RPF/3P 15th July 1985 STRICTLY CON~IOENTIdL VISIT REPORT: ITL, CANADA GATES: JTH·1OTH JULY 1985 OBJECTIVES: (1) To critically review draft questionnaire design for Project VIKING (2) To participate in a one-day synectics session designed to generate (a) product perception attributes for use in the questionnaire and (b) novel alternative product concepts for use in an additional concept testing phase of Project VIKING BACKGROUND Project VIKING was initiated in early 1985 under the auspices of Uayne Knox, with broad objectives as follows: 1, To characterise the Canadian market with respect to smoking and health and social pressure attitudes and motivations, 2, To examine relative perceptions of product classes within the tobacco category (e,g, cigarettes, cigars, pipes, snuff, etc,), 3, To examine consumer perception of the tobacco product category relative to ether product categories (e,gl food, alcoholic drink, personal accessories, etc,), 4, To evaluate potential consumer response to radical alternative presentations of the tobacco product, Implied In this approach is an attempt to orovide a prognosis of the future Canadian tobacco market, Philosaphi;3lly, the approach differs from the GRaDC L~BRA/AilIES/NARINERS work in two respects: (1) NARINERS is designed around the contention that, to fully understand the relationship between attitudes and behaviours in the marketplace (i,e, quitting and switching), it is necessary to monitor the same 9roup 01 people across time~ VIKING taker the alternative route of using a large population in a "single shot" model, (2) Whereas VIKING i s essenti aly a prognostic i ndicator ni th an emphasi s on seeking new product categories, NARI~ERS is aimed at developing more refined and predictive consumer s2cmentation models to improve share within a conventional cigarette ndriceti ng scenario, Prior to Wayne Knox joining Hardees, the agreed budge: for VIKING was in the order of 300,000 Canadian Dollars, Bob Qexon now assumes executive O responsibility for the project and the budget is still retained pending a O feasibility review, Clit; PDF -!::!!::!!::!.f3 StlC.i: Dill ·2· OUTCOME OF CURRENT MEETING 1, QUESTIONNAIRE DESIGN The first draft questionnaire for VIKING has been produced by ;~e creative Research Group of Toronto, with input from a previous YIK:HG meeting (February 1985) and a series of consumer qualitative grout sessions, This draft was reviewed (RPF) and the following observations have been made: (a) The questionnaire is too long (approximately 2·hour ad?inistration tise)and alternative means of administration will tire to be explored (including repeat visit and postal returns), (5) In current form, the questionnaire fails to cover several of the issues originally identified as important to measure, ~is problem can be resolved by building out to a questionnaire size unconstrained by timing issues and then reducf ng by el fmf natinq redunda?s measures and non·dlscrininating or merely descriptive status items, (c) The inclusion of two lengthy personality inventories was questioned since one questionnaire (EPI) is designed to measure a fac:or already measured within the other questionnaire (16 P·F), It was advised to use only the 16 P·F and as a postal return measure, 2, SY~ECTICS SESSION This smecties (brain storming) group comprised the following i*dividuals: aOB BEXON (ITL, Montreal) OICK tlOSBY (Retired President of Canadian facts) R08 FERRIS (BAi Marketing Support) PETER ILLYCH (ITL, Montreal) Bill SINGERS (ITL, Montreal) PAUL NESB~~ (Creative Research Group, Toronto) The first half of the one·day session was devoted to devi;3ping the product perception component of the VIKING questionnaire, Tb'i involved the generation of judgemental dimensions which may be used to achieve (a) a perceptual mapping of tobacco product classes rela:ive to one another and (I) a similar napping of tobacco products usage relative to uses of products from other classes (food, drink, etc,), following this construct generation stage, the group was used :~ generate new alternative product concepts, The aim was to identify s:r concepts