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Essay: Research method and limitations

23 July 202414 June 2012 by Essay Sauce

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Executive Summary

There has been a tremendous growth in the pet care industry over the past few years in UK.

This report explores the following points

1. The current trends fluctuate in pet owning and their attitudes towards selecting pet care services, this report figures out few of the common reasons that resulted in the surge for demand of pet holiday care services.
2. Consumers in this type of industry can be seen as problem solvers and learn/behave as a result of internal mental process rather than only emotional and repeated learning driven person.
3. The impact of cultural and the sub cultural factors on consumers.
4. The external, internal, environmental and behavioural factors affect the decision making of the consumers. Every consumer has a thinking pattern and it is predominantly based on various factors for choosing their required product. For choosing pet home services, consumers rely heavily on external factors such as opinions from family and friends and review of the consumers who have availed such services in the past. The decision making process in explained in detail as a part of research finding towards the end of this report.

Introduction

We at Liverpool Pet Holiday Home LTD are going to conduct a research carried out with the view of finding consumer behaviour towards Holiday Pet Homes in Liverpool. The aim of the research is to find out what people think of Holiday Pet Homes, what are their attitude and perception towards this kind of services and who are ours competitors and substitutes. Under what circumstances consumers use this service, and if they are not inclined towards such service then what are the reasons that makes them not to use such service.

Research Method and Limitations

In order to conduct the research we have used both Primary and Secondary methods. For collecting primary data, we conducted various land surveys through questionnaires and focus group interviews. And for the secondary data; theories and concepts of Solomon Wheel were used and other books as the key framework along with different resources such as reports and journals available on Mintel, keynotes, etc. and also we have referred to various blogs written by pet owners about pet holiday home in different cities of UK.

Challenges identified in carrying out our primary research were described briefly as follows:

• Constrains on framing the questionnaire which has been solved,
• Sample of the people questioned was not too big,
• The reliability of the data which could be biased to some extent,
• Some depth inquires could not be asked in the questionnaire and they might be to some extend crucial in interpreting consumer behaviour (like personal questions and lifestyle such as salary).

Challenges identified from secondary research could also be summarized as follows:

• No direct research or reports related to pet care services in Liverpool but this has been overcame by finding a great deal companies’ data in various parts of England, providing such service.
• The creditability of data found in other companies since it could be biased.

Research findings

Primary Research

To analyse the customer behaviour for our Pet Holiday Home Ltd, we conducted a land survey in Liverpool & Wirral area consisting of 12 relevant questions to accomplish few tasks: (a) To study the demographics (age, gender, etc.) related to pet ownership, (b) To analyse how often the pet owners travel and where they prefer to keep their pets while travelling, (c) To evaluate role played by others while choosing the pet holiday home and (d) To measure the strength of the bond between pet owners and their pets. And based on the feedback from pet owners in Liverpool and Wirral we got 15 valuable responses.

On the basis of these responses we concluded the following:

A.Demographics

B.Decision about leaving pets while travelling and why?

C.Role played by others while choosing the pet holiday home (Figure 5)

D.Feeling shared with Pets (Figure. 6)

Out of 15 valuable responses, 60% of participants were women and the median age of participants including both male and female was 40-50 years. 80% of pet owners treat their pets like their family members or like a friend. So, 90% of pet owners prefer to keep their pets either with family or friends while travelling because they have trust and reliability factor and they feel that their pets are in safe hands while they are travelling.

Secondary Research

According to secondary research, we found most pet owners in Liverpool belong to age group from 25 to 50 years (Figure.7)

Additionally, our research indicates that majority of the pet owners are both full-time/part-time workers (Figure.8), who mainly have family or belong to third-age (Figure.9), thus making it a lucrative market segment for Pet Holiday Industry.

After analysing primary data, now we move on to analyse the research findings from the primary and secondary data in coalition with the academic review based on Solomon wheel.

Consumers as Individual

Now that we have segmented consumers, it is essential their individual behavioural pattern hence in this section, we research on the internal dynamics of pet-owners on the basis of their attitudes, sex roles, lifestyles, and learnings.

