Case Study on Donatos Pizza

Introduction

Donatos is a restaurant that sells pizza and is located in Columbus, United States. The franchise has about 184 retailers across several countries. Donatos uses a case study research design to develop a new product (Yin, 2011). A case study research design refers to a massive study done in a specific situation (Donald & Pamela 2013). Krouse, who is in charge of the new product development process says he obtains information about eating customs of the Americans from Yankelovich Monitor and NPD Eating Trends. Also, customers provide email-comments via the company's website. Additionally, Krouse says that the company usually holds wassup meetings where workers come with different ideas and even explains to the panel how the plan will affect Donatos. Therefore, the process of obtaining information involves studying reports and feedback from the customers.

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Ideally, the product development process comprises of several stages. The first stage is creating a prototype of the product. However, the prototype came with a challenge. The low-carb crusts were terrible. Hence, customers started to complain. On the other hand, buyers preferred toppings with no coatings. As a result, Donatos chose a no-dough Pizza. The second stage in the process involved employees tasting the new product and providing their reviews. Donatos displayed products to workers in specific locations to ask them about brand, price and the possibility of them to buy the product. The third phase consists of conducting product-tests in some restaurants in the chain.

Wassup Meetings as an Exploratory Methodology

Donatos valued wassup meetings since they were an exploratory methodology in defining the dilemma. The dilemma was addressing an increasing demand in the low-carb diets. The meetings were very significant since they gave outstanding reviews that conducted on different sources. The analyses included responses through emails and monitoring of trends in eating. Also, the meetings incorporated some reviews on social-cultural trends. Wassup meetings consisted of employees. Hence, getting market information about employees was easy.

Moreover, the information obtained would help to determine the impact of the chosen decision to the general public and people with unmatching cultures. The feedback gathered during the meeting helped in developing study questions. Even though, there was the risk of likes and dislikes from people whose lifestyles were different. Hence, it is easy for Donatos to formulate several research questions. Below are some of the research questions Donatos would develop:

• Should we establish a new pizza with low-carb?
• Should we modify the crust-free pizza?
• Can we introduce a protein-rich alternative to the crisp recipe?

Donatos Test Markets, Their Advantages and Disadvantages

Donatos used test markets which raised questions on reliability. Firstly, rarely in a test market is a single market used. However, researchers found different eating options by region. Secondly, Donatos never conducted any promotion to attract buyers into the restaurants to purchase the NO DOUGH PIZZA even though the test took some days in two restaurants. As a result, there was a group of customers (the potential low-carb customers) who did not show up in the test process. During the test process, Donatos could use a filtering question to differentiate between those customers who visited the restaurants purposefully to buy NO DOUGH PIZZA and the ones who were not the market target for the new product.

Thirdly, the preparation process of products to be tested should take place under different conditions to facilitate a more logical experiment. However, most test markets prefer actual market conditions. As a result, the control availability ends being limited. Donatos conducts phone surveys to decide on what to name the product after developing the prototype and testing it internally. The testing process took six and a half months to complete after which Donatos applied it to about 184 stores to boost sales. The first advantage of the test process is that the facts collected are secured since the object is directly involved.

As Donatos carries out surveys, there would be a compelling force to utilize marketing operations as well as strategies. Hence, another advantage. Additionally, there are disadvantages involved with the test. Developing a product and implementing it may take a very long time, i.e., beginning with prototype development and then conducting in-restaurant testing. Also, the process is costly. The process requires a lot of capital and resources to be effective. Respondents don't give all facts regarding consumer behavior, nature, and motivation. Therefore, there a lot of assumptions made in the process.

Recommended Measurement Scales

The survey used in the product testing process was significant to Donatos. It assisted in drawing of conclusions. However, there are other measurement scales I would use in the survey process. One measurement scale I would use is the nominal scale which satisfies only the element of measurement. The available values are merely descriptive and have no inherent value (WANG, SONG & CHEN, 2011). For example, I would classify competition as favorable or stiff. However, the costs would remain more or less competitive. Another measurement scale I would use is the ordinal scale. It has an element of both the magnitude and identity (Agresti, 2010). All the present values in ordinal scale have meanings as well as their resulting relationship with other available values in the range.

For example, I would have the first, second and third suggested names for the new product. The number of messages I would get on the survey will determine the positions. The first which will be the winning name would automatically have many supporters as NO DOUGH PIZZA did in this case. The second would have fewer supporters than the first and more than the third. The third would have the least supporters. Therefore, I would use nominal and ordinal measurement scales in the survey process.

References

Agresti, A. (2010). Analysis of ordinal categorical data (Vol. 656). John Wiley & Sons.

Donald R, Pamela S. (2013). Business Research Methods 12th Edition.New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

WANG, H. R., SONG, L. X., & CHEN, K. (2011). The test for the equality of the probability distribution of two populations with nominal scales. Journal of Northeast Normal University (Natural Science Edition), 4, 006.

Yin, R. K. (2011). Applications of case study research. Sage.