Assignment task: King's Hawaiian Bakery enjoyed steady growth over the past decade, but it had done so without building strong market research functions to uncover consumer needs. As a result, it had taken a few risks with new products, which had not performed as well as expected. The company hired an expert (Figgins), who joined the company in August 2018 and had been brought on board to build an insight capability within King's Hawaiian. He had to think long and hard about what that department would look like and what tools he could include. Should he build a team of insights experts, or should he partner with some of the best-in-class marketing research agencies in the world? He spent time evaluating three specific options he could pursue. 1- Hair and develop marking research experts to build an internal insight department. 2- Partner with a full-services Marketing research agency. 3- Develop a proprietary marketing research online community (MROC)
Please consider the above information and answer the following questions.
1. What are the pros and cons of each of the three options under consideration?
2. Which option do you think will yield the most long-term value to the company?