Alexanders Ice Creams Ltd is a well-established ice cream maker that has a major presence in the UK market, selling its products through major multiple retailers such as Tesco, Sainsbury and Walmart Asda. It is a family business based at the family farm in rural Perthshire in Scotland. In 1989 the family began to manufacture ice cream in addition to running the farm. Ice cream is now the main focus of the business and involves the employment of 76 people and the production of over 7 million liters of luxury ice cream a year.

The ice cream is still produced on the farm in eight flavors using fresh milk and cream from the Jersey cow herd (a breed which produces very creamy milk). Last year, the company achieved sales in excess of 12.5 million.

The ice cream market is highly competitive, with major international branded products (such as Wall's and Mars) alongside the retailers' own-branded products. Relative to these other ice creams, Alexanders Ice Creams Ltd has positioned itself as a luxury organic product (that is, no artificial chemicals are used at any stage in its production). However, a growing number of farms and dairy companies are diversifying into the ice cream market.

Alexanders Ice Creams is keen to maintain its position as the leading manufacturer of luxury ice cream. It is therefore wants to undertake a program of market research to better understand:

consumers' buying behavior with regard to ice cream and in particular luxury ice cream

consumers' attitudes towards Alexanders Ice Creams Ltd and its product range

consumers' suggestions as to potential new flavors of ice cream.

Questions

The company is willing to spend up to 50,000 on the research project.

When undertaking market research of the kind requested by Alexanders Ice Creams Ltd, it is common to consider both primary and secondary research.

a. Explain why an organisation should spend time gathering secondary data prior to undertaking primary research.

b. Describe the key limitations of secondary data and explain how the effects of these can be minimized.