Research Report

BYU Comunications Research and Measurement: Winter 2013

Table of Contents

Overview..................................................................................2 Awareness................................................................................5 Branding..................................................................................8 Location...................................................................................9 Gender....................................................................................14 Appeal and Ambiance..........................................................21 Price........................................................................................25 The Village.............................................................................26 Social Media..........................................................................27 Conclusion............................................................................29

Research Report--pg. 1

Overview

he Awful Waffle transformed from a mere idea to a spousal entrepreneurial endeavor in June 2011 after an enterprising couple went on a backpacking through Europe for a month collecting equipment and recipes. When you, Lance and Ashley, first opened your restaurant, you offered only one type of waffle, one type of crepe, and other limited European food. In the months following, you increased and perfected your menu items. Your first location, south of campus, was a little red brick hole in the wall, but you were proud of its continuing progress. In August 2012, you closed your doors and moved to a bigger-sit-down beautiful location at The Village at South Campus. Since the move, you have updated your menu to include Italian pizza and gelato. The items on your menu are very authentic, as Lance has met with several Belgian chefs to learn how to make waffles and crepes and with Italian chefs to learn about making the most authentic pizza and gelato. As part of the move to The Village, you have added a small convenience market in one part of the restaurant. Although The Awful Waffle has implemented some great public relations strategies and received several hits in popular Utah news media outlets, which is very good for a restaurant that is less than two years old; however, you are still looking for ways to increase the amount of customers who come through the door. Many customers are not aware of the new location and this has presented some business concerns. Thanks to your invitation, our BYU Communications 318 Research Methodologies class took on the challenge to find out several factors that would help us understand The Awful Waffle and its situation. This includes information about dining habits, types of restaurants, restaurant service, and any other information that could prove more relevant to solving the issue of old customer retention and new customer influx. At the beginning of our project, our class had the chance to meet with you, Ashley, to talk about The Awful Waffle and some of your concerns, which are parking, branding, awareness, and retaining and attracting more customers. We know that one of your biggest concerns is the lack of available parking. You also said The Village had offered only eight spots to The Awful Waffle in which customers could park; however, your customers still have a hard time finding these eight available spots because Provo City does not allow parking signs on the street. Another concern you mentioned in our meeting was the branding of your business. Both you and Lance said the reason you chose the name of your restaurant was because it was catchy and creative. Going along with branding, you also demonstrated concerns about awareness. You said that you wanted to inform your customers, especially those who went to the old location, of the new location at The Village. In order to help spread the word, you have been using social media, updating your website page, car advertising, and promoting events to maintain your current customers and attract new ones to reach a goal of 3,000 dollars every weekend. Another concern you had was the lack of items sold at promoted events held by the restaurant. Though the events have been a success, your sales do not necessarily increase during those events. You also said that some of

Research Report--pg. 2

Overview
your customers had complained about the consistency of the food. Some say that it had too much sugar or too little topping. In order to fix this, you have trained your employees to better accommodate to the customers needs. We thank you for allowing us the opportunity to work with you. It has been a privilege and a great experience for us and we are thrilled to be part of this project. We have been working on this project from the beginning of January until now, mid-April, 2013. In order to address your concerns more effectively, we executed some qualitative, quantitative and social media research. In order to be more productive and effective, our class split up into four groups and each one was responsible for a specific demographic that we believe are your key target publics. We are excited to share our findings with you. Our class conducted three different focus groups ranging from six to eleven participants each. We recruited volunteers via word of mouth, texting, email, and Facebook. Our participants included students who live in The Village, students who live around The Village (from Center Street to campus and from Ninth East to University Avenue), and students who live in campus housing not close to The Village. One group also conducted in-depth one on one interviews with adults who live in Provo. Different incentives were provided for each demographic. Each focus group had a moderator with several pre-prepared questions for the participants. The questions started very broadly, like Do you ever eat out? to narrower questions such as, What do you think about the employees at The Awful Waffle? New questions were also created as the focus group progressed. If the moderator noticed that a particular participant was not responding, he or she would single out the participant and specifically ask him or her a question. The participants also discussed several of the questions among themselves. Often, participants would comment as another participant shared new, interesting or relevant information. This created a ripple effect where many responses came from a single group members initial comment. The discussion continued until the hour of allotted time had run out. One group conducted in-depth interviews with several pre-prepared questions for non-students who live in Provo. Each person in this group interviewed at least two people. Similar to the focus groups, the questions started broadly, Do you ever go out to eat? and were narrowed down to more specific questions such as, How do you like the food at The Awful Waffle? Interviewers acted neutral so that the interviewees felt comfortable enough to give sincere answers. We conducted 10 interviews, which lasted no more than 30 minutes each. We took transcriptions and summaries from our notes, audio and video recordings from each focus group and in-depth interviews and analyzed the general patterns. We used the information from the focus group and the in-depth interviews to write a research paper that identified many primary and secondary themes that we observed in the transcriptions. We have provided said information along with specific quotes from the focus groups and interviews in the appendix to this report. The focus groups also generated information that gave us insights

