Wednesday, 16 August 2023

BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE CASE STUDY ANSWER

 Assignment

Subject: Behavioural Science

Q.1 Case study

Four years ago, the Texas Office of the Attorney General (OAG), which is the

state’s child support enforcement agency, began mailing letters to a small

number of incarcerated noncustodial parents (NCPs) with information on

how to apply for a modification of their child support order. NCPs often

become unable to make their monthly child support payments when they

are incarcerated, and, if they do not request and obtain a downward order

modification, they may leave prison with significant child support arrearages

that follow them for years. Despite the clear benefits of this pilot program for

NCPs, only a small percentage of incarcerated NCPs who were contacted by

OAG applied for a modification. The BIAS team has partnered with OAG to

determine whether the tools of behavioral economics can be used to increase

the overall response rate of incarcerated NCPs, as well as the accuracy and

timeliness of their application materials.

BIAS and OAG analyzed every step in the modification request process from

the wording of the outreach letter and application to the actions the NCP

must take within the prison to get an application notarized by a law

librarian and returned to OAG by mail. The team identified several potential

“bottleneck” points at which NCPs may not follow through with the process,

a few of which are discussed below:

The NCP may receive the letter but decide not to open it. Because the NCP

likely associates OAG with child support enforcement, seeing a letter from

this agency may stimulate a negative affective response and the ostrich

effect1 (the tendency to “put one’s head in the sand” and avoid undesirable

information). Or, the NCP may perceive the deliberation costs in time and

mental effort to be too high to fully examine the letter.

The NCP may not decide to act on the letter. The letter mentions the NCP’s

incarceration several times, identifying him as a prisoner rather than a

parent. This increases the saliency of their prisoner identity,2 which may

reduce their motivation to act.

The NCP may not follow through. Even if the NCP is interested in applying

for a modification, he may procrastinate3 in completing the application or

forget to request an appointment with the law librarian because this is not

part of his everyday routine.

The NCP may not successfully submit the application. After the NCP attends

the appointment, the law librarian may find that the application is

incomplete and the NCP will need to complete the application and return it

at another time. The NCP may forget to request notarization or even forget to

drop the completed application in the mail.

The NCP may see the future when they are released from prison as too

distant to plan for. NCPs may exhibit some degree of present bias —

overweighing the present with respect to the future. When the projected

release date is psychologically distant, the NCP may think about it

abstractly, and neglect to consider the negative effects of accrued arrears.

The team has redesigned the materials that are sent to incarcerated NCPs to

address these bottlenecks in ways that are informed by behavioral

economics.

include

2. How should an email to be managed?

Q u e s t i o n :

(10 × 2 = 20)

1. What are the changes according to you that should be include in it

Assignment

Subject: Behavioural Science

Q.2 Case study

A new report released by AIM Research and Hansa Cequity studies how and

to what extent organisations in India leverage behavioural science and data

science to analyse consumer behaviour across different industries and

functions.

The report titled “Impact of Behavioural Science and Data Science on

Consumer Behaviour” also dives into the connection between behavioural

and data science in comprehending consumer behaviour and makes a case

for their use in collaboration.

Data science has seen increasing popularity in the last couple of years and

is used extensively by most organisations to identify growth drivers. While

data is a critical input to improve customer satisfaction and increase

revenues, Behavioural Science plays a crucial role in studying and analysing

customer experiences, brand loyalty, and overall consumer journey.

According to the study, there is limited use of Behavioural Science

techniques by Indian organisations to study buying behaviour. Around one

in five respondents said they had none or rare utilisation, indicating a

significant scope for improvements across certain industries and functions,

some more than others. This includes studying consumers’ implicit

attitudes towards the brand or analysing the impact of celebrity

endorsements, ethnocentrism, the social image of inclusion or exclusivity,

etc.

The report provides detailed insights through a comprehensive analysis of

the survey. The study highlights cases where the utilisation of Behavioural

Science could see improved outcomes if two functions within the same

company worked together. Along with this, the study identifies areas in

which Behavioural Science and Data Science can be used in conjunction.

The study can be used by leaders or decision-makers to get insight into

where their companies stand in utilising Behavioural Sciences compared to

others and realise areas where they are falling behind. The study also helps

its readers identify future roadmaps in terms of using Behavioural Science

along with Data Science to their advantage.

Overall, almost every Behavioural Science technique (surveyed) had more

than two in five respondents (40%) agreeing to its high/very high utilisation.

Although, almost every technique also had more than 20% who said they

had none or rare utilisation. Respondents in the marketing function had

higher utilisation of most Behavioural Science techniques surveyed than all

the other functions. Almost every technique had more than/around two in

three (66%) Marketing respondents, saying that they have a high/very high

utilisation.

