Strategic Responses towards Consumer Awareness about Healthy Products

Question: Discuss about the Strategic Responses towards Consumer Awareness about Healthy Products: The Case of Subway. Answer: Statement of the problem Subway exists to provide its customers with the goods and services that they demand. Consumers offer the firm a market for their products which translates into income revenue and profits for the company. For this reason, Subway must pay attention to the changes in consumer preferences and awareness about consuming healthy products and match their products to meet the shift in demand by their consumers (Miller Shamsie, 1999). Over the past few years, consumers have become more aware of healthy eating and consuming healthy products. Thus, there is a significant shift in the demand of goods and services in favor of healthy food at the expense of unhealthy lifestyles (Brownsell, 2012). As a result, the firm is forced design its strategy and game plan in response to the increase in consumer awareness about health eating in order to survive in the constantly changing consumer needs (Harwell, 2015). In this regard, this study seeks to find out how Subway responded to changes in the degree of consumer awareness about healthy products. Aims and Objectives of the study The study seeks to address two main objectives, that is; To determine the factors that increases consumer awareness about healthy products as well as consuming healthy food. To establish how firms undertake strategic responses and how Subway adjusted to the changes in consumer preference for healthy products. Research Methodology In this research, the study will utilize qualitative research methods of data collection and analysis. As such, the study will utilize self completion questionnaires and structured interviews during data collection. The researcher will conduct structured as well as in-depth interviews and questionnaires with the management of subway stores within the country to establish the strategy they adopted in response to the changes in consumer preferences. Also, the researcher will give consumers of Subway products self-completion questionnaires to gather more information on the factors that raised their awareness regarding the importance of consuming healthy products. These methods are advantageous because they allow a one on one interaction between the researcher and respondent, thereby helping the researcher understand more about the topic. Data Sources It is worth noting that the study will use both primary and secondary data sources to gather information on the subject matter. The primary data sources will consist of the responses received from the interviews and questionnaires used for data collection. On the other hand, secondary data sources will consist of peer reviewed business journals, health databases, and library books on the subject. Methods and tools for analysis Given that the data collected in the study is predominantly qualitative, the study will utilize the NVivo software as a tool of analysis (Leech Onwuegbuzie, 2007). This Computer assisted qualitative data analysis software will assist in mapping out, importing, coding and analyzing the data set to provide a clear evaluation of the collected data (Welsh, 2002). In this case, NVivo is the best tool for analysis (Gibbs, 2008). References Brownsell, A. (2012). Subway pushes '5-a-day' message in new campaign. Campaign. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/subway-pushes-5-a-day-message-new-campaign/1159403 Gibbs, G. (2008). Analysing Qualitative Data (1st ed.). London: Sage Publishers. Harwell, D. (2015). The rise and fall of Subway, the world's biggest food chain. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-rise-and-fall-of-subway-the-worlds-biggest-food-chain-20150530-ghd0va.html Leech, N. L., Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2007). An array of qualitative data analysis tools: A call for data analysis triangulation. School Psychology Quarterly, 22(4), 557-584. Miller, D., Shamsie, J. (1999). Strategic Responses to Three Kinds of Uncertainty: Product Line Simplicity at the Hollywood Film Studios. Sage Journals. Retrieved 5 April 2018, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/014920639902500105?journalCode=joma Welsh, Elaine (2002). Dealing with Data: Using NVivo in the Qualitative Data Analysis Process. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung / Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 3(2)