Research Report--pg. 3

Overview
into the opportunities and challenges The Awful Waffle will face as it moves forward and continues to expand. These insights led to questions that we felt would prove useful in our efforts to formulate our quantitative research approach, which was a survey distributed to wider groups of people, still within The Awful Waffle demographics mentioned above. In conducting the survey, we were able to gain considerable information about awareness, perceptions, and likes and dislikes of those who knew of or had visited The Awful Waffle. We cannot consider this survey to be a purely scientifically valid instrument because we were not able to completely randomize the survey (therefore it is what is known as a stratified random sample); however, we believe that with close to 350 responses, the survey gives information that should be pretty valid and useful to The Awful Waffle. The survey was constructed as a group under the supervision of Professor Wakefield. It was designed on Qualtrics software and took advantage of several different types of question forms to supply a variety of ordinal, nominal, and scale data to use when looking for significant relationships. The survey began with general questions about restaurant eating habits such as How often do you eat out? The questions then funneled down to get more specific to The Awful Waffles needs and demographic information about participants. The survey was designed with survey fatigue in mind and skip logic was applied when possible. The survey was administered online through the members of our four different research groups. It was passed around through email and social media sites to engage people living at the Village, people living around the Village, people living elsewhere in Provo and people living outside of Provo. There were nearly 300 participants comprised of 67 percent women and 33 percent men. This gender sample somewhat reflects the higher female population in Provo which showed, according to a 2010 census, there were 100 females to every 96.4 males over the age of 18. One interpretation that follows assesses the significant findings of the survey as they pertain to the difference between men and women. Later on in the appendix we provide you with the data that we collected from the quantitative research. A couple of class members also looked at social media, following several social media avenues that The Awful Waffle utilizes such as Twitter, Blogger, and Facebook. The class members looked at the demographics of people who were talking about The Awful Waffle online, as well as the things people were saying about The Awful Waffle. Further into the report, we have provided some suggestions on how to increase online trafficking, as well as ways The Awful Waffle can improve its online presence. With all of this research data now at our disposal, we believe we are able to offer insights, implications, and recommendations that will help The Awful Waffle move into the future with the greatest possible opportunity for continued success. These insights, implications, and recommendations are included below:

Research Report--pg. 4

Awareness

ne of the initial problems you presented was that you were not sure as a whole, how many people are aware of your new location or your restaurant. We researched with that concern in mind and found that 77.3 percent of our survey respondents have heard of The Awful Waffle.

We also found that 45.3 percent of respondents had heard of The Awful Waffle, but had never actually been there. Of the nine individuals who participated in an in-depth interview, five had heard of it and two had actually visited. One non-student, Provo resident respondent said she had heard of it, but she didnt have much information. She knew it was in Provo, but didnt know where it was located. We categorized qualitative responses into five different categories showing ways people learned of The Awful Waffle.

