I. Executive Summary
The topic of the 2013 market research project is to conduct a strategy in order to
increase revenue of the business through its website. We will conduct a background
check of the website, and also include the current status of what their website looks like.
After that, we will use various research techniques in order to conduct our SWOT
analysis on the company. We will conduct our research in the main headquarters of
Loards at 2000 Wayne Avenue, San Leandro. Various research techniques include the
traditional survey, the online survey, and the focus group.
Loard’s is a local, retail brand located in the Bay Area. There are about 20
locations in the Bay Area, with a new store opening in Santa Cruz. We plan to only
focus on the San Leandro locations. Loard’s sells ice- cream and other deli goods. Their
main competitors are Baskin Robins, and cold stone creamery. The company was
founded by two determined people.
Our group conducted three qualitative, primary researches in order to figure out
the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Loard’s. We also conducted a
secondary research in order to figure out the cost of restructuring a website. Along the
research, we also conducted a secondary research in order to figure out how much it
cost to put advertisements in major websites. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and Yahoo are
some of these major websites. We will use the traditional survey in order to put certain
information in the website. The online survey will be used to determine where to put the
advertisements, and finally the focus group determines how the website will be
structured. Our research methods will help us and the company improves for a
successful website.
The traditional survey results included the main weaknesses of Loard’s. The
online survey results included the main opportunities and threats of Loard’s. Finally the
focus group help pinpoint the main threats, weaknesses, but also strengths in the
website. Through these findings we hope to get many information off the people so we
can conduct our market research.
We have implemented a three step strategic plan in order to fix the website and
also generate revenue. The first step is to restructure the website. We are planning to
do this, because the website is outdated . The next step in the three step plan is to add
advertisement in the major websites. We call this process “Loard’s Awareness.” The
strategy of this step is to gain more promotion. We will use websites that everyone uses,
such as social websites and video websites. Finally the final part of the three step plan
is to introduce coupons in the website. This is for the deals the customers will get. This
is also another promotion idea so that Loard’s will attract customers.
Through trial and error, mistakes and findings we will find a way to not only fix
Loard’s website, but we will also give them a new set of loyal customers.
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II. Introduction of the Company
A.
Overview of the Company
Loard’s is a retail business that sells ice- cream around Northern California,
ranging from greater Bay Area. The stores have a very unique structure compared to
their competitors, due to the store revolves around the 50’s diners look. The ice- cream
store was founded by two people; Russ Salyards and Keegan Low in 1950. Their
philosophy was to serve premium ice- cream. With their fanatical commitment to their
philosophy, they received the multiple awards such as the best tasting awards all over
the Bay Area. Loard’s is also one of the favorite local stores in the Bay Area. There are
20 stores in the Bay Area; some even in the same locations in the original locations
from the 1950’s. The store offers a variety of ice- cream from simple flavors such as
vanilla, to premium flavors such as blueberry or maybe even maple syrup. Loard’s also
offers a catering service. Loard’s employs a large number of multiple job opportunities
usually for the younger people. The main headquarters of Loard’s is on San Leandro
2000 Wayne Ave. Their phone number is 510-351-4131, and can be reached every day
except for Sunday, usually. The store is also starting to expand outside of northern
California, with their first store opening in Santa Cruz.
B.
Structure of the Business’s current website.
The website of Loard’s is found at http://www.loards.com/. The website consist of
an ice- cream logo on the top right of website. There are three primary colors each
consisting of these follow colors; pink, white and blue. There are nine tabs in the top left
of the website; and they are in order; home, about us, store locations, events and
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catering, store opportunities, private labels, jobs, ice cream, and contact us. The
website offers basic contact information and offers all of the store and future store
locations. The website gives a lot of information about their business. They state their
founding, and the types of ice- cream they offer. So overall the website of Loards is
very informative, but there are many things that we can work on in order to expand their
potential of marketing to reach their customers.
The website of Loard’s: Home Page
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III. Research methods for SWOT Analysis
Primary Research
I. Focus Group:
A. People of similar demographics are led by a
moderator to find out the services and products
of a business.
B. Pros and cons
1. Get answers from at least eight different
people in a short amount of time.
2. Build of the answers of other people.
3. Weaknesses; Need a strong moderator,
or aggressive people will take over and
sometimes the people that are interviewed might
not be as truthful.
Steps taken to conduct the focus groups
Gather up the three age groups each ranging
from
 10-21
 22-45
 45+
Then ask them questions based on our research
II. Survey Method:
A. Get statistic from a group of people with
different psychographics from the same
geographics.
B. SurveyMonkey.com
1. Similar to the survey but gets rid of the
similar geographics and allows it to spread
all over the nation.
2. Weakness: Not truthful and for places like
Survey monkey then there might not be
enough promotion.
3. Strengths: gets information directly from
the mouth of the consumer.
Steps taken to conduct the survey
Make the survey questions both online and in
person ones
Ask for permission from the owner to conduct the
survey on their customers
Make a survey monkey account
Make the question that’s for the survey
Promote the website so the people can take it.
Secondary Research
Methods used
Websites, articles, etc... that help with the findings of how to:
Promote a website the right way
What types of websites work best
What types of website catches the eye
Steps
We only have one step when it comes to this method, just Google everything and find an answer
with the search bar.
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A. Steps taken to design the study and the instrument.
There are various types of methods used to conduct the SWOT analysis, ranging
from surveys to observation. Our group has decided to conduct multiple types of