In terms of industry, different sectors had the highest share of respondents

claiming they have a high/very high utilisation of different Behavioural

Science techniques. However, Telecom & Media consistently performed

well—almost every technique had more than 50% of Telecom & Media

respondents saying yes to utilising it to a high/very high extent.

behavior.

Q u e s t i o n :

(10 × 2 = 20)

1. Write the factors that influence the behavior of an individual.

2. Discuss about the situation how behaviour science deals with consumer

Assignment

Subject: Behavioural Science

Q.3 Case study

Organizational behavior in this coca cola case study refers to the study of

activities or behavior of the employees inside a commercial enterprise. The

reflective case study has been made depending on the issues faced the

famous soft drink company Coca Cola. The aim of this coca cola case study

is to figure out the strategies with which the company can utilize it human

capital in order to make the organization a better place to work. At the same

time, I have described the opportunities through which the company can

continue its growth in the local market.

Coco Cola has been serving the world for more than 130 years however, the

organization is facing extreme problem in the market of the island country

like Sri Lanka. The company is facing a downtrend regarding its brand

value. In the year 2014 the brand value of Coca Cola a around 34 billion

dollar whereas it has decreased to nearly 32billion dollar in the year 2018. It

means the company has faced an acute loss of around 5.4 percent. In this

coca cola case study discovered certain factors that have caused such an

acute downfall of the branded organization. One of the factors is the

mismanagement inside the organization. In the following coca cola case

study, I have highlighted how the improper workforce management of Coca

Cola has leaded the company to such an adverse situation.

Reasons of the downfall of Coca Cola Company

Communication: In order to identify problem lied behind the downfall of the

Coca Cola Company discussed in this coca cola case study, I found certain

issues and communication is one of such issues. The entire set up of the

organization is so much corporate like that the employees hardly get time as

well as scope to share their opinion or thought with other. It has affected the

growth of the company in two different ways. First of all the staffs has could

not get chance to share their problem with their leader. As a result, they

could not develop their skill in order to improve their performance. On th

contrary, the company lost the opportunities of utilizing the innovative ideas

of the workers that could have been fruitful for the Coca Cola Company.

Feedback sharing: The HR of the team leader did not pay proper attention

on sharing the feedback with the staffs of the. As a result, the employees did

not get the chance to improve their skill. Sometimes, they lacked of the

proper knowledge of using the latest technology while producing the various

products. This situation had a negative repercussion on the company’s

growth as a lot of employee left the firm out of lack of dissatisfaction. As an

irreversible effect, the company had to face an acute shortage of labour that

has hindered the production rate. In my opinion the shortage of the human

capital is one of the most important factors that has affect the growth of

Coca Cola Company in a profound way.

Motivation: I think motivation is one of the factors that are responsible for

the shortage of the staffs inside the organization. It is true that Sri Lanka is

one of the densely populated area in South Asia. As per the recent report

held on 8th May, in the year 2019, which is refered in this coca cola case

study the entire population of the country is 21,008,582 (Chandrajith et al.,

2019, pp-12, pp-37) which is approximately 0.27 percent of the entire

population of the world (Wijesuriya et al., 2019). As a result of such huge

population the country enjoys the facility of plenty human capital. May be

that is the reason that the company treated its staff as a factor that

caneasily be replaced by some other employ. The management of the

company did not pay attention in order to motivate the employees. For

instance in this coca cola case study, they did not arrange proper

compensation or increment which was quite demotivating for the staffs. As a

result, theemployee showed less interest in order to enhance their

performance.

Absence of proper training: I found in this coca cola case study that one of

the reasons of the downfall of Coca Cola Company is the lack of training the

needed to be provided to the employee in order to enhance their

performance. Like other country like Australia, UK and many more the

company did not have proper training facility for their employees. I think,

that is the reason why the staffs that were unable to perform well were

easily demotivated. In addition, the management did not take any measure

in order to increase the efficiency of their workers. This situation had a

adverse effect on their work performance which consequently followed by the

decrease in products’ quality.

Improper human resource management: Before writing this coca cola case

study, I had gone through certain researches, which illustrate the error of

the human resource management of Coca Cola Company. For instance, the

company has collaborated with four bottling firms that created a big issue

as the organization brought around ten thousand workers (Chiu, Fischer

and Friedman, 2019, pp-109). It was actually double of the entire work

force. As a result of such collaboration the company had to encounter with

the problem of complexity of the unnecessary staffs as well as resignation of

termination of employees (Chiu, Fischer and Friedman, 2019, pp-98). It

created an unstable situation inside the organization that had a negative

impact on the reputation of the company. In addition, the human resource

managers did not show proper interest in order to attract or retain the

quality employee who could play significant role in betterment of the

company.