Research Report--pg. 5

Awareness

Of the people who had heard of, or been to, The Awful Waffle, 56 percent heard about it through friends. Only 3 percent said they heard about it specifically through social media. We believe that many people who said they heard about it from friends most likely heard about it through friends on social media because of the current nature of communication through friends. 33 percent of respondents said they walked past the location on their way to school. Interestingly, most said they used to walk by it. We do not know if this means because the participants moved or because The Awful Waffle moved. Many also specified that they used to walk by the old location by J. Dawgs. Only a couple mentioned they had heard about it from walking by the new location. We can assume that people still walk by the new location but are unaware that they do. A small percentage (7 percent) learned of The Awful Waffle through traditional advertising methods.

Research Report--pg. 6

Awareness
Specific quotes from our survey support these data: Word of Mouth: I was asked on a date to eat dinner there. Social Media: A friend posted something about The Awful Waffle on Facebook. Traditional Media: Newspaper. Saw physical location-Drove past it once. Other-Mom bought a Groupon. Another positive indicator of awareness is your presence on social media. As of April 9, you have 2,405 likes on your Facebook page. Of those likes, 70.2 percent are female and 59.2 percent are 1824 years old. Women ages 18-24 are those who primarily engage with The Awful Waffle on social media. Compared to the Facebook pages of other crepe and waffle places in the Provo/Orem area (Roll Up, The Crepe Co., Waffle Love), your amount of likes is surmounted only by Waffle Love. On Twitter you have 322 followers. You also have a blog that, according to Ashley, was started to be a more personal aspect of the business that the general public could tap into. These social media outlets are a great asset for brand awareness, and you should focus on optimizing that awareness to turn it into customer behavior. You have been on several news articles. In addition to your more than 2000 likes on your Facebook page and 322 followers on Twitter, you have been on television such as Studio 5s Utahs Waffle Wars and Channel 2. The producer of Studio 5, Stephanie Bryson, said that your shop has amazing coverage. In other words, you have great public relations; but, if thats the case, then why do you not have more business? In the remainder of this report we have consolidated primary and secondary research to inform you of challenges and missed opportunities that may be limiting your customer growth despite your good public relations. These areas are branding, location, gender, appeal and atmosphere, price, The Village and social media.

Research Report--pg. 7

Branding

n both our survey and our focus groups we noticed some very mixed feelings about the branding of your restaurant. Although we have no statistically significant results to help determine which target groups like the branding and which do not, in our focus groups we did not find much evidence to say the name The Awful Waffle deterred clients from trying out the restaurant. In our survey we received many freeform responses about participants feelings about the name of the restaurant. After coding these responses we noticed a slight slant towards a negative perception of the name (47% compared to 40% positive). While the name is not always a deterrent to new customers, it helps solidify a negative opinion when customers have a less than satisfactory experience. That experience could come from a number of reasons, but having the word awful in the name makes it an easy target for disgruntled customers. There is also some evidence to imply that the name Awful Waffle could deter first-time customers from eating there. The Awful Waffles previous location, just a waffle shack, coupled with the name and the nature of its major product, suggest the brand of a quick and cheap dining experience. It can be confusing for customers who are now adjusting to The Awful Waffle being more of a partial-service restaurant. Having three separate entities within the same building has lead to confusion among customers about what the three different entities are and how they differ from one another. This confusion creates dissonance as customers try to identify The Awful Waffle brand. For example, participant from focus group four said, It would be better if the service wasnt awful. That alone makes the name redundant.

Research Report--pg. 8

Location

hrough our research we wanted to answer questions about how the move from the shack had affected your restaurant, and how the new location at The Village affects your restaurant. We found four main points related to location: who visits The Awful Waffle, who is aware of the move, how the move affected your customer base- both in who attends and if they like the new location and parking findings. The first thing we found is who is your largest customer base. Using the survey we discovered that how familiar people were with The Awful Waffle is strongly associated with where they live. We are defining familiarity as either hearing about The Awful Waffle, visiting The Awful Waffle once, visiting The Awful Waffle a few times or visiting often. The chart below illustrates the relationship.

