You are the product manager for a new children's cold breakfast cereal. Its proposed brand name is Barney, named after the popular, purple dinosaur of the PBS children's television show Barney & Friends. Barney cereal is positioned as a health-oriented, fun and socially positive cereal that consists of natural whole grains and fruit-sweetened, Barney-like purple dinosaurs that provide children with more than the 100 percent recommended daily allowance of vitamins A, B, and C. To ascertain the cereal's appeal among prospective buyers, each of the following would be a primary data collection method to help you make marketing decisions regarding the new Barney brand cereal EXCEPT:
A.
You, personally, via a one-way mirror, watch the reactions of ten different groups of six to ten children eating bowls of the new Barney cereal with its purple dinosaurs.
B.
You refer to a recent consumer report that looks at features and attributes of children's cereals that have scored favourably in previous market testing.
C.
You send 10,000 trial boxes of Barney cereal to randomly selected households with children in Hamilton, ON (a national test market for consumer products) along with a business reply, postage-paid postcard to obtain the reactions of these households to the cereal.
D.
You contract with major supermarket chains in Calgary, AB (a major consumer products test market) to stock 10,000 standard-size boxes of Barney cereal on their shelves. You also contract with InfoScan, a consumer product sales tracking service to determine the effect of a test marketing campaign consisting of ads on Saturday morning children's programs aired locally in Calgary, coupons in the local Calgary newspapers, and a direct mailing to all households with children in the Calgary market.
Answer: B