Colgate Research Methods

Background (History)

Colgate-Palmolive, headquartered in New York City is the world leader in oral

care products. Its consistent success in the oral care segment was attributed to
Reuben Mark (Mark), who has been the CEO of Colgate-Palmolive for the past
23 years, since 1984. As the company’s CEO, Mark stressed that focus is an
important element of leadership at Colgate-Palmolive. His business ideas reflect
his accumulated experience and his humane view of how to lead a business
organisation. He persistently focused on achieving consistent growth which is
required to maintain the company’s global success and make it stronger. Mark
followed a different style to lead the company. According to Mark, it is the
management’s responsibility to implement and make improvements in the
organisation so as to move it towards excellence. The case study allows for
discussion on how personal styles of leadership influence corporate leadership
styles.

Introduction

Business research is a systematic inquiry that provides information to guide managerial

decisions. More specifically, it is a process of planning, acquiring, analyzing, and
disseminating relevant data, information, and insights to decision makers in ways that
mobilize the organization to take appropriate actions that, in turn, maximize business
performance. A variety of different types of research projects are grouped under the label
‘business research’

Literature review

This literature review will analyze past and current research that has been done
which relates to the motivations of attendees of arts and cultural performances. This
critical analysis of literature contains facts, statistics, and predictions of different
motivations to relate to the findings in the surveys collected from the Young
Auditorium.

It is important to understand why people attend events and performances in order to

market to the appropriate target effectively. A special event is seen as an opportunity
for leisure or an opportunity to be with friends and family. This is what appeals to
potential visitors and they must feel that this is what they will receive.

One such study, of comparative motivations of visitors at four different events,

examined the differences of motivations among the different events. When
asked ,”Why did you come to this event?” a general interest in the theme of the
event accounted for 38.7 percent of the responses for one event and about 20
percent in the other events. This leaves a large percent of unexplained reasoning of
attending such events.
There are a few other factors in determining why people attended these events
Social reasons are the second leading answer given. Social interaction was more
important to the events that focused on eating, drinking, and dancing. So this
naturally would be a motivating factor. Respondents also placed emphasis in being
with and meeting people that share their common interests. These reasons
determine the need to seek stimulation, entertainment and excitement. Some
respondents even stated, “because I enjoy festival crowds” and “to observe the other
people attending the event,” (Getz, 2001).

Garbarino and Johnson also looked at the influence of the personal goals that will
affect their attitude and behaviors. There are two separate goals that are described
by the study. The enrichment goal includes goals for cultural enrichment, educational
experience, and becoming a patron of the arts. Leisure goals include need for
entertainment, relaxation, and a social time with friends. These two different
perspectives about what one might obtain from attending a performance determine
the perceived value of their visit and can explain why frequent, committed visitors
enjoy and trust the performance more than an occasional visitor.

During the study conducted in 1997, African-Americans most frequented Jazz

Concerts, Asians most frequented Opera concerts, Pays, and attend Art Museums,
and Whites most frequented Classical Music concerts, Ballets, and Musicals. In
comparing whites to all other ethnicities dance performances attract a similar
attendance across ethnic groups and classical music has the largest difference in
attendance compared to whites.

DATA COLLECTION

According to Hussey and Hussey (1997), all research has a primary stage which they
must pass through and this include;
•
Defining the research problem
•
Determining the concept of the research
•
Collecting the necessary data for the research
•
Analyzing and interpreting the research data
•
Stating the findings and recommendations
The first two phases are covered by chapter one and two, third phase has been covered
by chapter three, the fourth phase will be covered by chapter four and the last phase will
be covered by chapter five. To test the hypothesis developed in this thesis, a quantitative
research method will be used.
The objective of quantitative research is to develop and employ mathematical model,
theories and /or hypotheses pertaining to natural phenomena”. It can also be used to
correct and incorporate previous knowledge.
A quantitative research method uses a large number of subject and anything
measurable. It enables one to establish conceptual models and frameworks and also to
know some vital variables and analyse the connection between them. When using a
quantitative research method, a literature review helps to get a better understanding of
the research topic.
Therefore, the most suitable method in this case, were the aim of our thesis is to indicate
the importance of customer based-brand equity on consumer perceptions of brand will
be a quantitative research method.

DATA SOURCES
Using of past data, that is reviewing the literature on the topic of interest is important
when conducting a research i.e. the researcher present past theory into his/her own area
of concern as presented in the chapter two of this thesis. In other words, a clear
description of our data gathering processes will be presented in this chapter.
There are two methods of data collection that can be considered when collecting data for
research purpose. These data collection types include the following:
•
Primary data
•

Secondary data

Both the secondary and primary data will used in this thesis.

Secondary Data. According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, 91), this can be
referred to as information collected by others for certain purposes that can be different
from that of a researcher who intends to use the same information. These types of data
can also be called second hand data due to the fact that they were not collected for a
particular purpose but can be of importance to several researchers at different time.
Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005, p.100) states that secondary data can be gathered from
both internal and external sources. The internal sources are data’s being collected from
employees, suppliers etc. And the external sources include the collection of data from
published articles, books, research reports etc. as well as commercial, panel research,
reports etc. This type of data can also be gathered from online sources which may include
web pages of government organizations, companies, symposium, seminar etc.,
Secondary data therefore saves time as well as money, it helps to better understand and
explain our research problem, broaden the base from which scientific conclusion can be
drawn etc. All these are because it is an already existing data that can be used almost at
any time it is needed. For this study, secondary data were gathered from books, journal
and articles using the university library as well as the through internet e.g. Google scholar.
3.4.2 Primary Data. This can be referred to as first hand data because it is collected
mainly for the set research purpose. This type of data often helps to give appropriate
answers to research questions.
According to Ghauri and Gronhaug (2005), people’s behaviours can hardly be learnt
about without asking questions directly of the people involved. Hence, for the purpose of
our thesis, primary data will be collected by communication via questionnaires which we
will administer personally. We intend to rely more on primary data since our research is
about people’s attitude, intentions and buying behaviours for a particular brand as this
will also help us to know more about the reason behind consumers behaviours and
management decision.
The research methodology of the thesis work is a combination of secondary data and
primary data. Secondary data were collected from journals, articles and books using the
school library and internet. The primary data were gathered using communication with
the use of questionnaires. Questionnaires were distributed personally. We rely more on
the primary data since our research work is about people’s attitude, intentions and
buying behaviours for a particular brand. This we believe we help us know more about
the reasons behind consumer’s behaviours and management decision.