As shown, people who live in or around The Village were significantly more likely to have visited or at least heard of The Awful Waffle.

Research Report--pg. 9

Location
The findings from the survey showed that location played an important role in knowing that The Awful Waffle had changed locations. People who lived 4 blocks around The Village or at The Village were significantly aware of the move and the new location. People who live in Utah County, outside of Provo were significantly unaware of the move. These findings were not surprising, you would probably guess that some people around Provo knew you moved and people outside of Provo probably had no idea. However, it is important to understand that potential customers may or may not know where the new location is, based on where they live. Another finding we discovered supported something you told us yourselves. Ashley said that some of their previous customers who visited the old location were now coming to the new location- and shes very right! Using the survey we discovered it is statistically significant that customers who visited the old location are more likely to visit the new location. But what we also found was people who never visited the old location are much less likely to ever visit the new location. We also gained insight as to why some students in Provo who dont live in The Village are not visiting the new location. An inhibitor that is specific to your restaurant is the perception of The Village. One person from focus group two said they had heard only rich kids live there. Other words used to describe the new location in focus group three were ritzy and upper-scale hipster. One respondent talking about why he hasnt gone to the new Awful Waffle said that The Village reputation has definitely been part of what has kept me from going. From these responses, it may give insight to why the survey findings say some students are not visiting the new location, especially if they had not visited the old, however we cannot generalize the focus group responses to the entire population.

Research Report--pg. 10

Location

However, we discovered customer satisfaction from the old shop to the new one has improved. Our survey indicates that The Awful Waffles move to its new location brought about a 14 percent increase in overall customer satisfaction, as shown in the chart below.

About 60 percent of respondents who rated the new location responded that they were either satisfied or very satisfied (41 and 19 percent, respectively). At their old location, only 46 percent of customers responded that they were either satisfied or very satisfied (32 and 14 percent, respectively). This shows that once customers visit the new shop, they like it, so the real issue is getting customers to come in the first place.

Research Report--pg. 11

Location

One challenge specific to your location that inhibits customers from visiting is parking. You have recognized this as an issue, and our survey validates this concern. In the survey, respondents who have visited The Awful Waffle at The Village were asked to rate different features on a scale from 1 to 10. Parking was rated the lowest at 2.9 and was more than 2 points the second lowest feature. The chart below shows the features and their rankings in order.

Throughout our research we noticed a pattern in responses toward the parking situation at The Awful Waffle. Responses were typically negative and went on to say that if parking was not easily accessible, not only at The Awful Waffle but anywhere, then it would heavily sway individuals to choose to eat elsewhere. There is also confusion about where customers are even allowed to park when coming to eat at The Awful Waffle.

Research Report--pg. 12

Location
During a focus group, one respondent answered, All the parking- as I understood it- was either already taken on the street by residents, or was made for those who lived in The Village and we would be ticketed for parking there. Another respondent expressed confusion concerning the location when answered, It took me awhile to find somewhere to park, and after I finally did, I had no idea where The Awful Waffle was in relation to the parking spot. One focus group respondent even went so far as to say, The parking is awful. It doesnt exist. It is also a concern that non-students, not knowing the area as well, may especially be affected by the lack of parking. During an in-depth interview with a resident outside of Provo, one respondent explained that she had yet to visit The Awful Waffle as she had heard only negative things regarding the parking situation. She went on to say that this would especially be a problem for her during the winter, as walking out in the cold does not sound appealing. It seems that it would be extremely important to some for the parking to improve to simply just get people in your doors to have that first experience with The Awful Waffle. We recognize that the parking situation for The Village and The Awful Waffle has been a continual uphill battle and is currently out of your control. With that being said, we have a couple suggestions to possibly improve the perspective of others, taking parking from an essential aspect of the experience to something customers are willing to overlook and enjoy one of your many treats. First, we recommend that you be open and honest with your customers. Dont pretend that the problem doesnt exist, rather share it. Let people know on your website where they can park, and that they wont be ticketed. It is our understanding that although parking is difficult to find, customers are typically only required to walk just across the street to reach The Awful Waffle. One idea is to implement a phrase such as, Awful Waffle: Worth the Walk. With a phrase such as this, it shows that you as a business acknowledge the situation and are trying to make the best out of it.