researches in order to do our SWOT analysis. Our main method is the survey. We plan
to develop both online and in person surveys. We also plan to develop a focus group
each ranging from three ages groups. The main reason we chose these two methods
are, because we want to directly get the information from the mouth of a consumer.
The survey is primary, qualitative research which gets information from a group of
potential customers living in a certain area, in order to get a statistical assumption. This
is a very good method because you directly get the information. The main weaknesses
of these particular surveys are that people might not be truthful. Another type of survey
method is the online version. One online website is called Survey Monkey. Its
weaknesses are like the regular survey, and also the link to the survey might not get
enough promotion to be known by the targeted consumers so basically you get no
information off the website. So the main reason why we chose the survey method is
because it is very quick and effective, and we can get the opinions of the consumer
through their mouth. We also chose the online survey method because it has limitless
possibilities of getting people to take it depending on your promotion of the website.
The next type of research we plan to conduct is called a focus group. A focus
group is also a qualitative, primary research. A moderator asks questions to a set of
people usually the same demographics about new products, ideas, etc. This is a very
good way of getting information from your consumers because you get different
opinions at the same time. There are many main weaknesses of the focus group. One a
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very weak moderator might not be able to control an aggressive person’s influence
towards the other members of the focus groups. Also like the survey methods many
people might not be say what they really mean, or they’re just saying what the
moderator wants to hear. The main reason why we wanted to do the focus group is not
only its quick and effective, but we can also get much information at least 8-12 people
with the same psychographics very quickly.
Even with all the information that the two qualitative research methods offer, it
will be not be enough in order to fully conduct our SWOT analysis on Loard’s IceCream. One thing that we would also like to get information on good website structure
and contents is getting information from websites. This is called secondary research.
We really don’t want to do a lot of it, but there’s so many websites with information like
this, it’s very hard to resist the offers. The main strengths of secondary research are
that there at most limitless possibilities of information you can find on the web, books,
magazines, etc. We think that the main weaknesses of secondary research are its
creditability of the website, book, or magazine we are looking at. Although that problem
can quickly be steered of by visiting websites that are very well known and highly
reliable in the community, such as BBC or Yahoo.
B. Steps taken into steps taken to design the study and the instrument.
In order to conduct our survey we have to follow the following steps. It always
starts with the permission of the owner to conduct research on their consumers. So first
we need to get the approval of the manager of Loard’s in order to do the written survey
to their customers. Then our group makes survey in an easy fashion, the questions will
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be based on the actual company. Next might be the easiest job in the steps. We go
around the store asking for permission for the customers, in order to take the survey.
The questions will be about the company such as how often do you visit the website,
but it will also have general questions about the internet such as how often do you use
the internet. We will use the information we get from the written survey to describe the
contents of the website. We will also plan to make a survey based online on the website
Survey Monkey. In order to use Survey monkey, we must create an account. Then we
have to make the questions, and then finally we post it online for everyone to see.
These questions will be more general as they include questions about the internet, and
your usage of it. In our focus groups we plan to have three types of groups. The link to
our survey is http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/P78WJPN. The main problem is promotion, but
can quickly be solved with Facebook, by posting it in our walls, about 300+ people will
see it because of the amount of friends we have in it total. The main goal of this online
survey is to get information on where to advertise the website, but also structure the
website, and putting contents on the website based on popular demands of the survey.
The questions pulled from the survey are mainly based on the customers of Loard’s and
they will decide the contents of the website. The questions pulled from the online survey
will decide where to put the advertisements of Loard’s in order to increase revenue by
the simplest technique of attracting customers; promotion.
The last method is the focus group. Since ice- cream really has no boundaries
when it comes to liking it our focus groups will be based on age groups. The first one is
from early teenager to early adulthood. The next type of focus group is from middle
adulthood to late adulthood. The last focus group is older than the first two groups. The
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main purpose of this purpose group is to get what website they prefer the most with
three sample websites. The three websites are Loard’s, Baskin Robbins, and Johnny
Rockets. They include Loard’s and their competitors or similar marketing techniques.
They are Baskin Robbins (competitors, because they both sell ice-cream) and Johnny
Rockets (because their styles both revolve around a 50’s diner look) The focus group is
very simple as each person will say what they think of it and then vote for a favorite one.
This focus group will also be asked multiple questions about each revolving around the
companies. For example,” How well is the website designed and why?” would be one of
the questions. The main focus of this focus group is to figure out the structure of the
website. In order to do the last research technique, which is getting information of
website in order to strengthen our findings? The questions of the focus groups will be
used to define the structure of the website.
We will look at credential websites such as Yahoo, or Google tech and none of
Wikipedia. All four research techniques all connect with each other. For example the
normal survey will figure out what to put in the website. The online survey will determine
where to put the advertisement of the website. The focus group will help build the
structure of the website. Finally the secondary research will be used to strengthen our
findings so its air tight. So that’s why all of the research methods used will be useful in
conducting the SWOT analysis for Loard’s Ice- cream
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IV Findings and conclusions
Findings From online
survey

