In “Inputting”, Karol and her team have collected various data on consumers’ preferences about soft drinks and the market trends. She has also learned some words and expressions related to market research, in addition to the structure of a market research report. 

在“Inputting”阶段，Karol 和她的团队已经收集了有关消费者对软饮料的偏好以及市场趋势的各种数据。此外，她还学习了一些与市场调研相关的词汇和表达，以及市场调研报告的结构。

Imagine you are Karol. Based on the recording of the street interview and the market research results submitted by your colleague, you are going to write a market research report. 

想象一下你是 Karol，根据团队收集的街头采访录音和市场调研结果，撰写一份市场调研报告。

       A Market Research Report for Forest Spring’s New Product Development

Introduction

Forest Spring is a world-famous soft drinks company. As we are planning to expand our product range, we have carried out market research to analyse the feasibility of developing a new functional drink.

Aim

The aim of this research is to identify consumers’ opinions and expectations on soft drinks so as our relevant departments can develop new product strategies accordingly.

Methodology

This research was carried out by conducting a street interview and putting a questionnaire to 15,000 consumers across 18 major cities in the city.

Results

The chief finding is that consumers nowadays care for their health and well-being. When we interviewed several consumers about the factor they care about most while choosing soft drinks, the vast majority of them gave top priority to “Health Claims”. This is in line with the result we got from the questionnaire. Furthermore, other factors such as “Function” and “Ingredient” are much more important than “Packaging”, “Flavor” and “Brand Name”. Consumers want “health-enhancing” soft drinks with natural and organic ingredients. This result is largely attributed to the global health trend in food and beverages. 

Another distinct finding is that in order to maintain a “cleaner” lifestyle, consumers are taking active steps to change their drinking habits. As we have found out from the street interview, a lot of consumers have various health problems. And excessive sugar is responsible for several diseases such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Therefore, the biggest step consumers take is cutting their sugar intake, followed by cutting their caffeine, artificial ingredients and gluten intake. Those ingredients are all believed to pose a threat to people’s health.

Our last finding is based on the consumer response we have received from the questionnaire, and this is that ingredients such as vitamin C, Omega 3, vitamin D and other natural ingredients with digestive benefits are becoming more sought after by consumers.

Conclusions and Recommendations

From the above analysis, the market for a new functional drink is huge as consumers give top priority to health while making their soft drinks purchasing decisions. Therefore, it is highly recommended that the R&D Department develop a new product with functions that can improve people's well-being. Healthy and natural ingredients should replace traditional artificial ones, while at the same time, maintaining a great flavor. Besides, the Marketing Department should attach more importance to highlighting the health claims of the new product and developing strategies of effective targeting at health-conscious consumers.