Research Report--pg. 13

Gender

T
Survey Data:

hrough our research we found several insights between gender preferences and The Awful Waffle. This section contains research comprised of the four focus groups we conducted, and results from a survey of people in the Provo/Orem area.

After we received results from the survey, we analyzed each question by running an independent t-test against each gender. Four questions produced significant results, which is meaningful differences, between males and females. The following are the four questions that produced significant results and the data associated with each. Question 1: How often do you eat out?

Research Report--pg. 14

Gender
Results: From this question we learn there is a significant difference between males and females and how much they eat out. Males eat out more than females. So, if males eat out more than females, this should also be true for The Awful Waffle. To discover if this holds true, we ran a chi square test and found that there was not a significant difference between males and females and their familiarity or visits to the awful waffle. This means that The Awful Waffle is missing the important demographic of males. Question 2: How often do you go out to eat dinner? Data:

Research Report--pg. 15

Gender
Results: From this question we learned that males eat out for dinner more than females. This question also led us to another test we performed to see what type of restaurant males and females preferred. We learned that males and females both prefer the quick service caf style, like The Awful Waffle. Question 3: Rank in order the top three reasons for going out to eat-Invitation from friends and family Data:

Results: From this question we learn that males respond to invitations from family and friends more than females do.

Research Report--pg. 16

Gender

Supporting quotes from focus group: The only time I go to like a sit down restaurant is on like a date or something like that, I would never just go by myself or with a buddy to like Applebees. -Male I dont think Ive gone to go buy food just by myself in like probably a year. Cause, uh, Ill just go without. Cause part of the experience is being with somebody while you eat. So Im just like well, Ill just fast until 4:00. So yeah I think its totally a group experience. -Male Even like late at night it was definitely the social thing like when I go get crepes I never do it by myself, its always like Provo people or like, lets go get crepes its so cool. -Female Yeah definitely go out to eat on dates and with friends and stuff. But I almost never just buy food for myself and when I do I just feel dumb cause Im spending money on myself. I feel like you go there with like a reason, like for birthdays. You dont go there to eat, like, your meal or something. -Female

Research Report--pg. 17

Gender

Question 4: How would you rate the following features at The Awful Waffle currently? Bands and events Data:

Results: From this question we learn that the males like the bands and events more than females do. Supporting quotes from focus group: I really like what they have here. But I think they should have more nights. Like other places have a jazz night, different nights. -Male

Research Report--pg. 18

Gender
The Focus Group The focus group also uncovered the some attitudes towards The Awful Waffle that are important to consider. Findings from the focus group cannot be generalized to apply to an entire population, however, they can be very insightful and are important to consider. One attitude we uncovered is that people think a waffle or crepe doesnt constitute a meal. Supporting Quotes: I mean they have the savory crepes, but when I think of crepes and waffles I dont think of a meal, really, and so I just never go. -Male I feel like you go there with a reason, like for birthdays. You dont go there to eat your meal or something. -Female This attitude is important to consider because as stated above, males go out for dinner most, but they do not consider The Awful Waffle as dinner. Another attitude, specifically from males, is that they prefer quantity to quality. Supporting Quotes: Like subway is five dollars for a foot long, or you can go to Taco Bell and get five dollars worth of food and get filled up -Male Im more a quantity guy than quality. -Male

Research Report--pg. 19

Gender
Conclusion In conclusion, we found that males eat out more, but not at The Awful Waffle. The focus group gave us some ideas as to why. Those reasons could be, The Awful Waffle isnt seen as a meal place and men prefer quantity to quality. The research then led into some ways males respond to eating out. Males respond more to invitations from family members or friends. Lastly, males like the events at The Awful Waffle more than the females do. In application, we suggest you focus messaging towards males, since they are not being reached currently. Also consider the self-interests of males, like they prefer dinner and events, when planning for the future.