A lot of ads on
social and video
websites.
A lot of hours used
for the internet.
Many people have
a mobile access to
the internet
Many people
clicked to the ad
on the internet.
Pictures are what
attract the website
to the person’s
eyes the most






The favorite flavors of
the ice cream from
Loard’s.
Vanilla
Chocolate
Napoleon
How often they visit
the Loard’s website,
lack of website
promotion.
Strengths





Easy to use
Navigable
Fast thorough website
Well Informed
Accessible Customer Service
Opportunities




Findings from focus group
Findings from personal
Survey
Easy to design because of simplicity
Mobile site creation
Facebook Page advertisement




How popular really
Loards is to the people
The popularity of the
website compared to
the other competitors
The review of Loard’s
website structure
A comparison of Loard’s
website compared to its
competitors
Weakness





Lack of visibility or imagery
Too simple
Not up to date
Too many tabs
Wordy
Threats


Overshadowing of other competitor
websites such as Baskin Robbins
Lack of promotion
Reviews
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A. Findings
We had conducted three types of primary research in order to determine the
SWOT of Loard’s. We found many staggering results from all three, but also found
information that’s not really surprising. When I collected the results from the online
survey, we weren’t really surprised from the results, because we live in a technological
21st century. We found out that there are many advertisements on social websites, such
as Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler. There was also a lot of advertisement on websites
like YouTube. One other viral information that we found out from the online survey is
that it’s the pictures that attract the person’s eyes the most. What we found from the
traditional survey is mainly Loard’s related. We found out that the favorite flavor is
chocolate, vanilla, and cookies and crème. While they might not serve a purpose for the
SWOT analysis, they serve a purpose to our strategic plan to increase Loard’s profits.
We also found out that Loard’s website is not viewed often, and is because they did not
know about it. From the online survey, we found out who really popular Loard’s is to the
locals of San Leandro. We found out that their websites, according to ¾ of the people
survey, is very outdated. Out of the three sampled websites, Loard’s was the least
known, and least popular. On a good note, Loard’s was praised for the easy navigation,
accessible customer service.
B. SWOT Analysis
1. Strengths
Through personal experience, and the results of the focus group we found many
strengths to the website. The strength of the website is that it is really informative. They
give lots of information of what stores they have around the area, what type of catering
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they do, and their background history. It also gives out the information of the contact
information, and job opportunities on the page so it’s easy to apply for a job online. It is
very easy to use, meaning it isn’t very hard to look to what you’re finding. Because it is
very easy to use, it is also very easy to navigate. Because of its simplicity, Loard’s is a
very fast website. There’s no flash, gifs, and really no pictures in the website that allows
it to browse to pages much faster than its competitor’s website.
So the plan is to develop the website off what it originally is. From feeding off its
strengths we plan to making the website more up- to- date, with pictures that catch the
customer’s eyes. With all this, we want our company to strive against each other
competitors and to become the best it can be in the ice- cream market.
2. Weakness
We found many weaknesses to the website. First it lacks imagery and
pictures, which might damage how long the customer wants to stay on the website. We
got this information from the online survey we created. One of our questions was “What
attracts your eyes when you visit the website?” The post answered response was
“pictures.” Those are what Loard’s lack the most, so it is in fact one of the main
weaknesses of the website. More weaknesses that we got were the structure of the
website. In our focus groups there were three age groups in order to maximize the
opinion of the website. Almost everyone in the three groups agreed that Loard’s had the
worst structure of the three sample websites. It also contained too many words for them
to read. Another structure problem is the tabs. There are nine tabs, but about half of
