Summary

The main purpose of this study was to discover consumer preferences among three brands of cereal bar: Nature Valley, Quaker, and Soyjoy. Constant sum scale questions were asked before and after viewing ads for each brand. Questions were also asked about certain aspects of each brand in particular.

Respondents showed a slight preference for Nature Valley, with Quaker and Soyjoy tied as the next preferred brand. In particular, Soyjoy showed the greatest number of respondents’ perceptions increased after viewing the print ad, while Quaker showed the most balanced correlation between how respondents rated the brand and their response to the advertisement. When comparing male respondents to female respondents, there were slight differences in their perceptions of the Nature Valley brand, but the rest of brands are not statistically significant when it comes to gender difference.

The study has some limitations . The sample size was small (63 respondents) and a convenience sample (non-ramdon sampling) was utilized instead of the preferred random sampling. There was also a lack of control group due to the time constraint. In addition, randomization was not used in this questionnaire to correct or lessen order biases; meaning that the categories were not presented randomly each time all three brands were displayed, rather they always appeared with Nature Valley first, Quaker second, and Soyjoy last .Although this study did not indicate large differences between each brand, it certainly provides important information for research purposes.