Lapse Consumer Expectation From Pizza Hut

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Chaper1

The world foodservice industry is anticipated to achieved virtually $992 billion in 2014,

According, to data monitor with the amount of over 586 billion transaction. This represents over 18% of growth in 5 years. Restaurant business is leading market section at over 50% of overall foodservice industry worth. Regionally, Asia pacific holds virtually 43% of the world foodservice business market share (report linker, n.d). growing fast food industry and the drift of globalization has fostered the entry of number of fast food chain restaurant into the Mauritian market place, a small growing island in the Indian Ocean. The fast food & restaurant industry is booming in this small island is likely to continue its growth in future. Consumption of fast food is increasing its popularity. Fast food industry has been divided in many section , fine dining restaurant, specialist restaurant, quick service restaurant, casual dining restaurant etc. fast food leaders in the industry like KFC, PIZZA HUT, Mc. DONALD’S,& DEBONAIRS and many other popular brand, Mauritius market is normally very small but have many competitors. Basically my study is on understanding barriers preventing consumer in pizza hut. My research is based on Mauritius context.

Pizza hut is one of the flagship brands of YUM! And has almost 12000 pizza hut restaurant around world. It has won various excellence awards for its standards & services they provide in dine-in, carryout and delivery (source: pizzahut.com). Pizza hut become the first brand logo to be posted on proton rocket carrying the zvezda services module on 8th July 2000. (spacedaily, 2000). The first pizza hut in Mauritius was opened in Port Louis 25th July 1993 and currently it has 9 outlets around the island which serves varieties of pizzas, salad, pasta and appetizer as here in Mauritius has master franchise which is owned by happy world house, Mauritius is an small market with small population where it got a diversified culture, Currently pizzeria industries on this island are many like pizza hut, debonair, panarroties, la gastro nomie, and many other small pizzeria outlet, growing competition in Small Island around population of 12,86051 (world bank, 2011)and around tourist at time on island estimated population around 90,000. If pizza hut want to retain regular & potential customer and want to remove the barriers against lapse consumer have to understand the factors influencing to consumer perception & preferences and consumer behavior and attention in terms, product challenge, and quality of service & customer satisfaction.

We know the kind of insights we need to be looking for at pizza hut, we can be a little clearer about what makes a good insight. The best insights address the big consumer questions, uncover the big challenges faced by the brand, and identify the barriers to and enablers of growth. They get to the WHY – the motives and attitudes behind perceptions and behaviors rather than just the observation of those perceptions and behaviors themselves. The WHAT is just observed perception or behavior – the WHY is the deeper meaning, the UNDERSTANDING – that’s the difference between information and insight

It is important to study consumer perception and preferences in regards to brand, consumer considered pizza hut as being expensive. In fact, it is very important to understand the attribute of expensiveness as viewed by the market. It takes into consideration tangibles as well as non tangibles elements. The difficulty of the recipe, availability and price of ingredients if prepared at home, the quantity of ingredients, the quality time with members of the family and friends, reassurance that parents are responding to their basic role, that is, the children have a quality meal not hungry.

Further lapse consumer of pizza hut has been categorized in three different segments.

Though a dining experience in pizza hut is more of a holistic experience. Barriers against pizza hut differ in relation to profile. There are three distinct category of lapse consumer.

Hard to get (2) the fence sitters (3) the melancholic: hard to get is a customer category. Which comes under C1 segment in pizza hut customer profile, they prefer to eat out and with convenient, affordable and quick service prepared in hygienic condition. Price and product’s value are very important while they choose an outlet and even quantity and variety are very important. This kind of customer expectation as follows:

more information on the product

value for money products

more variety of products

Fence sitters are individual. Who are highly driven by need for affiliation when eat out. Get together and sharing is very important for them. They tend to be among the young working youth and students. They type of customer tend to comply to what the group wants and with where the group wants to eat as long as they are together. These groups of consumer usually go out for lunch, the following criteria are taken into consideration.

Convenience of the location

Budget (they are youth consumer share the overall costl)

Freedom enjoyed – feel at ease

The melancholic tend to be among the young up moving professionals. They are those previous brand fans which have been converted into frustrated consumer due to both intrinsic and extrinsic reasons. They believed that there are defects in service as well as food quality. This kind of consumer had a best experience in past but currently they are not satisfied by taste and quality. This kind of customer usually goes out for lunch as well as dinner both among friends and family. They look for good service and food and even seek for stylish and comfortable places.