which will be incorporated into a concept reaction tert wi:'in VIKIRC. C ;he tsr: itself is of considerable interest since it represents a fon of JimU1E:Cd test maricet (SiM) nethodalally, an approach curri.;ly being C, evalu::ad (RPF) for Its potential utility to the BAT Group. Clit; PDF -!::!!::!!::!.f3 StlC.i: Dill -3· Briefly, the new product Concepts generated were segregated into those shoring mast pranisl and those having less prMnise: HOST PROMISING I, EXTRUDEDS: This covers a collection of presentations ranging frmn snack food type shaper and packaging through chewing stills to reel dispensers or tootnpaste tube type dispensers~ In each case the notion of individual central over how much of the material to break off and use is paramount, 2, ORY SNUFF: Perhaps the most clearly endorsed concept of all, this product would be presented bleached white and probably in an inert carrier, formulated to eliminate the sneele reflex and marketed in high ima~erylpu~lity containew, 3, ROOULAR ZE(OKE DELIVERY SYSTEM: This concept would be a smoking device sc~enhl: similar to a pipe into which the basic fuel could be mounted for camburtion, Modular "clip·on" mouthpieces could be used to provide such smoker control options as "dial·a·tar" or "dial·a·fiavour". a, PIPE PLUGS: For the pipe snaker, this concept would be a pre·fanned, pre·tamoed, dr?3·in tobacco plug designed to fit the appropriate 8ipebawl and sufficiently contained within the plug to allow subsequent iif:ing out of the spent unit, LESS PROMISING 5, AROSOL DISPEli:ON OEYICES: The concept covers personal mobile inhalers in ccmbinatidn with nicotine dispersing air hunidifierl freshener units which could be used in controlled social situations, 6. IaPROYEO SHALL CIW\RS R#O RROMATIG [IGAAETTES: The use of blendingl flavouring to ar,eliora:e harshness/dryness and enhance fiavourlaroma of small cigars was seen as worthwhile, In addition, the use of pipe gndes or pipe tobacco flavours (e,g, vanillin) to enhance conventional cigarette sidestream was endorsed, DISCUSSED ANO REJECTED 7, XICOtINE ADOII:~ES TO F000 PRODUCTS 8, S;iORT "F~~T Hlja" CIGARETTES: I,e, cigaret:es designed to provide optimum nicotine requirement in the minimum number of combusted puffs, In adaition to these ideas, strong interest was shown in the identification of "safer" tat~aos, relilans, design configurations and synthetic smoking materials, (?PF war requested to supply a retrospective review of the NSI experience in the U(~) i Clit; PDF -!::!!::!!::!.f3 StlC.i: Dill ___~_ -4· OBSERVATIONS Without substantial revision of the VIKING ouestfonnaire, this project is unlikely to proceed (and It would be Ill·advfsed to do so), The agency involved was clearly so negatively impressed by the overwhelmingly anti· smoking feeling coming from the consumer pualltatives that thy themselves are concerned about taking the project further, ltir suggcrtrd (RPF) that, nith ade~uat~ gvationndre dc~gn, the project Is Important and viable, The agency response to the consumer group qualitatives reflects lack of experience with this type of data · luch group are invariably ertrsc, representing, ar thry do, canluners' theories about what their attitudes should be rather than their true in·depth attitudes, The "re·lurfacfn~' of a concern for generating new product concepts is interesting In the context of the R1OIMartrtlng conference Experience, Someoverlap of concepts is apparent across the two sessions; the interesting developent here, however, is the comnitment to loving on to evaluate the concepts using the VIKING consumer ~opulatlon, In terms of possible "knock·o~' project work for GRIOC, the scope for Input is very high, given past recent history of exploring these new avenues, While ~uEhamptan·bascd interest in these concepts must be highly cfrc~- spect, given the confidential nature of VIKING, a potential feasibility response timed to follow VIKING consumer response to these concepts may be useful, This could be especially so for items I, 2 and 5 since these were Southampton contributions to this synectlcs session, R,P, FERRIS ClibPDF - v~~fastio.soni