Research Report--pg. 20

Appeal and Ambiance

Appeal everal interesting findings arose during our analysis of customers appeal to restaurants, as well as their overall impressions of the ambiance at The Awful Waffle. In our analysis, focusing on what draws customers into restaurant doors we asked those surveyed to rank the top five factors contributing to where they eat out. Our results showed that the taste of food was either the first or second factor for nearly 57 percent of all respondents. This statistic revealed that customers are concerned that they like what they are eating, and are willing to go back regardless of other factors. This is great news for The Awful Waffle because a different survey question indicated that among the many features at The Awful Waffle, the taste of food was ranked number one. Customers like the food served at The Awful Waffle and this is most important to them.

Research Report--pg. 21

Appeal and Ambiance

In addition, we were surprised to see the low response in regards to authenticity as a driving factor as to why people eat out. In fact, authenticity never ranked among the top five factors. Additionally, when understanding that much of the publicity you received came from bloggers, many of whom are professionals, when running a two sample chi-squared test we learned that there is no statistical significance between students, non-students and authenticity. The pearson chi-squared was .391 which is above .05. Looking at the 20/80 rule because 60% of the cells have expected count less than 5. This was interesting because we expected non-students would care more about authenticity than students. We were proven wrong. Among college students in Provo, the authenticity of the food is not as important as the taste of the food and the price.

Research Report--pg. 22

Appeal and Ambiance

The focus groups and in-depth interviews that we conducted contributed to our findings on authenticity. Many students interviewed in our focus groups did not have an understanding of what European food was and what makes it authentic. When asked what foods they associated with Europe, many noted pizza, pasta and then jokingly added French fries, French bread, etc. They rarely connected waffles or crepes as authentic European foods, unless they had personally visited France and Belgium. Upon hearing the history and background of The Awful Waffle and its recipes, respondents generally agreed that this information would be interesting for all the public to know. However, we found the overall consensus concerning authenticity of food was that if the food were authentic it was a nice plus, but they particularly did not have any biases one way or another. It seemed that although the food was authentic, if food was not appetizing to them, they were not going to eat it. A participant noted, Personally I think its cool if its authentic, or someone told me that its authentic, but if its good food at a good price, its good food. So I dont know if its a negative draw if its not authentic. We also asked survey respondents which meals they most commonly eat out for. We found that our respondents were least likely to eat out for breakfast, with only 31 percent who eat out for breakfast at least once a week. We did however see much higher percentages in those who ate out for lunch, dinner and a small snack. Respectively 82 percent eat out for lunch at least once a week, 83 percent go out for a snack or dessert at least once a week and an overwhelming 92 percent eat out for dinner a minimum of one time per week. This showed us that the market for lunch, dinner and snack places are very popular among Provo residents and students. While students may not associate crepes and waffles as a meal, they are also interested in going out for desserts and lighter snacks and the meal and snack market can be optimized.