But they are deceived by pizza hut:

Decline in caring attribute

Long of time taken to serve food

The quality of product

Lapse consumer Expectation from pizza hut

There are four primordial attributes are rated when consumer comes to pizza hut, that are ambiance, quality of service and food there is one more attribute ‘price’ which depends to consumer segment.

Ambiance

Welcome from the waiters (who are important players in making people feel special)

Ample seating space and cozy setting with a sense of privacy. Kids corner for children

Décor (helping to evade from monotony)

Music

Quality of service

Smile and availability of waiters

Food within 15 minutes

Opportunity to choose where they want to be seated

Advice and information from waiters (concerning promotional items or new products)

Food

Nice presentation (not something that one can easily reproduce since the moment is special for the customers)

Quantity – enough to feel full

Temperature of food

Tastes good and special (not something that an average person can do at home)

Appearance

The appearance of pizza has to be dual function, it should promises a value for money gustative pleasure and it ought to reassures parents that the family are having a ‘complete delicious meal’ in order to play on these two expectation, the pizza has to be colorful(well garnished and cheese with visible pieces of vegetables)

At Pizza Hut as we strengthen our dual channel focus and address a set of casual dining occasions and a set of home meal replacement occasions to target customer segment by this two different channel, there are totally three channel in pizza hut dine in, carryout and delivery, from this channel pizza hut is delivering to its consumer needs and wants. Pizza hut faces the challenge in marketing to Quick service restaurant occasions. The old approach of looking for the silver bullet of new product news that will cut across both sets of occasions looks less and less appropriate – finding innovative new ways to bundle food, experience and value benefits to resolve these distinct occasion needs will be the key to maximizing consumer relevance in both channels and from this distinct occasion and innovative new way can resolve the problem of lapse consumer.

Many studies have been conducted by many researchers in the area of consumer’s behaviour & consumer perception & attitude towards brands and they have come up with their own models in explaining customer perception & buying behaviour. All these researches where conducted on selected segment of market relating to different products. Furthermore, most of the journals and researches I found were either correlated to developed countries. Those research study base results can be hardly applied in Mauritius. Therefore, I felt Mauritius with diverse cultures integrated in it, is the right country for study this kind of topic and it is value doing. Also, as I previously mentioned, there is no earlier research is made to Mauritius context on this topic, it would be a challenge for me to undertake such study.

1.1Research aim & objectives

On the basis of preliminary literature review and my personal analysis on the objective and concept behind this topic, I have observed the need to make a research analysis on few questions. These will help me to go more deeply in my dissertation along with to find the problem statement and solution for the dissertation. My dissertation mainly focus I have observed the need of research for few question

Research question

Identify the target segment

What is segmentation?

What are the dynamics of this segment?

What is pizza hut brand share of this segment?

What is consumer behavior?

What is current consumer behavior and against pizza hut brand?

What is customer perception?

What is customer perception and against pizza hut brand?

Research objectives

The present research focuses on the lapse consumer of pizza hut

The major objective is to understand major challenges (customer perception & preferences) against the pizza hut.

The other objective is to understand customer behaviors & attitude towards pizza hut.

Chapter two

Literature review

These literature reviews critically examine the barriers against lapse consumer and the various factors influencing are customer perception & preference, customer behavior & attitude towards pizza hut brands to Mauritius context and generally my research study on the pizza hut brand. "Pizza hut is lower in price with authentic deal in this competitive market at the best location, excellent food quality, flexible service facilities, with variety of choices & deal to give a promotion to our loyal & value customers through market segmentation with the quick service quality achieving customer satisfaction"(Henry, 2009). Above stated Every aspect are important from the view of company and consumer, its an strength for the brand and by practicing this aspect in effective way barriers can be prevented against lapse consumer in pizza hut. Fast food consumer forms a various perception & preferences it would be in the form of word of mouth, introduction to new promotion, past experience of there or it would be positive or negative form. Customer perception cannot be correct all the time. Consumer perceptions and intentions tend to center on customer Satisfaction because more satisfied customers has a greater tendency to repurchase and engage in word-of-mouth referrals (Johns and Pine, 2002).

