Market research: cork as a building and decoration material in Finland
Zasenko, Kristina (2020)
Zasenko, Kristina
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020120826893
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020120826893
Tiivistelmä
This thesis was commissioned by APCOR, a Portuguese Cork Association. APCOR works continuously on the promotion of Portuguese cork, a natural and highly versatile raw material, in international markets.
Since the export of Portuguese cork to Finland has not been of a relevant amount, the purpose of this thesis topic was to understand what Finns know and think about cork and how more knowledge could be generated to increase demand and consequently the Portuguese exports. The thesis topic was narrowed down to study cork only as a building and decoration material.
The theoretical background of the study was based on concepts such as consumer behaviour, segmentation, decision making, and market research.
The empirical part of the study consisted of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. This part of the thesis was conducted through a survey, taken in the form of questionnaires. The study included two major group of respondents: Finnish companies, also denominated as professionals, and Finnish consumers. The Finnish professionals were further subdivided into those that can potentially utilize cork either as a building material or as a decoration material.
The data collection was implemented through three structured online questionnaires. One targeting Finnish consumers and two tailor-made questionnaires for each of the cork application fields.
Since there were three questionnaires involved in the empirical study, a separate chapter was devoted to each of them to analyse the results. Generally speaking, when it comes to Finnish consumers, there is still a lot more they could acknowledge about cork regarding its main features, benefits, as well as its possible applications both as a building and decoration material. Concerning the professionals, it can be pointed out that it is still not so common for both professional fields to work frequently with cork material, however, the majority responded positively regarding their interest to work with cork in future projects.
Since the export of Portuguese cork to Finland has not been of a relevant amount, the purpose of this thesis topic was to understand what Finns know and think about cork and how more knowledge could be generated to increase demand and consequently the Portuguese exports. The thesis topic was narrowed down to study cork only as a building and decoration material.
The theoretical background of the study was based on concepts such as consumer behaviour, segmentation, decision making, and market research.
The empirical part of the study consisted of both quantitative and qualitative research methods. This part of the thesis was conducted through a survey, taken in the form of questionnaires. The study included two major group of respondents: Finnish companies, also denominated as professionals, and Finnish consumers. The Finnish professionals were further subdivided into those that can potentially utilize cork either as a building material or as a decoration material.
The data collection was implemented through three structured online questionnaires. One targeting Finnish consumers and two tailor-made questionnaires for each of the cork application fields.
Since there were three questionnaires involved in the empirical study, a separate chapter was devoted to each of them to analyse the results. Generally speaking, when it comes to Finnish consumers, there is still a lot more they could acknowledge about cork regarding its main features, benefits, as well as its possible applications both as a building and decoration material. Concerning the professionals, it can be pointed out that it is still not so common for both professional fields to work frequently with cork material, however, the majority responded positively regarding their interest to work with cork in future projects.