Attitude of team leader: The team leader failed to motivate their team

members. Most of the time they could not encourage their subordinate staffs

and thus they could take proper initiative in order to achieve the company’s

target. In addition, the team leader r the supervisors did not perform the

proper monitoring of the tasks of their subordinate team members. Even

they showed reluctant to share proper feedback which could improve the

quality of the performance of their team members. The irresponsibility of the

team member or the management of the Coca Cola Company has increased

the uncertainty among the subordinate staffs of the organization. In my

opinion this kind of attitude of the higher authority was quite responsible for

the loss of status of the world famous Coca Cola Company.

Relation between the management and the staffs: I discovered that the

company management was failed to build a lateral relation between the

employees as well as the team leader inside the company premises. I have

discussed earlier in this report that the workers hardly got chance to talk

about their problems whatever they faced at the time of performing their

task. The management of Coca Cola Company hardly arranged meetings in

order to discuss the problems of their staffs as well as the possible remedies

to resolve those problems.

Proper working environment: The management failed to create the proper

working environment that can encourage or motivate the employees to give

their best performance (Jones and Comfort, 2018, pp-43). As I have earlier

mentioned that Coca Cola Company provided a strict corporate environment

to its employees. This situation created obstruction in building an emotional

attachment between the workers as well as the management of the

organization. As a result, the employees failed to understand that their

improvement was closely related to the success of the company (Jones and

Comfort, 2018). That was the reason in this coca cola case study why the

workers of the Coca Cola Company did not take enough enthusiasm in order

to provide their best performance for the organization’s upliftment.

Cont…

Q u e s t i o n :

(5 × 4 = 20)

1. What are the factors that are responsible for the downfall of the Coca Cola

Company in Sri Lanka?

2. Suggest some possible remedies through which the company can

overcome such situation?

3. Justify’ Coca Cola targets middle class people in rural areas”.

4. Discuss the attitude and related beliefs towards Coca-Cola of intensely

brand-loyal consumers.

5. What are the key success factors for Coca-Cola?

Assignment

Subject: Behavioural Science

Q.4 Case study

Pepsi Next was launched by PepsiCo into the US market in February 2012,

and has since been rolled out to various international markets (for instance,

it was launched in Australia in September 2012).

The new product is described as a mid-calorie cola beverage, having a mix of

sugar and artificial sweeteners, designed to deliver a full cola taste with

reduced calories. While filling the market gap between full sugar and diet

soft drinks, PepsiCo has indicated that its prime target market is lapsed cola

drinkers (giving them a reason to return to the product category). PepsiCo,

which owns range of high profile beverage brands in addition to its flagship

brand Pepsi, appear to be highly committed to Pepsi Next providing it with

strong launch and management support. In fact, according to PepsiCo

themselves, this is their most significant product launch for several years.

PepsiCo is the second largest food and beverage company in the world, with

revenues now in excess of $60 billion. The corporation has 22 brands that

achieve retail sales in excess of $1 billion each. As a result of their brand

diversification, around half of PepsiCo’s revenue is generated from their food

lines, such as Frito-Lay (snack food) and Quaker Oats.

In addition, they have progressively expanded internationally and now

access over 80% of the world’s population. Their international (non-US)

markets account for almost 50% of their total revenues and they still see

significant growth potential from these markets, on the basis that per capita

consumption of snacks and beverages in other countries is well below US

market levels.

As a result, PepsiCo has achieved solid growth is many international

markets. While their US beverage sales fell by 2% in 2011, this has

beenmore than offset by double-digit sales increases in Europe, Asia, the

Middle

East and Africa.

In terms of their overall strategic approach, PepsiCo (as highlighted on their

website) see themselves as innovative and adaptive, as stated in the

following website quote: “Pepsi is constantly on the lookout for ways to

ensure their consumers get the products they want, when they want them

and where they want them.”

“Pepsi is constantly on the lookout for ways to ensure their consumers get

the products they want, when they want them and where they want them.”

In their Annual Report, PepsiCo has structured their brands around three

related themes, as highlighted in the following table. This brand structure

gives some insight into the role of their brands and how they see their brand

portfolio developing in the future.

