Hard Eight BBQThe Colony

MKT 3340-Term Paper

April 28, 2015

Presented by:Dali Harmouche

Joel GardnerRubi Herrera

Priscilla Vitela

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University of Texas at Dallas - Student Research Group800 W Campbell Rd

Richardson, TX 75080

April 28, 2015

Mr. David Blair, General ManagerHard Eight BBQThe Colony, TX

Dear Mr. Blair,

As you may know, the team has completed the marketing research analysis of Hard Eight BBQ new opening in the colony. We came up with 128 surveys. These results were obtained from people around the Nebraska Furniture and the current Coppell restaurant.

The results are described in the report. We have used standard marketing research to create the survey, this includes gathering data and analyzing the results. As we want people to be aware of the new opening, we also recognized that the majority of them may be unaware of it. The results show the great interest people indicated about the opening of the new location. In addition, customers want a variety of beverages. Having a greater line of beverages will enable Hard Eight to satisfy their customers’ different preferences. We recommend you to advertise on various website as it is effective at spreading new ideas quickly. We hope you exploit our results to better your restaurant.

Please if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask or email us ( ). We enjoyed working with you and we are looking forward to working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Dali HarmoucheJoel GardnerRubi HerreraPriscilla Vitela

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Table of Contents:

Introduction to the research problem and research Questions 4

Data collection 5

Basic descriptive statistical analysis and interpretations 5

Cross- tabulation tables, statistics, and interpretations 9

Conclusion and recommendations for potential improvement 12

An extensive discussion about study limitations and lessons learned 14

APPENDIX A: Research Proposal 16

APPENDIX B: Questionnaire

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APPENDIX C: Frequency Output with Descriptive Statistics 21

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Introduction

Hard Eight BBQ’s newest location is scheduled to open this summer in August 2015,

close to the Nebraska Furniture Mart in The Colony. This area is teeming with business potential

and high consumerism. Therefore, The Grandscape development wants to include restaurants

and other outlets that will facilitate consumerist needs. In order to project the restaurant’s

success with its new opening, we have conducted market research to see if people are aware of it.

Also, since it’s opening in the summer, the restaurant wanted to be sure that they sold the

beverages that are most highly demanded to meet customer’s needs and to make maximum

profit. Thus, we conducted field research to gauge the awareness of potential customers, who

frequently shop in The Grandscape development, of the opening of the newest Hard Eight BBQ,

and their beverage preferences to whether or not the beverage menu of Hard Eight BBQ met the

customer’s needs.

Our survey targeted frequent customers at The Grandscape development to find the

number of people in that area who have had past experiences at any of the other Hard Eight BBQ

restaurants, to ask of their satisfaction with the current menu and the beverages that the new

restaurant would serve, and the quality of the service and food. Overall, we wanted to estimate

awareness of the opening of the new restaurant by seeing how many people knew of its location

and date of opening. Our questions focused on the past experiences of customers at similar BBQ

restaurants and their preferences for beer, whether that is domestic, international, or mixed

drinks.

The survey was simple and deliberate, but there was a hassle in getting permission to

carry it out as the store is huge and contacting management was almost unfeasible. Also, many

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customers were too busy shopping to answer the survey questions. However, we managed to

survey many customers that were leaving the store, and received expected and unexpected

responses. The survey in itself promoted the opening of the restaurant and many customers were

happy to know that their favorite BBQ restaurant was coming to a place near them.

Data Collection

The data collection that we want to target are people that often go to The Hard Eight

BBQ. This will allow us to see who knows about the new opening in The Colony. We want to

target people that eat out often and like Texas BBQ. With this target market we will find out how

many people are aware of the new opening. In addition, the new restaurant will have a full bar.

Therefore, we want to know what preferences people have in alcoholic beverages.

With this information, the owners of The Hard Eight BBQ will know what liquor and

beer to include in their new restaurant. We want to conduct this survey before April, to know our

results and analyze them. Our team will conduct this survey at the Hard Eight BBQ in Coppell

and at The Grandscape where the new location will be located. In the Coppell location we will

offer free green beer because of St.Patricks Day but with the condition of taking a quick survey.

This will be handled during dinner time, which is where our target market is at. We will also

hand out surveys to people outside of the Nebraska Furniture store to help promote their place as

well as build brand awareness of The Hard Eight BBQ.

Strategic Analysis

Based on our collected data we found that most of our respondents were men with 53%

out of 128 respondents. This was reflected on the day and time we went to survey people. At the

Coppell location, the majority of the people we surveyed were men because they often have their

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work meetings and also because men enjoy beer the most. Due to that factor we had an impact

on our different kind of liquor and beer choices that we can suggest to the owners. According to

our demographics, the majority of our respondents were in the age range of 26-50 years old

(47%) and earned an annual income of 55K and over (58%). The following charts show people’s

demographics in which we surveyed.

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Moreover, we asked the question “Did you know about the opening of The Hard Eight

BBQ in The Colony?” and the majority answered NO (71%). This means that the restaurant in

general has not had enough advertising or

created brand awareness through its local customers. This is a big issue for them because the

opening is soon, in August. In addition, we asked about the customer satisfaction with the food

quality, customer service, overall quality, and the speed of service. This helped us gain data

about the current restaurant and what they can improve for current and new restaurant. The

following charts show the ratings from 1-10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest.

Throughout the survey, we asked what is important in a restaurant. Out of 128 surveys,

81% said that casual dining was important, 57% said that family friendly was important, 67%

said that live entertainment was important, and 39% said that a bar/lounge was important.

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Therefore, we analyzed the results and the most important was casual dining in which Hard Eight

BBQ does a great job focusing on a casual dining environment.

