Qmth104 Quantitative Methods Also Nutrition Assessment Answers

Answer:

Introduction

In the recent past there has been growing demand for not only health but also nutrition and wellbeing products. These products to be precise are pharmaceutical, cosmetic and nutritional products. The increasing demand globally has been prompted by the advent of technological information which has served to enlighten people around the world about good diet and healthy living which is a key prerequisite to keep diseases at bay. Pharmaceutical products have been on growing demand due to their medicinal values while nutritional products are known to be rich in food supplements that help the body remain healthy. Cosmetics on the other hand are those products that are used mostly for body care.

Due to the afore mentioned dire need for the products, companies have scanned the market and identified a business opportunity. Companies have emerged with a new approach in a bid to satisfy the market in a completely new dimension as far the need for these products are concerned. Companies have now reverted to producing products which have got a mix of any of the two products. This has led to the manufacture of such products such as cosmoceutical products, nutraceutical products and nutricosmetic products. Cosmoceutical products are a mix of pharmaceutical product and cosmetic products. For this reason, this product has medicinal and cosmetic value and therefore is used for treatment and for general body care. Nutraceutical product is a mix of pharmaceutical product and nutritional product. For this reason it has both nutritional value and medicinal value. For this reason, the product can be used for treatment and as a food supplement too. Lastly, we have nutricosmetic product. Nutricosmetic product is a mix of cosmetic product and nutritional product. For this reason it has both nutritional value and body wellbeing value. For this reason, the product can be used for wellbeing of the body and as a food supplement too.

In their market diversification by coming up with these new products, these companies have been able to achieve a universal growth of up to 8% annually. Research has shown that the nutraceutical, nutricosmetic and cosmoceutical industries have been received differently from different parts of the world as nutricosmetics industry has been found to thrive in Asia especially in Japan and China. It is recorded that this region accounts for 90% of the nutricosmetics sold globally. Nutraceuticals on the other hand has been found to dominate in America where it accounts for about 45% of the global sales. It is against this background that the Ex-gent Company decided to conduct a research survey to establish their consumption behavior of these products so as to inform their manufacture of these products.

Method of data collection

The population consisted of users of the three products in Australia while the sample population was drawn from Melbourne city. Both probability and non- probability sampling methods were used to choose the sample population. Probability sampling method known as simple random sampling was employed to choose a sample of 100 respondents. Random sampling refers to sampling where a respondent is picked from a population without using any trick. Purposive sampling which is a non-probability sampling was then used after to select 20 respondents. Purposive sampling refers to where an individual is selected because he or she has the qualities that the researcher is interested in. This was to ensure that any individual sampled had an idea about any of the three products. Primary method of data collection was used to collect information from the respondents as opposed to secondary methods. Questionnaires were therefore used to collect information from the respondents. This was a suitable method as the survey was able to get first-hand information from the respondents as far the consumption experiences of the three products were concerned.

Summary of the data set

The data was collected from a sample of 20 respondents. The data ranged from qualitative to quantitative data. Qualitative data included product type, channels of contact, form in which the respondents are consuming the products, recommending and whether they have confidence in using the products. This translates to five qualitative variables. Quantitative data included the age of the respondents, annual and monthly income in dollars. This translated to two quantitative variables. Demographic data such as gender and location of origin of the respondents was also captured. Below tables and figures represent the summaries of the dataset collected

1. Summary table of distribution of respondents according totheir region

Table 3.1

Figure 3.1

Table 3.1 and figure 3.1 above show the distribution of customer respondents according to the regions they come from. It can be observed that most of the respondents interviewed were from Tasmania who had 6 persons. The least number of respondents come from New South Wales which had only 1 person. Since the respondents were chosen randomly, it can be assumed that the highest numbers of nutriceutical, cosmoceutical and nutricosmetics consumers are from Tasmania and lowest numbers of consumers of these products are from New South Wales.