Emphasis of Brand Key Brands

Fun-for-you Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7-Up, Lays, Doritos,

Cheetos,Red Rock

Better-for-you Pepsi Max, Diet Pepsi, Lays (oven baked), Quaker

bars

Good-for-you Tropicana, Quaker Oats, Gatorade, Nut Harvest

As you can see from PepsiCo’s classification of their brands, it appears that

the firm has the dual goals of supporting and leveraging its existing ‘fun’

brands, while moving towards a broader range of healthier offerings. While

this second goal may appear to be mainly related to improving their

corporate image, it does have commercial intent, as explained on the

PepsiCo website: “Because a healthier future for all people and our planet

means a more successful future for PepsiCo.”

To help implement this corporate goal, across their various brands, PepsiCo

has focused on providing a wider range of healthier choices, introducing

more natural ingredients, reducing fat content, reducing the environmental

impact of their packaging, and so on.

Recent Product Innovations

PepsiCo has a history of developing and launching a number of mid-calorie

beverages and Pepsi Next is by no means their first attempt with this style of

product. In addition to various Pepsi variations (described in the ‘Before

Pepsi Next’ section below), they have had some recent success with reduced

calorie versions within their Tropicana and Gatorade brands.

One very successful mid-calorie product initiate is Trop50, which was

launched in 2010. Trop50, as implied by its name, is a version of Tropicana

with 50% less sugar and calories. This new product was ranked as the 6th

most successful new food/beverage product in its launch year with retail

sales in excess of $70 million. Its initial success has continued over the last

two years, with the Trop50 product line now generating over $150 million in

sales. And even more successful was Pepsi’s launch of Gatorade G2 in 2007.

(Note: Pepsi acquired the Gatorade brand with their purchase of the Quaker

Company in 2001.) This low-calorie version of Gatorade was identified as the

most successful new food/beverage product in 2008 in the US market,

achieving sales over $150 million in its first year.

Clearly, these fairly recent product successes with reduced calorie offerings

under strong brands would have had the effect of buoying Pepsi’s confidence

regarding the viability of this style of product. Hence, they believed that it

was the right time to revisit a reduced calorie Pepsi variation.

However, as some commentators have pointed out, it should be noted that

their success (with Trop50 and G2) has occurred in their ‘good-for-you’

brand range, where consumers are already quite health-conscious and

probably more responsive to healthier options. Therefore, whether this

perceived benefit (of less sugar) will carry to ‘fun-for-you’ brands, like Pepsi,

is less certain for the firm.

Before Pepsi Next

Perhaps surprisingly, Pepsi Next is PepsiCo’s fifth attempt at a mid-calorie

beverage. In the 1970’s they introduced Pepsi Light, which was lemonflavored

and contained 70 calories (as opposed to a normal Pepsi can at 150

calories). (Not to be confused with the current Pepsi Light brand marketed in

various countries, which is a version of Diet Pepsi.)

Then in the late 1980’s the firm introduced Jake’s Diet Cola, which came in

at a mere 15 calories, but did not leverage the Pepsi brand name. At the

time, Pepsi stated that the beverage had the potential to “revolutionize” the

diet segment of the cola market. Prior to launch, Jake’s was extensively

taste-tested against Diet Coke and the firm had strong hopes for its success.

According to one of their vice presidents at the time (Edward E. Jenkins),

“Jake’s represents a new taste concept in diet beverages and will provide

consumers in the booming diet soft drink category with a better-tasting,

lowcalorie cola”.

In the mid-1990’s, they then introduced Pepsi XL, another 70 calorie

formula. In their promotions, they indicated that X stood for ‘excellent taste’

and the L stood for ‘less sugar’. According to reports at the time, Pepsi XL

was a year in development at a cost of $1.5 million and was supported by an

$8 million advertising budget.

More recently, in 2004, PepsiCo released a 70-calorie beverage branded as

Pepsi Edge. Around the same time, Coca-Cola brought out a similar product

under the brand Coca-Cola C2. Coke supported C2 quite aggressively, with

an estimated launch promotional budget of somewhere around $40 million,

making it their most significant launch since Diet Coke. Both of these

brands only lasted around 18 months or so in the market before being

withdrawn.

About the Soft Drink (Soda) Market

The US soft drink market generates over $70 billion in sales. Volumes

(units) have weakened slightly since 2005, indicating that the market is in

late maturity-early decline stage of the product life cycle. Retail dollar sales

have been supported somewhat by price increases.

One of the biggest impacts on soft drink consumption has come from bottled

water, which now accounts for over 10% of beverage consumption. This is

up from just 2% in 2000. And the soft drink market has also been slightly

challenged by sports drinks and energy drinks that have seen a minor

increase in market share.