We found that pet-owners are emotionally attached with their pet. From our primary and secondary data, we found a common result that most of the pet owners treat their pets like a part of their family. Table shown below (Table-1) is a report analysing the Pet Accessories and Healthcare industry in UK, 2008 which shows 67% of pet owners treat their pet as a part of family.

(Table-1) General attitudes towards pet ownership, August 2008

	All	Pet-Owners	Non-Pet Owners
Base: adults aged 15+	2,088	1,013	1,074
1. A pet is part of the family	46%	67%	26%
2. A pet makes a good companion	41%	55%	28%
3. I think people go too far dressing and pampering their pets	23%	30%	16%
4. It is difficult taking holidays/going away if you own a pet	21%	20%	22%
5. I think it is important to have pet insurance	16%	21%	10%

Source: BMRB/Mintel

According to the primary and secondary data, it shows that most of the pet owners are women (Table-2) and from more affluent households and therefore are more indulgent in their attitude when it comes to determining their pet(s) care when on vacation/holidays.

(Table-2) Pet ownership (based on Gender)

Source for secondary research: BMRB/Mintel

From our primary data, most pet owners go for vacation more than two times a year (each vacation is of a week atleast), and even we found same trend in secondary research as shown in the table below (Table-3) showing increase in numbers of bookings for UK and overseas holiday (2005-2007). The cost of owning a pet and travelling with them is very expensive especially in UK and Europe; therefore pet owners always want an alternative place for their pets while they are travelling.

(Table-3) Percentage of adults (aged 15+) booking UK and overseas holidays, 2005-2007

	2005 (%)	2006 (%)	2007 (%)
All holidays	64.2	65.4	66.7
One	19.8	19.9	19.5
Two	23.9	24	24.9
Three or more	20.6	21.4	22.4

Source: GB TGI, BMRB 2002-Quarter 4 2006 & 2007/Mintel

From our secondary research it is observed that most pet owners in UK are ready to spend unlimited amount of their resources, money and time, to their pets. This can be analysed through the table below showing the annual family spending on pets 2004-06.

(Table-4): Annual household spending on pets, 2004-2006

	2004 (£m)	2005 (£m)	2006 (£m)	2004-2006 (% Change)
Pet food	1,924	1,924	2,132	10.8
Pet purchase/accessories	832	1,040	1,196	43.8
Veterinary + other services	1,092	1,300	1,144	4.8
Total	3,848	4,264	4,472	16.2

Source: National Statistics, Family Spending 2004-06/Mintel

Now, to analyse the learning dynamics of pet owners while choosing a suitable services for their pets we found that pet owners prefer to practice and learn by complex mental processing (i.e. Cognitive learning) rather than driven by repetition or association of a reward with a desired response (i.e. Behavioural learning) which enable them to be more problem solvers (Solomon, 2009. p.17-126). This can be supported with lot of evidences from research that illustrate that pet owners usually follow logic and sophisticated paths to reach a decision. It also suggests that the pet owners follow a process resembling the standard learning hierarchy while selecting the pet holiday in which they are highly involved in decision making by accumulating knowledge (beliefs) from different reliable sources such as family, friends, and vets (Solomon, 2009).

Cultural and Sub-Cultural influence on Consumers

This part will analyse the basic norms and myths about pet owners and their pets. In UK, the relationship between human and animals serve to highlight their cultural specificity(Wilbert, 2005) and therefore the emotional attachment is so strong that individuals make sure as to whom they are giving their pet for safe keeping when they are not around. Most pet owners choose the option of leaving their pets to family and friends and some opt for specialised holiday pet homes.

Many researchers have studied the effect of sub-culture on the basis of gender, age, social class of pet owners. In addition, people who are older or those who do not have children or are living in a household of one or two people have strong bonds with their pets as compared to those people who are college goers who generally develop weaker bonds with the pets (Johnson et al., 1992). Many researchers found that people who belong to the same social class have similar behaviour towards their pets e.g. values, possessions, likelihood of having pet services.