them can be synthesized into one tab. The coloring is also horrible. They don’t really
match that much. Finally the last weakness that it contains is it’s over simplicity.
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According to most people they would rather have a website looking gimmicky, but also
simple. They want the website to be in between.
3. Opportunities
Since Loard’s Ice cream’s website is nice and simple, it is a great opportunity to
capitalize on that opportunity to change it and make the website to its full potential. By
changing around the information making it less wordy, and make it into the website that
people would love to visit and come see, and eat their favorite types of ice cream. This
will rill in new customers to the inexpensive price of the Bay Area’s greatest ice cream.
Another opportunity we can award Loard’s is the ability to use the mobile website. It’s
for the people with smartphones or IPods that can access the website much easier. In
our online survey, for 95% of people had some type of smartphone. Loard’s can also
make a Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler page in order to increase awareness about the
website. In our focus group a lot of people knew the website of Baskin Robins or Johnny
Rockets because of Facebook pages, and commercials. Another great opportunity it
has is its simple website. It will be very easy to redesign, because there is really nothing
to fix.
4. Threats
Loard’s contain very little threats, but it alone can harm it. First it is overshadowed
by the national chains. For example more people in the focus group knew what Johnny
Rockets was compared to Loard’s. Because of that reason, Loard’s second threat is
that it contains no promotion whatsoever.
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V. Strategic Plan
A. Proposed Strategic Plan
After analyzing the SWOT analysis of the company our group came up a very
specific strategic plan for Loard’s. It consist of three steps, in order to not only
restructure the website, and gain Loard’s awareness, but also attract customers with
amazing deals that it’ll offer when the plan succeed. Our first goal is to restructure the
website. Many people from the surveys to the focus groups all agreed on more pictures
less word. So our plan is summarize the long paragraphs of Loard’s and to put pictures
that will attract the customer’s eyes. We will take the info from the personal survey and
put the most popular ice cream in the website. That way people can see their favorite
flavor online. Another way to restructure the website is to fix the wording and the colors
of the website. We plan on using better colors for the website. Step two of our plan is to
rise what’s called “Loard’s awareness”. It is to promote the website in major websites
such as Google, Facebook, and YouTube through ads. We want to put it there because
many people in the online survey saw many ads on those websites. They also tend to
visit those types of websites according the online survey. This will be a great opportunity
for Loard’s because many people tend to visit those types of websites. We went to put
the ads of Loard’s locally because Loard’s only exist in the Bay Area. After completing
the first two steps, we can precede to the last step that will give them a profit. Step three
is putting up coupons on their website. It is because once the people know about the
website then; they will go to their website because of the ads. Then, they see a coupon
it will give them a better chance because of going to the store because of the deal.
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B. The timeline of the strategic plan.
The three plans will range between 6-10 months depending on the cooperation of
the major corporation. The plans have to be in order, because it’ll mess everything up.
For example when we do the “Loard’s Awareness” plan first, and people will see the
website, but it hasn’t been restructured yet. What will the people looking at it think? The
first step of the plan will take about 3-4 months; it will be the longest to plan. First we got
to hire a webmaster to build the website. Then the hard part comes. Planning for the
restructuring the website. What do we put it the newly website? What not to put?
Whatever the choice is, it’ll probably take a while to plan where to put things in the new
website. The next part, depending on the cooperation might take the shortest, or the
longest. Asking for permission will be very costly depending on your status, but can
happen way faster than the restructuring. We will do this by hosting in probably the
