Use and Evaluations of Pierre S Landing by LSU Students

State College Students’ On-Campus Retail Food Services Consumption Survey Including Opinions About and Use of Sandy’s Station

Prepared for Sandy’s Station

Prepared by

B&B Research Associates

June 14, 2009

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SECTION Title______Page

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1

Objectives 1

Method 1

Findings Highlights 1

INTRODUCTION 2

Background on Sandy’s Station 2

Sandy’s Station Offerings 3

Sandy’s Station Location on the State College Campus 3

Organization of the Report 3

OBJECTIVES 4

Descriptive Research Objectives 4

Action Standard 5

Manager’s Hypotheses 5

Differences and Relationship Objectives 6

Target Market Objectives 7

METHOD 8

Data Collection Method 8

Questionnaire Design and Layout 8

Sample Design 9

Sample Size and Accuracy 10

Statistical Analysis 10

PROFILE OF THE SAMPLE 11

Spending on State College Retail Food Services 21

Sandy’s Station Usage, Ad Recall, Performance Evaluations, and Overall Satisfaction 25

HYPOTHESIS TESTS 34

Hypothesis Tests 34

DIFFERENCES ANALYSES 36

Differences between State College Female and Male Students 36

Differences between State College Students by Where They Live 37

Differences by Type of State College Student and Possible Sandy’s Station Menu Additions 37

RELATIONSHIPS ANALYSES 39

Identification of State College Student On-campus Retail Food Services Buyer 39

Identification of Sandy’s Station State College Student Target Market 41

Factors That Are Key to Satisfaction with Sandy’s Station 42

LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH 44

Research Errors 44

Respondent Errors 44

Sampling Error 44

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 45

State College Students’ Use and Evaluations of Sandy’s Station 45

Possible Additions in Offerings 47

Differences Between Types of State College Students 47

On-campus Retail Food Services Market Definition 48

Sandy’s Station State College Target Market 48

Keys to Sandy’s Station’s Satisfaction with State College Students 49

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TableS

Table 1 Respondent’s Age 17

Table 2 Respondent’s Number of Credit Hours 17

Table 3 Study, Work, Socializing, Exercising, and Television Viewing Time 18

Table 4 General Life Style Dimensions 19

Table 5 Fast Food-Specific Life Style Dimensions 20

Table 6 Expenditures on State College Food Services Locations per Week 22

Table 7 Sandy’s Station Purchases 25

Table 8 Performance of Sandy’s Station 31

Table 9 Reactions to Possible Sandy’s Station Menu Additions 33

Table 10 Differences between Male and Female State College Students 36

Table 11 Differences between On-Campus and Off-Campus State College Students 37

Table 12 Differences in Reactions to Additional Offerings by Type of State College Student 38

Table 13 Determinants of On-campus Retail Food Services Purchases

by State College Students 40

Table 14 Sandy’s Station’s State College Student Target Market Profile 41

Table 15 Performance Factors that Are Key to

State College Students’ Satisfaction with Sandy’s Station 42

figureS

Figure 1 Respondent’s Gender 12

Figure 2 Respondent’s Student Classification 13

Figure 3 Respondent’s Student Status 14

Figure 4 Respondent’s College 15

Figure 5 Respondent’s Dwelling Location 16

Figure 6 Purchasing at State College Retail Food Services 21

Figure 7 Use of State College Retail Food Services Locations 23

Figure 8 Market Share Estimates of State College Retail Food Services Locations 24

Figure 9 When Students Use Sandy’s Station 26

Figure 10 Recall of Sandy’s Station Advertising 27

Figure 11 What Meal Items are Purchased? 28

Figure 12 What Drinks are Purchased? 29

Figure 13 What Snacks are Purchased? 30

Figure 14 Satisfaction with Sandy’s Station 32

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Objectives

This study was an investigation of how State College students view Sandy’s Station; how much and what Sandy’s Station items they purchase, and what constitutes Sandy’s Station’s State College student target market.

Method

A survey was conducted with a random sample of about 300 State College students who filled out and submitted an Internet-based questionnaire.

Findings Highlights

·  About one-half of State College students buys something at Sandy’s Station each month, averaging 2.2 purchases there per week, spending about $5 per purchase and visiting in mid-morning, noontime, or early afternoon.

·  The most popular entrée item is pizza; soft drinks or bottled water are the most popular drinks, and chips of some sort are the most popular snack purchased at Sandy’s Station.