Overview of pizza hut:

Pizza hut is truly a heritage. Brand was founded by two brothers. It grew through a family of friends, who became employees, then franchises. Pizza hut is largest pizza making company in the world, the base of pizza hut, Inc is in United States of America, it is a subsidiary of yum brands, it has franchise all around the world, and it has more than 12000 restaurants around the world in different 100 countries. It is popular brand around the world, brand legacy of leadership and innovation has made it the recognized leader in fast food industry. Pizza hut got a brand image in world, with excellence in its business growth from last four decades, pizza hut is a unique in fast food industry, due to its variety of menu choice, quality of service, ambience, setting etc. pizza hut Mauritius was started in 1995, first store was started in port Louis, and currently it has 9 store running on the island which is running successfully. It is special heritage and one must strive to maintain because it makes a difference in the brand are today will be tomorrow. This brand is passionate about pizzas and all over other food we serve and believe that our success is based upon our ability to innovate both products and services to meet customers needs, thus enticing our customer to continue to visit us, visit more often and spread the world we must accomplish this and everything we do efficiently if we are to remain a healthy, growing and profitable company. We believe in being reliable as individuals, as a company and as a brand you can count on, we are committed to one another, to our customers and to communities we are honored to serve.

Understand Current consumer Behavior

There are certain buying habits of the customers. According to the buying behavior of the

Customers, there are four types of buying decision behavior. Which are as follows:

Complex buying behavior

Dissonance-Reducing Buying Behavior

Habitual Buying Behavior

Variety-Seeking Buying Behavior

Consumers of Pizza Hut are dissimilar in buying the pizzas. Customer follows variety seeking buying behavior in buying the pizza. When buying pizza they have some beliefs, prefer a brand product without much estimation then evaluate type of pizza for the period of consumption but after that time he/she may choose a new type of pizza of boredom or just to try something different. Switching brand occurs for the variety rather than cause of unhappiness or dissatisfaction. This is the circumstances characterize by less concern but perceived brand differences. Pizza Hut has made superior reputation of their products and services towards their consumers. Though, consumer’s outlook of buying is array seeking buying behavior. Pizza Hut is a restaurant of pizzas, and much other menu choice apart from pizzas and there are various competitors who are also differentiating their pizzas and services to be a focus for consumers. Therefore, by this, consumers want some change according to their flavor and those brands, which are giving further new offers with the pizzas. Those consumers who have beliefs on the Pizza Hut are reliable and loyal with them. They don’t switch their brand and only try different pizzas. However, who are not loyal with the Pizza Hut, they will change according to their taste.

"Consumer behavior is the study of the process involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use of dispose of products, services, ideas and experiences to satisfy needs and desire" (Solomon, bamossy, 2006), pizza hut is viewed as an fast food outlet, with variety of menu choices, whereas consumer attitude & behavior towards pizza hut is a fast food outlet which does not create any healthy image & pizza is high calorie food, but they like pizza to have once in week or month as per attitude and behaviour of consumer. Attitude is a very powerful influencer on consumer behavior.(Allport,1935)

Taking about customers, it has been a noticeable trend that food consumption pattern of families has changed dramatically with times owing to the growing influence of western culture, Mauritians have started dining out and moved on to accept different varieties of delicious food from the world. Further, study indicates a radical change in the consumption patterns of Mauritian customer, who have traditionally been known for their price sensitiveness. Middle-class families as well as the young working youth prefer to have a hot dog or biryani worth 60-80 rather than that worth 150-200 for pizza. This reveals that despite looking for taste, quality and brand, customer in Mauritius are still inclined to low-price and health issues. Fast food consumers are very keen about harmful impact of fast food. Pizza hut has taken measures by providing transfect food and used a innovative cooking styles as pizza are baked in oven so, it retain a best flavor of pizzas and reduce the oil quantity. Pizza hut provides the quality of its product and all information of product like ingredients, nutrition and fact contained in the product, this help consumer to select healthy and nutritious food as well as protect them from the dangerous effect of unhealthy fast food

Understand Current consumer Perceptions and preferences

The present perception of pizza hut is a hot line number of pizza hut rather than a location or destination (Source: Pizza Hut Case Study).

Pizza does not create any healthier lifestyle or image. Often consumer has tag pizza hut as ‘junk food’

Pizza contains nutritious ingredients, such as rich vegetables and already offers numerous healthier Products

Positive attributes should be focus to uphold the product image in market as a healthier product; finding ways to strengthen them, and this should be bring to consumer attention.