Research Report--pg. 23

Appeal and Ambiance

Ambiance The atmosphere of The Awful Waffle was ranked the second highest feature that students were most pleased with. Qualitative comments included in the survey showed that students like the trendy, modern, comfortable and fun environment. In 45 responses, 39 were positive, 0 were negative and 4 were neutral. Eleven respondents specifically mentioned the chalk tables and how fun and creative they felt they were. However, we did also learn from our focus groups that some students did not like the slant on the menu board because they felt it was hard to read. Additionally, ten students described the overall space as fun, and nine wrote that it was trendy and relaxed. Students feel that it was a place where they can come to hang-out and relax. The space and atmosphere are appealing to students and this is a great strength to your restaurant. The following list is what some of the focus group respondents said about the atmosphere. Its very unique and fun; I love drawing with chalk on the tables and I love the shabby-chic feel, Love the fireplace and just the little places to gather, including the couches, I think its a cool place that feels like its an inner city restaurant even though its not in the city. It is a fun relaxed place to go. Big open room, cool furniture and stuff. Overall cool. Our survey also indicated that overall satisfaction with service at The Awful Waffle was high. In a total of 31 responses from those who felt strongly about the service 25 were positive, 2 were negative and 4 were neutral. Those who had positive experiences with the service most often described the employees as polite (12), friendly (5) and helpful (4). However, some of our qualitative findings indicated that some people were not impressed with the service. In the focus group that interviewed students at The Village, the general consensus was the service at The Awful Waffle could be improved. One respondent said, There are some of them who are nice, but there was one who would take our orders and sit there in the back for ten minutes. Another reported, There is one person standing there in the entire restaurant, so I feel like Im burdening them by being there. Another stated, Its a really nice place, but because the service is so slow, it really killed my buzz. The data from the focus groups, in this instance, is surprisingly conflicting with the survey responses which said the service was great. The focus group data cannot be generalized, but we wanted to make you aware of what some people are saying about The Awful Waffle.

Research Report--pg. 24

Price

2007 study by Food Service Director Magazine showed the average college student spends $5.65 for a quick-service (fast food) meal (Food Service Director, 2007). Another study done by Cornell University reveals that price of service makes up 67 percent of a college students purchasing decision when selecting a fast food restaurant (Knutson, 2000). The Awful Waffles average price is close to what the average college student wants to spend on a meal. While this is the case, according to our research, individuals feel that the prices at The Awful Waffle are too high. We also found from our focus groups that people consider crepes and waffles to be more of a snack food or a dessert. It may be that because waffles and crepes are not seen as a meal that people are less willing to pay $5-7 to eat at The Awful Waffle. If there is not a pricing change customers are less likely to become returning, loyal customers. Customers may come once, but may not come back because they feel the prices are too high for a crepe or a waffle and for toppings too. Many respondents in the focus group and the survey felt the prices were too high compared to portion sizes. If The Awful Waffle wants to be a part of the BYU culture, it may need to consider pricing changes that better fit students needs. Students in the focus groups referenced places like Taco Bell, Little Caesars, Cafe Rio and Zupas as places that gave a satisfactory amount of food for a low price. In one focus group, one male student responded he likes Taco Bell because you can get filled up for five bucks. A male respondent said the same thing about Subway but did not think you could get enough food for the price at The Awful Waffle. College students like restaurants that are quick and inexpensive. It is important for college students to get the biggest bang for their buck. We also asked survey respondents to rate various features at The Awful Waffle. The average rating from of each of these factors is listed below. You will notice that price had the second lowest score of all the factors, which provides quantitative data to indicate you may want to reconsider rearranging your pricing model.

Table: Response to survey question, How would you rate the following features at The Awful Waffle?

Research Report--pg. 25

The Village

e surveyed 24 Village residents and analyzed their responses in order to gain an understanding of them as a key public and market for The Awful Waffle. We compared their responses to the responses of those respondents in three other residence categories: within four blocks of The Village, farther than four blocks from The Village and outside of Provo, but still in Utah County. The most statistically significant results were that residents of The Village are more aware of The Village Market than other resident groups and also that residents of The Village are more likely to go to the Awful Waffle than those who dont live at The Village; both return a significant p-value of .001 in a Chi-Square test for significance. We then compared the means for the likelihood of eating out at the Awful Waffle and discovered that residents of The Village are three times more likely to eat at the Awful Waffle than people who reside in other areas and complexes. Residents of The Village and willingness to explore the menu had a strong correlation as well. A p-value of .09 found through a Chi-Square test for independence would probably prove significant with a larger sample size. Residents of The Village seemed to be more likely to try waffles, crepes, pizza, gelato and items at The Village Market while residents of other areas tended to purchase only waffles and crepes. None of the other survey responses revealed statistical significance, but some results to note were as follows: Customer satisfaction was the same between residents of The Village and other respondents. Living at The Village does not help or hinder customer satisfaction level significantly. Residents of The Village tend to use the Market more than those who do not live at The Village, but not a significant amount more Residents of The Village reported eating out more often than residents of other areas; however, the low number of respondents means we cannot report statistical significance. Residents of The Village seemed to eat out a little later than residents of other areas (p-value of .11), but not significantly so. However, not one resident reported eating out before 11 a.m. In fact, of the 368 total survey respondents, only one reported ever eating out before 11 a.m.