Facebook website. They have two types of ad campaigns, “Cost for clicks,” and “the
Cost for 1000 impressions.” They will both cost money, but once you do it’ll be fairly
easy to set up depending on how much money you put. Finally the last step in our three
step plan will even take shorter. Put ads of coupons in the own website will probably
take up to less than a day because of the webmaster or skilled computer person who
can put it in the website really easily.
C. Cost of the strategic plan.
The three plans to not come cheap, they will actually lose money before they can
gain any money, like all starting businesses. Remaking a website can be as low as
2,000 dollars and be as high as 100,000 dollars. We don’t recommend the 2,000 dollar
one, because that is the basic website like no gifs, limited pictures, etc. It’s what Loards
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began with. Our estimated cost for this website is about 11,000 dollars, because not
only can it add more appealing things to the eye of the customer, but it can also perform
its own updates. It means that they don’t have to pay extra for changing the website.
They will also be a one time payment, so when they pay they are done with it. There is
no monthly thing going one. Hiring a webmaster can be costly about 10 dollars an hour,
depending on how skilled you want him to be. Asking a webmaster to design your
website for a week after you give them the plans, with a 4 hour work day can total 280
dollars, which isn’t a lot. Next the advertisement cost. For Facebook, they have two
campaign acts the cost for 1000 impression and the cost for click. The cost for clicks is
not a set amount of money while the 1000 impression is. The cost for clicks is when you
click on an ad and they see it, the company that put it up has to pay a certain amount of
money. It can range from .01- beyond. The more you pay the more likely it is to appear
on a newsfeed of a person. The cost for 1000 impressions is when you pay a set
amount of money and they appear on the newsfeed. Like the cost for clicks its likeliness
of appearance will show on how much you pay. Our plan for Loards is to pay .40 cents
for the cost for clicks, and 5 dollars a month for the cost of 1000 impressions. At a
month they’ll be spending 5.40 cents a month of advertising in Facebook. What they
can also do is to buy the like plan. It is when they pay 297-597$ and Facebook will
recommend people to like the page. The coupon plan depending on what type of sale
they decide to do will dictate who much it will cost. What if they have a 20% sale, or a
buy one get one free, whatever it is, it is up for the company to decide.
D. Valued gain of the company after the strategic plan
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Like we said the company has to lose money before they can gain money. The best
successes Loard’s will get are all the promotion they will receive thanks to our three
step plan. We estimate Loard’s will remake all the money it lose in about 2 months and
then make money exponentially due to all the people hear the word about Loard’s. For
our goal, we want to also generate the company as a successful family oriented food
serving establishment. As you may know that as the restaurant grows, it will also grow
with the expansion of the website. This is the goal that our group and our participating
company are trying to do as a team. To make the establishment better for all over the
Bay Area and to the potential customers that Loard’s ice- cream will gladly serve the
upcoming years.
VI. Bibliography
Survey Traditional
Loard’s Research Questions (15 people)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
What is your favorite flavor in Loards?
Did you know that Loards had a website?
How often do you visit Loards?
If you did see the website, rate it from 1 to 10?
Do you think a lot of words are necessary in a website.
Do you like pictures more than words to describe things?
Survey Online ( Separate Page)
26 people
Focus Group questions 24 people different age groups



Look at the three websites.
Rate one from 1-10
Do you know each of the three company?
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

Which one looks the best?
Which one looks the worst?
VII. Appendix
Website of Loard’s:
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Website of Baskin Robbins: Competition because of selling similar products
Website of Johnny Rockets: Competition because it revolves on a 50’s diners look
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