Prepared by : Rike Panjaitan Donny Rajendra Willy Handoko

Hamilton Power Tools Case overview

Mr Campagna, the marketing manager for Hamilton Tools want to use marketing research as a tools to change the company from sales oriented company to consumer oriented philosophy of the marketing concept. For more than 30 years Hamilton Power Tools had been marketing industrial products by catering to the construction and industrial tool markets. Their construction product lines included tools such as power trowels, concrete vibrators, generators, and power driven tools. Their industrial lines were primarily pneumatic tools: drills, screw drivers etc. One of their products, the gasoline powered chain saw, was somewhat different from the traditional construction and industrial tools. John hamilton acquired this small chain-saw manufacturer with mainreason to diversify the company into other markets. The chain-saw market was changing rapidly during 1980, and Hamilton Power Tools executives realise that they needed some expert marketing advice.

Hamilton Power tools Case overview

Reports from trade publications, statistics from The Chain-saw Manufacturers Association, and his personal experience of 15 years made Campagna believe that the state of the chain-saw industry was composed of professionals (lumber jacks), farmers, institutions, and casual users. The casual user segment was considered to be the future growth market. Chain-saw sales began to slow down because of the seasonal nature of the business in 1988. Mr Campagna and Ray Johnson (sales manager)) had a meeting with John Hamilton in order to convince the executive that some consumer research was necessary. Then Hamilton Power Tools hired Consumer Metrics of Chicago to perform two research projects. The first was a thematic apperception test (TAT) In TAT, respondent are shown series of pictures

Hamilton Power tools Case overview

Respondent asked to tell their feelings concerning the people in the pictures All of this to gain insights into the reason people make certain purchases. Also could get the language people use in talking about chain saw, could be a source of new ideas for copywriting Exploratory research project conducted in Illinois and Wisconsin Respondents either planned to purchase a chain saw in 12 months, already owned a chain saw, or had used a chain saw in the past. Researcher give 1-2 questions in every picture.

Picture A and B

Picture A
QUESTIONS:
What

do you suppose he is thinking about? Why do you think this would be the best thing for him to do?

Picture B
QUESTIONS:
What

do you think he will talk about with the chain saw

clerk

Picture C and D

Picture C
QUESTIONS:
Knowing

that he purchased the chain saw, what you can tell me about him? Can you tell me anything about the character and personality of this men?

Picture D
QUESTIONS:
What

do you suppose theyre talking about?

A Concept Map for Qualitative Research

Marketing Research Data

Secondary Data

Primary Data

Qualitative

Quantitative

Focus Group s (Direct)

In-Depth Interviews (Direct)

Projective Techniques (Indirect)

Association

Completion

Construction

Expressive

Picture Response

Cartoon Test

Construction Techniques
A physcological research Indirect Approach that disguises the purpose of the projects A projective technique is an unstructured, indirect form of questioning that encourages respondents to project their underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings regarding the issues of concern. Respondent are asked to intepret the behavior of others rather than describe their own behavior in intepreting the behaviour of others, respondent indirectly project their own motivations, belief and attitudes, or feelings into that situation. the more ambiguous the situation the more the respondents project their emotions, needs, motives, attitudes, and values.

1. How should Conway and Baggins respond to Hamiltons questions?

This methode, projective construction association techniques as part of qualitative research (TAT) reveals the underlying motivations, believes and attitudes that are operating at a subconscious level. From this research We can gain initial insight and understanding from casual users. This qualitative research will define WHAT will be considered to purchase a chainsaw.

2. Is Hamilton investigating the casual user market segment correctly?

From this paper, hamilton investigate 3 kind on sample (people plan to purchase chainsaw in the next 0-12 months, already has a chainsaw or already used a chainsaw) which is too generall, not specific , like geographical, demographics, behaviour, etc.

3.

What conclusion would you draw from the thematic apperception test? Do you feel this is valid and reliable test?

Projective techniques can increase the validity of responses by diguising the purpose. In this case the purpose of the research is almost perfectly unable to predict by respondent. Projective techniques is also very helpful to find underlying motivation, beliefs and attitudes at subconscious level. And in this case we already found the motivation, beliefs and attitudes from respondents that increasing the validity of this method. From reliable side, we might not 100% sure because its depends on amount of data, method of sampling, respondent qualification and screening, etc which is not clearly stated in this case, sampling were not well diversified. However this methode validity and reliablity also depend on:
-

How well trained the interviewer and skill interpreter Were the respondent represent the target market

4.

What spesific recommendations would you make to Campagna concerning the casual users chain saw market?

From this TAT research Campagna will get initial insight and sensitive information about WHAT is the casual users consideration to buy chainsaw : Operation Price Weight Performance etc

4.

What spesific recommendations would you make to Campagna concerning the casual users chain saw market?

From those what campagna should do the further research, which is quantitave/conclusive research that can be lead to decision making. Example :
Qualitative Safety Price Weight Quantitative Kind of spesifications that make chainsaw safely used What range of price that will be availabe to purchase What range of weight that will be acceptable and confort to use

Thank you