The food and beverage industry is ever-changing. Every year new products arrive on store shelves and new brands enter the market, with consumer preferences seemingly impossible to nail down.
The food and beverage industry is ever-changing, with consumer preferences seemingly impossible to nail down. Learn how a tea brand utilized online surveys to gather feedback from its target market.
Here at Drive Research, our market research experts have worked with numerous clients in the food and beverage space on a multitude of projects, conducting ad concept testing, brand tracking, and new concept testing, to name a few.
Below is an example of an online survey with tea drinkers we recently conducted with a client in the food and beverage space.
We'll cover the step-by-step process of how a tea brand utilized market research to fuel its business and marketing strategy.
Background and Objectives
Our food and beverage market research company recently conducted an online survey after being commissioned by an international tea and wellness product company.
Our online survey targeted regular hot tea drinkers in America’s three largest metropolitan areas: New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Drive Research was contacted by the client to conduct this research in an effort to understand where their brand stood in terms of awareness and purchasing interest when compared to other brands in the space.
With this being the client’s first time conducting research in America, they were looking to establish a baseline of several brand health metrics.
During the initial stages of any market research study, it is important to host a kickoff meeting to discuss key objectives you’d like to focus on.
For instance, our team of researchers at Drive held a kickoff meeting with the client to discuss their goals and to hear more about what they wanted to get out of the market research.
Some of the key objectives for this market research study included:
- Gauging both aided and unaided brand awareness for multiple brands in the hot tea market.
- Understanding brand consideration and likelihood to purchase known brands in the hot tea market.
- Learning what types of hot teas and products consumers are most interested in purchasing.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Using an online survey tool is a fantastic way to collect important feedback, no matter your brand. From the initial kickoff meeting to the final results, having a clear vision of what you want out of your survey is what makes it a success.
Our Methodology
To meet these objectives, Drive Research recommended conducting an online, quantitative survey.
Our online survey company finds that they are the best way to capture measurable data and set real benchmarks for a variety of brand health metrics that the client requested.
Here at Drive, we’re big fans of online surveys.
Why? Two reasons: they’re economical (without sacrificing data quality) and they save time.
Who doesn’t love receiving high-quality data in a short period of time?
So how cost-effective is an online survey? Here is a video that recaps the costs you can expect.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Online surveys are both time-efficient and save money. It is perhaps the greatest market research methodology for collecting quick yet insightful data.
Approach to Surveying Tea Drinkers
As previously mentioned, this online survey with tea drinkers was targeted at individuals in the New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago metropolitan areas who regularly drink hot tea.
To reach these individuals, we utilized online panels with respondents ready to participate in research.
Before collecting data, we had to draft the online survey document.
The importance of the survey document cannot be overstated, as it determines the amount of data you can collect and the quality of the data collected. Survey length, question type, and the overall flow of the survey are all important factors.
Here are some example questions from our hot tea market research study:
- What brands of tea are you familiar with? (Both aided and unaided).
- What is your perception of this brand of tea? (Positive, neutral, or negative)
- Which words do you associate with this brand of tea?
- Where have you seen or heard of this brand in the past?
- How likely are you to recommend the brand of tea you drink most often?
- What factors are most important to you when purchasing tea?
- Do you prefer to purchase tea online or in-store?
- How often do you drink tea? (Daily, weekly, etc.)
- What kind of wellness products do you consume at least once a week?
Ultimately, the questions included in the online survey for tea drinkers allowed our team to capture a variety of brand health metrics for our client while also creating the persona of the typical tea drinker.
💡 The Key Takeaway: Drafting an online survey form is an essential step in the process. The length of your survey and question style are key factors that have a big impact. For instance, this specific survey targeted brand health metrics.
Recommended reading: Looking For an Online Survey Company? Here Are 5 Things to Consider.
Results of the Online Survey
Fieldwork for this study lasted for three days, and all quotas were met. After an intense data cleaning process, we were able to begin analyzing the data.
Results remain confidential with the client, but here are some of the final details of the online survey:
- 450 individuals responded to our online survey with tea drinkers
- Respondents took an average of 9 minutes to answer 48 questions
- About 60% of respondents were female, while 40% were male. Individuals between the ages of 25 and 50 were invited to participate
- The margin of error was 4.6% (meaning that another round of research with another 450 respondents would yield results +4.6% or -4.6%).
Our team was proud to deliver actionable, high-quality insight to the client on-time and without a hitch.
Some of the deliverables provided to the client at the end of the research included:
- Survey analysis
- The comprehensive report, with an executive summary of findings followed by recommendations and next steps’s
- Question by question breakdown of the results, with data categorized by gender and geography
- An interactive online portal with access to charts, graphs, and word clouds for each question in the survey
- A virtual presentation of the results
As you can see, online surveys are able to glean a wealth of valuable information to better your brand. Pairing with an efficient team to get the job done and the data expressed is crucial.
Want to learn more about the overall survey process? Read our blog post, How Does an Online Survey Project Work?
💡 The Key Takeaway: This real-world case study of online surveys with tea drinkers depicts the benefits of what happens when you choose to run this kind of study. In short, brands receive clear, actionable data that’s ready to be used for your benefit.
Contact Our Online Survey Company
At Drive Research, an online survey company in Syracuse, NY, we’re ready to help you with your next survey project. Our expertise in all things online surveying will be seen in every facet of our work.
We look forward to working with you on your next big project!
- Message us on our website
- Email us at [email protected]
- Call us at 888-725-DATA
- Text us at 315-303-2040
Devan Grant
Devan's love for learning serves him well as a market research professional. With two years of both quantitative and qualitative research in the healthcare space under his belt, he knows what it takes to answer some of the toughest market research questions.
Learn more about Devan, here.