The trend towards diet soft drinks continues, with these offerings now

representing 30% of the carbonated soft drink (CSD) market, up from 25%

just 10 years ago. Overall, these movements indicate changing tastes of

consumers as a result of a stronger health focus. One of the brands most

impacted by these market changes has been the flagship Pepsi brand. In the

most recent market share figures available,

Pepsi now has less than 10% share of the US CSD market (which ranks the

brand 3rd behind Coke and Diet Coke). While still well positioned, keep in

mind that they were sitting at over 13% market share ahead of Diet Coke 10

years ago, at a time when the CSD market was still growing at 3% per year.

Their Diet Pepsi product enjoys a solid 5% market share. That product,

along with Pepsi’s other soft drink offerings (Mountain Dew in particular),

gives Pepsi an almost 30% share of the US CSD market, behind Coca-Cola

at 42% (with Coke at 17% and Diet Coke at 10%) and ahead of Dr Pepper

Snapple at 17%.

Competitor Offerings

Pepsi isn’t the only player seeking to tap into the perceived demand for

reduced sugar beverages. Dr Pepper Snapple (who has two products in the

top 10 in the US CSD market) has also introduced a low-sugar offering.

Their new product, Dr Pepper Ten (with 10 calories), is squeezed between

their normal Dr Pepper and their Diet Dr Pepper, much in the same way the

Pepsi Next product. Reportedly, Dr Pepper Snapple is pleased with the

performance of this new product to date. Independent to the Pepsi Next

offering, Coca-Cola is currently (mid-late 2012) in the process of test

marketing (in four American cities) mid-calorie versions of their Fanta and

Sprite brands. Carrying the sub-brand ‘Select’ (to make Fanta Select) the

concept is quite similar to Pepsi Next in that it uses a mix of sugar and

artificial sweeteners to cut the calorie count by half.

Obviously if these tests are successful and these products are fully rolledout

to the market as a standard product, it appears that there could be a third

sub-category of soft drinks; traditional, diet, and now mid-calorie beverages.

It would then be interesting to see how and if this sub-category develops,

particularly with more offerings and overall promotional support. But on the

other hand, it might be possible that Coke might be test marketing the midcalorie

Sprite and Fanta options as a form of market research only.

products.

2. What will be benefit if Pepsi compromise to the competitor offerings?

3. How do companies protect themselves against the nonstop allegation of

special interest group that have made them a target?

4. Identify the ongoing issues in this case with respect to issue management

crisis management, global business ethics, and stakeholder management.

Q u e s t i o n :

(4 × 5 = 20)

1. As per the above situation what would be the impact of substitute

Assignment

Subject: Behavioural Science

Q.5 Case study

Amway’s Relationship with Stakeholders

Amway is one of the largest direct sales companies in the world. It continues

to be a family owned business which was founded in 1959. Today, it

employs 14,000 people worldwide and markets over 450 product lines. Its

vision is to help people lead better lifes. Its success islargely due to its three

million ABOS Amway Business Owners) spread across 80 countries. Thanks

to Amway, these people have a business of their own. The only shareholders

of Amway are the families that own Amway. The communication channels

used by Amway to communicate regularly with its internal and external

stakeholders are websites, email, events, publications and membership of

trade bodies.

Amway sells directly to consumers, without the presence of retail outlets. It

has its own supply chain through the ABOs. Amway seeks regular feedback

from ABOs and customers to find out how well it is doing and to improve

services. The ABOs are independent small businesses, but depend on

Amway suppliers to produce quality products.

Amway’s involvement with communities is a part of its vision to help people

lead better lives’. It promotes its corporates social responsibilities (CSR) all

over the world. Corporate social responsibilities at Amway involve

supporting social causes, acting in an ethical manner by making good

product and supporting its stakeholders in a number of ways. For example,

Amway has partnered with the children’s charity UNICEF. It helps provide

vaccination to fight the world’s six most deadly diseases. It has chosen this

charity because of its ABOs’ concern about families.

Ethical businesses get actively involved in improving the communities where

they work. Amway’s business ethics not only provides a clear framework

within which to work, but also gives it a positive business advantage. Its

‘One by One’ program is good for both the environment and for business.

This program supports organic farming, seeks to reduce waste but this can

be balanced against the benefits derived by both the business and the

community. Amway has to balance the needs of its many different

stakeholders. It sets high standards of ethics and codes of conduct, in order

to make sure that these are upheld. Its CRS program helps the environment,

its own employees and underprivileged children all around the world.

from what is mentioned in the case and why?

3. Stakeholders are the consumer of Amway. Comment.

4. Who are the external stakeholders that Amway communicates with?

Q u e s t i o n :

(4 × 5 = 20)

1. Who are the external stakeholders that Amway communicates with?

2. What communication channels would you recommend to Amway, a part

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