Increase the value of product & services by changing consumer perception, look to alter weakness into strength

(Sources: Pizzamarketplace.com – Count a pizza’s sales potential before counting its crabs and calories).

Once the true competitive set for the specific target has been defined, we need to identify what these consumers think about our brand. Specifically Most of the consumer preferred pizza hut as a fast food, but more than fast food, they provide a casual dining with variety of menu choices. pizza hut is strong competitor in current market and have major share in market with its competitor it’s the next best top of mind awareness after KFC, quality and product service are standardize, dine-in and takeaway are the most used channel at pizza hut, pizza hut ranked as the third less cheaper fast food outlet in terms of lowest average spending Rs 180mru. Which is followed by debonair which more expensive outlet then pizza hut, pizza hut portrayed generous and traditional brand image while other brands like debonairs is viewed as passionate brand. The brand attributes shows that pizza hut is strongly associated to ‘ good value for money’, ‘great tasting food’, ‘brand I trust’, ‘innovative brand’ and can be recommended to others’ these are brand attributes, in general, families it is noted to higher presence at the different fast food restaurants including pizza hut. However, presence of teens, young adults and singles are slightly higher across to other brands as compared to pizza hut. Pizza hut is seen to be doing well on product, people and place but to lesser extent on ‘price’ and ‘promotion’

Costumer perception on pizza hut, pizza hut is lacking behind in value for money to their product and services and promotions offering are not so attractive and worth for it. Pricing is a major factor for lapse consumer, as switch to any other brand or which is relatively cheaper then pizza hut, promoting healthier lifestyle can make pizza hut to make their perception, in current scenario young professionals are the one who are attracted towards fast food and even teens promoting a attention towards healthier lifestyle can promote the brand with the other competitors, perception of consumer is pizza is not a healthy food, agreed but consumer perception can be changed by adding some value to it or promoting in such a way it would liked by consumer

Customer life cycle

Customer life cycle is a nature of relationship between customer and brand. If a firm has too aggressive an acquisition programme, and many existing buyers who defect, the brand would face a significant financial problem. In this situation firm or brand should track the number of consumer in each phase of life cycle to determine the nature of customer purchasing patterns and thereby cash flow. Dissatisfied and lapse consumer can make you understand what changes does a brand required not other than this category customer make you think about changes to be taken. Potential customers are one who tells you what they need from your brand, but there is no guarantee if you offer they will buy or not. Satisfied customers are the one who will always appreciate your brand they can be called as loyal customer.

Robert c. blattberg (2001), a Harvard business school professor, has identified five phase in typical customer life cycle

1. Prospects (perspective customers)

2. First- time buyer (new customer)

3. Early repeat buyer (active customer)

4. Core customer (replicate and loyal customer)

5. Core defectors (lapse customer)

Customers are the core concern of every brand and company, maintaining a good relationship with customer can achieve its goal and objective. Customer relationship marketing strategies are made around 3 core concept (a) acquisition (b) retention (c) add-on-selling; in this concept company tries to target its prospects consumer till consumer make their final purchase

Perspective customer: this are not the customer of the pizza hut they even don’t know about the offering and no even more about your brand, they have potential value and can be changed to initial customer, during the prospect stage this kind of customer just evaluate his or her expectation from brand product and services. Pizza hut should meet with the expectation of this kind customer to increase into market share. for Prospects customer price is also important factor, there purchase at pizza hut can be increase by giving them value for money and satisfaction through quality & service

First-time consumer: These kinds of customer are future assets for any company. They are newly acquired consumer and have a very low retention in initial period but can be changed into high retention customer by meeting up their expectation and specification. As they evaluate the product and services and if further they are satisfied and if its meet their expectation levels they will repurchase and continue this process, if they find any defects during their early repeat purchase, then they will stop purchasing and it would lead to defection. These kinds of consumer are very important to company for their continuity and growth.

early repeat customer: they were perspective consumer but know they are converted into registered consumer, here these consumer need a be paid special attention and have to delight these kind consumer with good quality of product and services and follow up with them to built a relationship, and keep there importance so, ensure whenever they think of buying product or services they should return back to you, satisfaction level of this customer has been on best level, just only one think has to ensure that brand or company should always meet to there expectation or thus, it would lead to defect.