1. Table of distribution of respondents according to gender

Table 3.2

Figure 3.2

Table 3.2 and figure 3.2 show the distribution of the customers according to gender. It can be observed that most of the respondents interviewed were females who were 12 in number. The number of males in the survey was 8. Since the respondents were chosen randomly, it can be assumed that the highest numbers of nutriceutical, cosmoceutical and nutricosmetics consumers are females who constitute to 75% of the total customer base for the products.

1. Table of distribution of respondents according their product preference

Table 3.3

Figure 3.3

Table 3.3 and figure 3.3 above show the distribution of customer respondents according to their product preference. It can be observed that most (8) of the respondents interviewed preferred cosmoceuticals. This is followed by those who are interested in nutraceuticals who are 7 in number. Nutricosmetics was only preferred by 5 out of the 20 who took part in the survey. Again, since the respondents were chosen randomly, it can be assumed that the highest percentage of customers prefers cosmoceuticals as compared to the other two products.

1. Table of distribution of respondents according their product form preference

Table 3.4

Figure 3.4

The table and graph above represents a summary of the form in which the customers prefer to consume the three products. It can be observed that 9 out of 20 customers interviewed would like the products in pill form. This accounts to about 45% of the respondents. 6 out of 20 would like to consume the products as food. This number constitutes to 30% of the total number interviewed. The least number (5) preferred the products in beverage form.

4.0 Data analysis

1. a) Descriptive statistics for confidence and recommendation score

Table 4.1

The descriptive statistics for both variables (confidence and recommendation rating) were analyzed using excel. The results are as shown in table 4.1. Confidence was rated on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 meaning little confidence and 5 meaning high confidence. This was in regard to whether the customers were confident of the results of the products. Having a mean rate of 2.85 means that the customers rated confidence level above average which is 2.5. This therefore means that the majority of the customers are confident of the results from using the products. This is further supported having a mode of 4 which represents the most repeated number in a data set.

The recommendation score on the other hand was rated on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 meaning less recommendation and 10 highly recommend. This was in regard to whether the respondents would recommend the products to other customers. The mean recommendation score is 5.55 as can be observed from the descriptive summary analysis above. Since the score is above 5, then it means that most of the respondents were willing to recommend the products to other customers.

5.0 Hypothesis testing

It is logical to conclude that only customers who are confident of the end result of the products will be happy about the products and therefore willing to recommend the product to other customers. This research study sought to establish whether there was a relationship between confidence and recommendation.

Hypothesis

Null hypothesis: There is no relationship between recommendation and confidence.

Vs.

Alternative: There is a significant relationship between recommendation and confidence.

Table 5.1

From the correlation table above, it can be observed that the p-value (.32) is greater than the level of significance (.05). The test is therefore guided to reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative. The decision therefore is that there is a relationship between confidence and recommendation. To add on, the Pearson correlation coefficient (.23) also shows that there is a significant positive correlation between the two variables.

Conclusion

In as much as these products are enjoying large market in Australia, the market is not balanced. Region such as New South Wales has few customers. This could be because there is inadequate awareness regarding the products in this region. Therefore, there is need to carry out a serious marketing campaign in this area to create awareness. More females than males seem to be using the products. This could be because cosmetic products are synonymous with ladies. The company is therefore advised to come up with a strategy to demystify this issue so as to expand its market to include even more men. The research also found that most of the customers prefer to consume the products in form of pills. It is therefore recommended that the company produce a lot of the product in pill form compared to other forms. It is also recommended that the company manufacture more cosmoceuticals than nutriceutical and nutricosmetics since majority of the consumers showed preference for cosmoceuticals.

References

Cosmeceuticals: A Revolution in the Cosmetic Market’, Abdullah B J, Nasreen R, May 2012

Investigating the effects of Cosmeceutical product advertising in beauty-care decision making’, International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 6 Iss: 3, Juan Meng, Po-Lin Pan, 2012

Global Nutraceutical Industry: Investing in Healthy Living’, Frost & Sullivan, 2012

Cosmeceuticals: Current Trends and Market Analysis’, Fredric S. Brandt, Alex Cazzaniga, and Michael Hann, 2011

Leveraging growth in the emerging functional foods industry: Trends and market opportunities’, Report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2009