·  Most users of Sandy’s Station are satisfied, but there is room for improvement. Satisfaction with Sandy’s Station is “driven by:” hours of operation, speed of checkout, taste of Blimpie sandwiches, and taste of pizzas.

·  State College students rate Sandy’s Station as “very good” in performance on its convenient location and choice of drink items. It rates “good” on other features except variety of “prepared while you wait” items and availability of seats which are rated relatively low in performance.

·  The advertising banner for Sandy’s Station is not recalled by a large majority of students who patronize Sandy’s Station.

·  Gourmet pizza is recommended as an addition to Sandy’s Station’s offerings; Buffalo chicken wings, hot dogs, and cinnamon sticks are not recommended.

·  The finding that female State College students are more satisfied overall with Sandy’s Station that are male State College students warrants future study.

·  Sandy’s Station target market is State College students who: work more hours per week for pay; are older; do like excitement in their lives; agree that fast food is a large part of their diets; and do not agree that order fast food gives them time to do more important things.

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INTRODUCTION

This document describes marketing research undertaking conducted by B&B Research Associates, James MacKenzie, President. The marketing research project investigated the consumer behavior of State College students with respect to on-campus food purchasing and patronage of Sandy’s Station.

Background on Sandy’s Station

Sandy’s Station is one of seventeen different dining retail service centers managed by the State College Dining and Concessions department. These retail dining facilities are strategically located across State College’s campus:

·  Atrium Cafe - Design Building

·  Cindy’s Coffee House #1 - Law Center

·  Cindy’s Coffee House #2 – Main Library

·  Einstein’s Bagels- State College Student Union

·  Faculty Club Restaurant - State College Student Union

·  Maggie’s Restaurant - State College Student Union

·  McDonald's - State College Student Union

·  Mini Mart – Recreation Complex

·  Outtakes – The Commons

·  Sandy’s Station – State College Student Union

·  Pizza Hut - State College Student Union

·  Starbuck’s Coffee - State College Student Union

·  Sandella's – Residence Hall Row

·  Smoothie King – Recreation Complex

·  Subway – State College Student Union

·  Mascot Food Court- State College Student Union

·  Vet School Snack Bar

Sandy’s Station Offerings

Sandy’s Station is a combination franchise location, free-standing food service, and snack shop. Specifically, limited menus of Pizza Hut products and Blimpie sandwich offerings are prepared and sold in Sandy’s Station, and there are branded items such as Krispy Kreme donuts. Additionally, Sandy’s Station has a wide variety of “salty snacks,” candy, miscellaneous other snack times, cold and hot drinks, salad bar, hot soups, ice cream items, bagels, and other food items that are generally considered “fast food,” “comfort food,” or “ eat-on-the-run” food.

Sandy’s Station Location on the State College Campus

Sandy’s Station is located in the Annex Building that is connected to State College Student Union Building. As such, it is central to the State College campus. It was created when space in the Annex Building became available and was converted to a retail dining facility approximately 10 years ago.

Organization of the Report

OBJECTIVES

The research was undertaken at the request of Mr. Edward Goody, State College Concessions Manager, to investigate the on-campus retail food services purchasing behavior of State College students, particularly their purchases of, opinions about, and satisfaction with Sandy’s Station.

Descriptive Research Objectives

The following descriptive objectives were formulated for this research effort.

1. How much do they use Sandy’s Station?
2. Do they use Sandy’s Station? (What percent of State College students use Sandy’s Station?)
3. How often do they use Sandy’s Station? (How much do State College students use Sandy’s Station?)
4. How much do they typically spend (individually) when they use Sandy’s Station?
5. Which of Sandy’s Station offerings do they use?
6. How much do they typically spend on retail food services on the State College campus?
7. How do they rate Sandy’s Station performance on its various aspects?
8. Overall, how satisfied are they with Sandy’s Station?
9. What Sandy’s Station advertising do they recall, and/or where do they recall advertising?
10. What is the market share of this business as compared to Sandy’s Station’s on-campus State College Dining services competitors?
11. What are the demographic and lifestyle profiles of the sample?
12. Mr. Goody indicated that there were additional offerings under consideration. Specifically, he wished to know the appeal of the following possible additions to Sandy’s Station offerings:

1. Buffalo chicken wings
2. Cinnamon sticks
3. Hot dogs
4. Promo (gourmet) pizza

Action Standard

With respect to the possible additions to Sandy’s Station offerings under contemplation, Mr. Goody agreed to the use of a 7-point scale how likely (extremely unlikely to extremely likely), measuring State College students’ intentions to purchase each of 4 possible additional food items. For purposes of interpretation of the findings, Mr. Goody agreed that an average of “5” or greater for any item would be sufficient evidence to warrant a “go” decision for the addition of that food item to Sandy’s Station offerings.