Consumers in Market Place

In this part, we analyse the overview of the market of consumer behaviour by analysing the market segmentation and also study under what circumstances consumer can use pet holiday home service. Key observations from research findings: (a) Target Audience are predominately women aged 36 and above (From Figure 2 & 7), (b) people who belong to upper middle and middle class of society – for reason that they can afford such services and they travel very often and hence they are potential repeat customers, (c) other people who might use pet holiday home as identified from secondary research and responses from primary data shows that the people might use our service are those (i) who are new to the city and single working individuals and family who travel will look for a secure or clean place where they can leave their pets, (ii) who are shifting their house or having refurbishments in their homes, and (iii) who have a new born baby in house and prefer to have their pets temporarily out.

Competitor Analysis

In our extensive primary and secondary research involving all the search engines and talking to people who include veterinary doctor based in Liverpool it has been observed that there are few competitors around the city (mainly in Formby and Melling). For example Formby is located 15.8 miles away from city centre of Liverpool and the evidence from primary data shows that people have not used Formby services makes it clear that people are apprehensive to travel that distance. Hence they are not our prime competitors. However there are enough substitutes who offer services close to that of a pet care company. These include friends, relatives, part time students, and single individuals, who would take care of a pet’s when the owners are out of town. It is understood from the academic literature that since the target consumers are women aged 36 and above, they look for security, trust, simplicity as the most dominant factors (similar observation from our primary data) in making a choice to avail these services (Solomon, 2009). Hence part time students and individuals have the advantage of establishing personal relationships with their customers much better than a pet care home. Also consumers go for this option as it is a simpler process and since such individuals develop their links through word of mouth and when referred by the consumer’s family and friends they are more likely to opt for the other choice.

Consumers as Decision Makers

This part analyzes the factors that influence a consumer’s decision with regards to pet care services. For consumers choosing pet Holiday care, both Normative (family) and Comparative (friends, neighbours, vet, etc.) reference groups nearly play the same role in influencing decision making process. However the degree of influence that shapes up an individual’s behaviour usually depends on the information, experience, and credibility of data obtained (Schiffman, 2000). Primary data suggests that most of the pet owners from Liverpool seem to rely on comparative reference group rather than normative group while choosing a pet holiday care. Their decision to choose the apt pet care company is carried out in 4 steps as explained by (Solomon, 2009). They are;

1) Problem Recognition
– Here the pet owners identify where they would have to leave their pets during their travel and begin searching for information that helps them to make the right choice. It is in this stage they decide if they have to go ahead and look for the services of pet care companies.

2)Information Search
– Here they get into finding relevant information about various pet care companies and the kind of services they offer, their pricing, the proximity of distance and how long have they been in the business.

3) Evaluation of alternatives
– Here they finalize on a couple of pet care companies and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of these companies. It is here that the less important factors such as pricing are considered to make the final choice. Though it is evident that most companies offer almost the same services and similar pricing, an alternative is best chosen in terms of proximity of the distance from their home as its gives sense of security to the pet owners as they see it often when they walk past the company.

4) Product Choice
– Once they have evaluated their options, they decide on company with all the relevant information obtained from talking to family and friends mostly and then through street adverts and customer reviews in the company’s home website as observed from the primary data.

Conclusion

It is evident from the obtained primary and secondary research that though the consumers behaviour has been understood and critically analyzed, it is still not clear on whether starting a pet home services company is viable in Liverpool. Though research finding shows that such services have been moderately successful in various parts of England, not much information is available on the viability of such services in Liverpool. But however we put forward various factors supporting in favour of such services (i) Presence of independent single women travelling pretty often, (ii) Presence of migrant population which constitute about 59% of the total population and since they do not have family or many friends in this town, they might avail such services (Liverpool echo, 2006), and (iii) Increase in the number of people owning pets. Similarly, the factors that shows it is not a viable business are (i) Intense emotional attachment to their pets, (ii) Easier and economical option of having part time students to come and take care of the pet every day when owners are out of town, and (iii) It is a location based business and in every location the number of people who might avail such services is very few.

As a group we have arrived at the decision of starting the business inspite of its high risk and moderate return on investments and its uncertainty in acquiring customers. This is supported by the fact that since there is very low awareness in the market our focus would be mainly in creating awareness among the consumers on the availability of such pet care home services.