Research Report--pg. 26

Social Media

urrently you are active on several social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Blogger. As mentioned before, your Facebook page has 2,405 likes and you have 322 followers on Twitter. Your blog has 17 followers. Most of the posts you put on your Facebook page are about events and deals. Some of the posts are also about individual employees. The majority of the conversation surrounding The Awful Waffle brand is positive. The trending topics people post about are the events and the food. An important aspect of your social media engagement is that many people message you through Facebook about performing at The Awful Waffle. It is great that you have a connection with local musicians. The Provo music scene is something your business can benefit from. As bands play at The Awful Waffle and tell their fans to come, awareness about your restaurant will increase and hopefully this will turn into new customers for you. While you are doing an excellent job with your social media, we wanted to let you know of a few ideas you could implement to make it even better. 1. Reach out to bloggers You recently partnered with smallfryblog.com and the Facebook page analytics show that 70 people came to your Facebook page through that post. We recommend that you continue to reach out to bloggers to write about The Awful Waffle. You could even offer incentives to get them to the restaurant, as well as doing more partnerships like you did with smallfryblog.com. In an email, Ashley mentioned that you want to reach out to mommy bloggers to write a guest post on The Awful Waffle blog about what it means to them to be a mom. However, since you have only 17 followers on your blog, it may be more beneficial for you to get food bloggers to write about the restaurant, which is a more relevant topic to your brand than being a mom. 2. Vamp up Instagram As mentioned previously Waffle Love is the only crepe/waffle shop in the Provo/Orem area that has more likes on its Facebook page compared to The Awful Waffle. We believe this is because they have a very active Instagram account that they link to their Facebook page. We believe that if you vamped up your Instagram presence and maybe did a contest with an #awfulwaffleshop hashtag where people post pictures of themselves at The Awful Waffle, you would be able to increase your already positive social media presence. A contest that brings people into the restaurant will also help you reach your goal to increase sales.

Research Report--pg. 27

Social Media
3. Keep your posts related to your brand While you have a great social media presence, it is our opinion that you are still struggling to find your voice and personality on your social media platforms. Some of your posts are about specific employees and things about them that do not relate to The Awful Waffle. Additionally, you are posting pictures of your daughter on the Instagram account. While she is adorable, you should post about her on your personal social media platforms not your business. While this may not seem like a huge issue now, as your business grows and potentially becomes franchisable, you do not want the social media identity of The Awful Waffle brand to be your daughter. You want your voice to be consistent. 4. Cross post your content One thing that greatly benefits brands is to share content between social media platforms. If you write a blog post, you should post about it on Facebook and Twitter. If you are doing an Instagram contest, you should post the winning photos on Facebook and Twitter. If you are featured in an article or television show, you should write about it on your blog, as well as share the article on Twitter and Facebook. Cross posting your content will help increase your engagement on social media. Someone might only follow you on Facebook, but then will see a picture of your Instagram contest and then begin following you there.

Research Report--pg. 28

Conclusion

nce again, we would like to thank you for this opportunity to work with you. It was a wonderful experience for us as a class. After conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups and surveys with hundreds of your current and potential customers, we have shared with you the resulting data, our insights and the implications that we believe answer the big question, You have great public relations, so why dont you have more business? We hope you will find our suggestions beneficial and we believe that they will help The Awful Waffle gain more business and achieve its goals. As your company grows and faces challenges in the future, we hope you will look to the BYU Bradley PR Lab to help you better understand your customers and to create tactics and strategies that will help you achieve your goals and mission. We are confident that The Awful Waffle will continue to grow and be successful for years to come.

Research Report--pg. 29

Appendix