Manager’s Hypotheses

Last, Mr. Goody provided five hypotheses or beliefs about State College students’ on-campus retail food services purchase behavior and Sandy’s Station usage. The hypotheses provided by Mr. Goody follow:

·  Hypothesis 1: 90% percent of State College students purchase from a food service on the State College campus.

·  Hypothesis 2: In a typical week, State College students spend about $45 on themselves forfood, drinks, snacks, etc. at State College food service locations.

·  Hypothesis 3: 50% of State College students purchase something from Sandy’s Station in a typical week.

·  Hypothesis 4: In a typical week, those State College students who use Sandy’s Station visit it 5 times.

·  Hypothesis 5: Those State College students who use Sandy’s Station spend $5 per purchase there.

Differences and Relationship Objectives

Further discussions with Mr. Goody as to marketing actions and tactics that might be forthcoming from findings in the survey, led to the following differences and relationship objectives.

1.  Are there differences in Sandy’s Station purchasing by type of student, that is, by student demographics?

2.  Do key performance ratings for Sandy’s Station differ by type of student?

3.  Does overall satisfaction with Sandy’s Station differ by type of student?

4.  Does recall of Sandy’s Station advertising differ by type of student?

5.  Does usage of Sandy’s Station differ by or relate to type of student?

6.  Does fast food-specific life style differ by or relate to type of student?

7.  Are there other interesting or meaningful differences or relationships found in the survey?

Target Market Objectives

Finally, two objectives were formulated pertaining to the State College student target market, and another objective related to understanding overall satisfaction with Sandy’s Station.

1. What is the State College student target market profile for State College retail food services?
2. What is Sandy’s Station’s State College student target market profile?
3. What factors determine satisfaction with Sandy’s Station?

METHOD

Data Collection Method

B&B Research Associates personnel involved with the Sandy’s Station project decided to take advantage of the company’s site license for Qualtrics® and utilize a Web-based survey. Qualtrics is a questionnaire design system that allows users to publish surveys on the Internet. Details on Qualtrics can be found on this company’s website (www.qualtrics.com). Respondents are invited to the questionnaire website, and their responses are saved on Qualtrics’ website to be viewed and/or downloaded by users.

Questionnaire Design and Layout

The questionnaire initially asked the respondent whether or not he/she typically purchases items from on-campus retail food services at least one time per month. If not, the respondent was not asked about on-campus retail food services or about Sandy’s Station. On the other hand, if the respondent was an on-campus retail food services user, he/she was asked to select from a check list what on-campus retail food services locations(s) he/she had used in the past month. The next question asked for about how much the respondent spends on on-campus retail food services per week. Then, the respondent was asked if he/she used Sandy’s Station in the past week. Respondents who used Sandy’s Station in the past week were directed to a page on the questionnaire that asked questions specific to Sandy’s Station including how many times they use Sandy’s Station per week, the range of dollars they typically spend (on themselves) per Sandy’s Station order, what times of day they use Sandy’s Station, what Sandy’s Station advertising they recall, and what food, drink, and snack items usually purchase. Next, they rated each of several different aspects of Sandy’s Station on a 7-point scale ranging from “Poor” to “Excellent.” Finally, respondents were asked to indicate their overall satisfaction with Sandy’s Station on an 11-point scale ranging from “extremely dissatisfied” to “delighted.”

Next, the respondent was asked to indicate by using a 7-point scale how likely (extremely unlikely to extremely likely) he/she would be to purchase each of 4 different additional food items Sandy’s Station might offer (see Objectives in the previous section of this report). Following these questions, (all) respondents were presented with several fast food-specific and general life style statements and instructed to indicate their degree of disagreement or agreement on a 7-point scale (strongly disagree to strongly agree) with each statement. The remaining questions related to demographic characteristics such as gender, classification items such as student status, and activity items such as number of hours spent studying per week.

Sample Design

This research project was designed to determine general on-campus retail food services consumption habits plus the use of and reactions to Sandy’s Station by students attending State College. An ideal sample is one that perfectly represents the population of State College students such that every member of the population has an equal chance of being in the sample. When proper procedures are used, this method is referred to as a “random sample.” Via Mr. Goody’s relationship with the top management of State College, the Computer Services Division provided a random sample of 500 State College students’ email addresses.