core consumer: these kind of consumer has been went through every phase of life cycle, earning a core consumer is a milestone for a firm, it is important to maintain the frequency and aggressiveness once the consumer become regular consumer, retention in these phase is the highest one from these kind of customer, and if any problems arises with these consumer he re-evaluate the brand product and services, provide him reasons and discounts to be loyal to brand and product, there is a competitor always ready to move in your users or consumers, retain this customer for life time by using marketing communication channel and treat these consumer like a king.

core defectors: defectors consumer are the one who has stop purchasing since long, there might various reason competing product and services better then earlier firm or problem with service and would have bad experience in a past that might be reason for defector, while brand or firm can reactivate a defector by resolving the problem and rectifying them, lapsed customer are referred to be lapsed for short term or long term there would many reasons for defector consumer, lapse consumer can be recognize the one who has not purchased since quarter can be considered as lapse one.

The consumer’s relationship with the category and in particular the consumption occasion. We describe these as Occasion Insights because an understanding of needs, perceptions and behaviors of consumers before, during and after these occasions is an essential part of making our marketing and advertising more relevant.

In our business, occasion needs are often more meaningful than the needs of specific demographic groups, because the same individual may consume at different usage occasions and can have distinctly different needs at each occasion. Further, the same individual may have a different repertoire of brands that will be used to meet those needs at each different usage occasion.

And as we explore these needs we need to ladder beyond the immediate functional needs and get a deeper understanding of emotional needs. Brands need to meet functional needs to be included in the consideration set, but where emotional needs are consistently met consumers reward brands with their loyalty. insights deals with the consumer’s relationship with our products and services. Since our brands are heavily product focused there are clearly overlaps between product insights and brand insights and the answer to the critical question, "What perception or habit must we build, reinforce or change to grow the business?". As we’ve seen in many KFC and Pizza Hut markets, the brands signature products are often inextricably linked with the core barriers and drivers of brand usage. Pan pizza for example is simultaneously craved and rejected for being an indulgent special occasion pizza.

But as well as getting to the heart of the barriers to usage, product insights are critical to the positioning of the products and services we develop and market, and the advertising we ultimately make to try to remove these usage barriers or reinforce drivers. For every marketing window we need to clearly articulate the benefit our product or service brings to consumer and how that resolves their problem with the brand or reaffirms their current relationship with the brand.

Segmentation

Bernard and Johnson (2006). Demonstrated that product usage and actual behavior such as buying pattern, usage data, Channel ownership, quantities, brand loyalty, attitude, are behavioral based segmentation variables the segmentation is a method of compartmentalizing customer on the basis of the attribute & characteristic that affects their behavior in the market

There are mainly four types of segmentation

analytical segmentation

response segment

strategic segment

delivered loyalty segmentation

Segmentation is a process of dividing a markets into group based on consumer knowledge, attitude towards usage of particular brand, actual or intention to use or response to a product. A key element of this work is the concept that markets or customers are segmented on no other variable apart from the behavioral characteristic.

1. Analytical segmentation: in this segmentation the company analyses the consumer and market information to recognize the different category of consumer with different profile, needs and so on. There is a process to analyze segmentation it starts with company’s customer profile, what kind of consumer does the company have? What is their attitude & behavior towards brand? Which product and service channel will be best channel to manage them?

2. Response segmentation: in these segmentation, companies identifies different group of consumer from different section targeting a particular ‘promotion’. A specified consumer may belong to whole series of different segment, according to the objective of individual promotion. A key accomplishment condition for response segmentation is the success of each promotion i.e. whether the response rates meet the specification and expectation, whether final purchase hit the firm targets or not.

3. Strategic segmentation: segmentation for these groups of customer should be in strategic form. These type customers should be handled cautiously. Usually the low risk and high risk consumer should be targeted to market them in rigorous way. And every individual consumer in a group should be given attention and quality service, standards and relationship should be maintained for future business for company.

4. Delivered loyalty segmentation: this is a special case strategic segmentation. Here, a particular group of genuine or prospective consumers whose loyalty is important to firm is to identify. Normally, the practice relates to the volume and profitability of company coming from these groups of consumer, but it can also be interrelated to other variables (like political sensitivity)

Identify Target Segment

The pizza hut target market is adults, both men & women, ages 18-55, teens, working group men & women. These consumers are generally divided into two groups. Core consumer who go to pizza hut on every occasions and switchers who are not necessarily

Brand loyal to pizza hut but use us of their occasions. In comparison to the total quick service restaurant category and its different food types (i.e., hamburgers), the pizza category skew stronger to larger household (5+ family members). It has been seen pizza hut consumer are educated and qualified professional and management job.

