their productivity. But at the same time they also concerned about its taste, price and quantity. So they want to conduct a market survey on the poorer communities both in the rural and urban area to prove the likelihood of Furikake being accepted by the target consumers in terms of its taste, quantity & price.

Although Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) has the money to do the survey by themselves but they do not have the network in Bangladesh for this. They targeted donor agencies in Bangladesh who have the agenda to work for the poorer communities and also the linkages. They talked with Business Innovation Facility- an UKaid funded project who has the linkages with a social business company JITA Bangladesh LTD. The company has more than 3000 destitute women in rural areas who work for them as sales women. These women carry bags with themselves, selling consumer products of 7 major companies including BATA, Unilever, Square etc. The company improved access to markets for 10 million Base of Pyramid (BoP) consumers. JITA agreed to do the survey for Mitsubishi Corporation because they also need another range of product for their sales women to distribute to the poor.

The survey:

In the mid of 2012 Mitsubishi Corporation brought 900 packet of Furikake from Japan. They expected that if the market research, of 900 samples, is successful they will do a second trial of 1,40,000 samples and will eventually consider manufacturing the products in Bangladesh. In order to get geographically diverse responses from rural consumers the survey was conducted in two completely different regions - Tangail and Rangpur rural areas among 450 respondents. For urban segment; two different factories were selected consecutively one in Gazipur and the other one in Narayanganj area. Among these two factories 450 workers were contacted to run the survey.

This research is based on “post- product experience interview”- having both qualitative and quantitative measures. The samples of Furikake have been tested on 900 selected participants. Audiences have experienced the sample and provide feedback either by individual interview and/or through Focus Group Discussion (FGD). Mitsubishi gave the 900 sample pack in a blank silver foil paper.

The researcher was concerned about the demography of the sample. They talked mostly with the women of the rural and urban community- nearly 64 per cent who are in between the age of 20 to 30. The reason behind this is that- in Bangladesh women actually are responsible for house chore like taking decision about meal, cooking materials etc. In this perspective researcher thinks that it is wise to take the comments regarding the product from them. The research questionnaire was mainly focused on fragrance, taste, quantity, packaging & pricing of the product.

Feedback of the survey:

Researcher got some great feedback from the participants. Most of the female respondents suggested that their children will like the taste of the product. On the other hand, some of the male respondents were hesitant. They were the ones who quoted that this product can never replace their daily meal with rice, and can never be consumed as an alternate to curries. "There are lots of survey output which Mitsubishi Corporation doesn't want to share publicly"

Keeping all this survey output in mind Mitsubishi decided to change some of the features of the product before the second trail. They decided to bring another 1,40,000 samples and taste it by the rural and urban consumers again. Finally they came to a point that the price will play a crucial role in terms of launching the product. They were well known about such kind of product in Bangladesh and their rivals. It’s a high level decision where they think that they need to think again about the price of Furikake and the product costing.