EOC: Survey Reaserch

The survey chosen for this EOC has to do with Dairy Alternative Beverages in the United States. This means beverages such as soy milk, almond milk and other plant-based milk. Plant-based milks have a long history in both Eastern and Western cultures, with references found in early European cookbooks as well as Oriental literature from the 1500s. Derived from soy, oats, nuts, seeds, legumes, hemp, rice and others, plant milk is a generalized term without legal description or qualifiers. There are a number of varieties of plant milks offered in the retail market, and there are other plant milks not yet produced commercially that have the potential to impact the market in the future. Some of these milks are produced commercially in other countries and could possibly enter the U.S. market in the future.

 Currently, the most commonly known and popular of the commercial plant milks is soymilk. Following in consumer recognition and consumption are almond milk, rice milk and coconut milk, in that order of preference. Additionally, hemp milk, oat milk, hazelnut milk, flax milk, sunflower milk and multigrain milk are available at the retail level, although they enjoy only a very minor market share. Quinoa, lupine, pea, peanut, cashew, and sesame are also used to make RTD plant-based milks in countries other than the United States. These products carry the potential to enter the U.S. market at a later date on a commercial scale, either through domestic production or importation.

The research was obtained by both primary and secondary research.

"Primary research is any type of research that you go out and collect yourself. Examples include surveys, interviews, observations, and ethnographic research. A good researcher knows how to use both primary and secondary sources in her writing and to integrate them in a cohesive fashion."

"Secondary research (also known as desk research) involves the summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research rather than primary research, where data is collected from, for example, research subjects or experiments."

The survey used descriptive research to estimate and analyzes the size, growth rate, and composition of the plant-based beverage market. Historical sales data, as well as market forecasts to 2016, are provided for soymilk, almond milk, rice milk, coconut milk and hemp milk, as well as coverage of minor products such as flax, hazelnut, multi-grain, oat and sunflower milks. Descriptive research is defined as:

"Characteristics of objects, people, groups, organizations, or environments. Put more simply, descriptive research tries to “paint a picture” of a given situation. Marketing managers frequently need to determine who purchases a product, portray the size of the market, identify competitors' actions, and so on. Descriptive research addresses who, what, when, where, why, and how questions."