To identify target segments (customer targets, day parts, channels or some combination of all 3)

The core motivation regarding the choice of fast food is mostly ‘quality, good taste, practical, value for money, pleasant atmosphere, good service, well located and children like, pizza hut target segment is divided into parts (1) usage of brand by the specific customer and its frequency for e.g. heavy category user, and lapsed brand user (2) more usage of brand in day parts (lunch, dinner, snack, breakfast), further the customer usage of pizza hut in day parts is specified (3) further usage of which channel from pizza hut(dine-In, carry out, delivery), these are the three segment from pizza hut customer target segment can be identified. Every segment is important from brand prospect because it generate profitability for pizza hut, each and every segment in pizza hut has been given an importance towards product and service quality, further lapse consumer are the one who has been a regular customer but further but due to problems in product and service is has been defected, pizza hut try to get back to his lapse customer by delivering loyalty segmentation & resolving the identified problem, whereas for response segmentation this a group for consumer which are loyal towards brand and they acquire every promotions and benefits from brand.

When you stop to think about the many, many permutations of customer target, day part and channel it is clear that along the way we will need to make some tough decisions on priorities. The table below illustrates how we might prioritize;

Segment Size Dynamics Share Opportunity

Large Growing High (Big) - Protect & Grow

Large Growing Low (Big) - Grow Aggressively

Large Flat/Declining High Protect & enter other segments

Large Flat/Declining Low Grow but enter other segments

Small Growing High Protect & Grow

Small Growing Low Grow

Small Flat/Declining High (Small) - Protect

Small Flat/Declining Low (Small) - Ignore

While some choices are more obvious than others, in many cases decisions can only be taken when the full picture of segment dynamics and brand position is viewed. The Brand Image Tracking can provide the category fundamentals that are key to target selection; market growth, day part development, channel development, demographic user profiles, and category usage frequency (heavy/medium/light) can all be quantified using the Brand Image Tracking.

In conclusion, Mauritius is small market and increasing competition and consumer perception and behavior is changing as per changing environment and upcoming brands

To track lapse consumer,

Chapter 3

Research plan

3.1 Introduction:

The aim of this Research is to help pizza hut to analysis its potential customer and to overcome on their lapse consumer. This research study understands consumer perception and behavior towards brand.

Research criteria

According to the availability, reliability, generalisability, transparency of the data I would use proper data and methods for answering my research questions and will find out the objectives of my research study. At the end of my research I will also figure out some general conclusion of my research with a solution statement for the problem.

Research perspective

Research is about the analysis or investigation of a particular topic using a various types of reliable and primary resources. As stated above, this research is the study of information about barriers against lapse consumer factors influencing are types of consumer, segmentation, consumer perception & preferences, consumer behavior attitude towards a pizza hut brand in Mauritius. This research will be conducted on the basis of analysis & especially focuses on primary data. There are different research perspectives and my study will have the nature of positivist approach. And also have qualitative and deductive approach. As management draws on a number of disciplines, the researcher uses a combination of interviews, questionnaires, observation and documentation to ensure the research question is realistically answered "(Jewell 2008).

Research design

This research is based on descriptive & exploratory methods. The method of research applied is descriptive method which is survey & discussion methods, and analytical case. Descriptive research method mainly deals with the description of data and characteristics about a population. The main goal of descriptive research method is to gather data without any manipulation of the research context. Descriptive research method is more analytical in nature it frequently focuses on a particular variable or factor Descriptive research will be use in form discussion questionnaire on focus group & structured & unstructured interviews will be the initial research design used. The survey & discussion will be carried to collect information referring to the local target competitors & audience, restaurant ambience, interests and media preferences, the discussion with focus group will be design and it would be recorded and analysis will be made on that basis and other factors are consider as well. Bryman and Bell, 2007, stated that a research design acts as a reflection of decisions on the priority being given to a range of routes or dimensions the research process follows.

In Exploratory research, it is mainly reality or information which is already available; these help to critical evaluate the study. This research method helps in finding out the reason behind a phenomenon, emphasizing in discovering new ideas, getting a feel of the situation and it helps in insight into the identified areas for precise study. It helps in explain the thing in detail not just reporting the thing. This research method mainly used to answer the question of why in a research project.

Research methodology

My research subject is base on qualitative information

Primary data

Primary data has a major importance in research study, Gathering primary data & sources is the important part of my research study & design. I am intending to collect the following types of primary data. I had been working for pizza hut, Mauritius since 10 months as customer relationship manager on part time basis. Primary data I going carry out semi- structured question with face to face interview with head of marketing department, operation department & restaurant manager of outlet. This will give me insight to work on my research.

Focus group discussion:

Discussion with focus group had made me understand the path I was travelling was correct, from this discussion genuine feedback and what was missing at pizza hut can be identified. Moreover, this discussion took 6 hours and the outcome can be seen in analysis and conclusion which had drawn below..

Mini focus group discussion was the research instrument used. Underlining profile of respondent. Users who eat out at least three times a week and who belonged to abc1 socio economic profile. Respondents were not rejecters of pizza hut (have visited at least once in the last 6 months) but they were not regular users (have visited a pizza hut at most once in the last three months).

Other profiles were

Students – 19-22 years

Young families- 23-34 years

Working – 23-34 years

Focus group survey

This is the survey & discussion with customer who frequently visits pizza hut their Opinion and suggestion would help me. Due to time constraint survey cannot do but discussion and interview with focus group and head department had made a success to my dissertation and selective opinion and suggestion from customer has helped me a lot to understand the consumer.

Secondary data

The following research data is collected from secondary sources. These will include the following.

Company website (www. Pizzahut.com.)

Case study to apply new strategies

Coventry University & Oceana business school library.

Books, reports, journals, newspaper, magazines

Access

As an employee of pizza hut, Mauritius, I have access to majority of primary and secondary data information from company websites. In addition I have further information from any head of departments of pizza hut, Mauritius and also contact them directly by email.

Limitation

The limitation in this research would be actively involvement of customer true feed back of customer through discussion and survey; time would be the factor customer will not give reliable feedback on survey & discussion. There still exists limitations in the areas of validity, reliability, and generalizability

Validity: According to Chris Handley of the NATCO research committee, Validity is the extent to which a research measures what it is intended to measure. This definition is also supported by Nahid Golafshani in his publication; "Understanding Validity and Reliability of Qualitative Research".

Reliability; Also according to Chris, Reliability of a research ensures that

Repeated measures or assessments of a research by different individuals given

similar circumstances, yield consistent results.

Generalization; this refers to the style of reasoning used in researches in which

there is a drawing of broad inferences from particular observations (Ploit, D. F.,

2010)

The limitation of this research study as to the best knowledge as a researcher in past no researcher has made any study to Mauritian context; this research work is a making of originality of work.

Data limitation as I could not find many secondary data on lapse consumer and time constrain, but tried to make a piece work from the data which I had.

Data analysis

This research is subjective study. The data have been analyzed from the gathered information. Based on customer surveys, discussion and interview process, reduction of data is undertaken to categorize the themes and patterns sequentially to gain deep understanding of the data. Data is coded, examined, compared and categorized based on research question. If more data and information is required, further some questions arise data has been be collected by undertaking the same procedure. Customer review from discussion, survey, market research from the data and information about the customer direction & performance of the pizza hut in market, on those basis strategies can be made to develop market & product is exactly focus in this research study.

Ethical Consideration

I understand and admit the importance of Business Environment Society ethical consent process and every aspect of this case study will be made to adhere to the guidelines. As MBA students it is necessary that we follow the procedure of ethics established by the module of Business, Environment and Society. In relation to research the term "Ethics" according to BES refers to the processes involved in conducting research to the highest standards of moral conduct thereby protecting the rights, feelings and welfare of all those involved in the research whether directly or indirectly (Jewell, 2008)

In the terms of specific research views of individuals will be taken and their privacy will be maintained and it will not be disclosed. While conducting focus group discussion the views express by an individual and their identity will be kept secret unless the individual agrees his/her identity to be disclosed until the research is completed and can be contacted for more information.

Plagiarism

I have acquired a proper understanding of "plagiarism" and also aware of consequences of the same and I know how to avoid plagiarism. & how to use referencing in case of using from any appropriate sources & sites, by making good use of Harvard referencing style to make sure that my research work is free from plagiarism. I promise this dissertation is my own work.

Research preparation

Research design time schedule

Focus group discussion February 19

Data collection Feb. 21--Feb. 25

Data analysis Feb. 26 –mar. 3

Final research report March. 9