Since their current restaurants only have beer, wine, and margaritas our job was to ask

people what are their preferences in alcoholic beverages. We found out that the most popular

drinks are: Shiner Bock (16%), Jack Daniels (15%), and Dos Equis (10%). Obviously there was

more variety but these brands were the most popular.

Cross tabulation Analysis

We analyzed different questions and created cross tabulations to see if there was a

significant association between the two questions. We decided to analyze food quality from

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No Yes0%

20%40%60%80%

100%

19%

81%Casual Dining importance?

No Yes0%

20%

40%

60% 43%57%

Family Friendly importance?

No Yes0%

20%40%60%80%

67%

33%

Live Entertainment impor-tance?

No Yes0%

20%40%60%80% 61%

39%

Bar Lounge importance?

previous Hard Eight BBQ visit and how likely are they to recommend Hard Eight BBQ. The

following shows the significant association with the two variables:

As shown above, the people that rated food quality with a 10 and are very likely to

recommend the restaurant is 47 people out of 128. This is a great outcome because the majority

would recommend this place which creates word of mouth marketing strategy.

Since The Hard Eight BBQ does not have hostesses or waitresses, people have to wait in

line for their food. It is a unique process to go through but many people do not want to wait long

since it is next to the pit and if weather conditions are not so great it can be a hassle. Therefore,

we created a cross tabulation with comparing the speed of service from previous visit and how

long are people willing to wait in line for food. The following chart shows the significant

associations between the two variables:

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This association shows that people are willing to wait in line for 11-20 minutes and their speed

of service has been good, rated as a 10, which means Hard Eight is doing a great job in this

category.

In addition, one of our cross tabulations did not have a significant association. Therefore,

we decided to show this chart because as a team we thought that there would be an association

but it turned out that there is not. We compared the annual household income with how many

times a week do people go out to eat. The following chart shows that there is no association

between the two variables:

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We think that this happened because the people that we interviewed the most are people

that go for lunch or dinner during the week because they have full time jobs. Another reason

would be that people with full time jobs are always on the run which makes income not relevant

to the times people go out to eat.

Due to the above association we decided to create another cross tabulation comparing age

and how often do you go out to eat. The following shows the association between the two

variables:

Due to this analysis, there was no significant association between the two variables. Therefore,

we conclude that people go out to eat often with whatever age they are and income they earn.

Equally important, our team created another cross tabulation comparing how far away do

people live from The Colony and how far are people willing to drive for BBQ. The following

chart shows the significant association between the two variables.

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With the majority of our respondents saying that they would drive 15 miles and over is very

good because the majority live 6-10 miles away from The Colony. With that said there is a good

chance that this new location will have many new customers and even current customers.

Conclusion

The overall results of the survey show a great potential for this future venture to thrive.

The results show a great change to increase their market share. People that did not know about

the restaurant showed a lot of interest on the concept. Many people in the current location also

showed a lot of interest on the fact that the new restaurant will have a full bar. Hard Eight is

doing a great job with its actual performance and it is shown throughout the responses of the

overall satisfaction of the current customers. There are a few areas that may be improved to

increase the customer satisfaction of current satisfaction and to be certain that their new location

will be a success. In the following section, the team’s suggestions will be discuss.

Recommendations

After conducting the research and analyzing the results in the different areas of concern.

The team was able to come up with a few suggestions that we hope will help the company

improve its current performance and have a greater success in its opening of the future restaurant

in The Colony area.

First, the restaurant could increase advertising to increase the knowledge of the restaurant

opening. The advertising can be as simple as flyers given out in your current locations. There

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were a lot of people surveyed in the Coppell location that did not know about The Colony store.

Some of those customers also comment that they live closer to The Colony than Coppell.

Another advertising option can be done through social media. Social has grown extensively in

the past years. In 2014, 8 out of 10 small businesses were using social media to drive growth in

their business. The advantages of using social media advertising are brand exposure, web traffic,

new customers, current customers’ insights, and educating customers on how Hard Eight works.

The restaurant could make a short video explaining, how Hard Eight works and post it in the

different social media platforms, the restaurant may operate. The world is becoming a mobile

society and people are often in their phones checking the places they want to eat and even their

menu and how it works. Having a short video can educate the new customers on how everything

works minimizing complaints and increasing satisfaction.

Second, promotions are also a good way to advertise new restaurants. When the team met

with management they mentioned, the restaurant did not want to advertise by giving out coupons

or anything of that nature. But what the team thought the restaurant can do is a soft opening.

Hard Eight can do a soft opening using strategic contacts. Such as owners/managers of business

near the location that can be used not only once but for different caterings or parties this business

may host. Also, since they are big business they can market through word-to-mouth to even their

client that are not from Texas.

Third, the addition of liquor to the location it’s a great idea. People tend to want variety

in a bar. People that were from out of town were really into local beer but for beer products, the

majority of people wanted some kind of IPA added to the beer list. People also wanted liquor,

having the main types of liquor such as: tequila, rum, scotch, vodka, bourbon, and whiskey.

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Lastly, Hard Eight should keep the casual dining focus. Changing locations and adding

liquor may seem as very minimal changes but sometimes restaurants/businesses lose track of

their culture and original theme. Overall people in the survey said that casual dining was the

most important so being able to maintain that with the new changes will call for success.

Study limitations and lessons learned

In every task there are limitations and problems that are face by the team but reacting,

learning, and getting the best of them is what projects are all about. One of the highest

limitations the team encounter was the lack of time. The project was assigned with very rigid

deadlines and not a lot of time. Having to contact businesses around the new location to try to get

permission to survey a target segment of customers was harder than it sounded. A lot of

businesses do not want their customers to be bother with surveys. They also did not answer

emails or phone calls. Likewise because of the lack of time the amount of people surveyed was

lower than we desired.

Another limitation was the survey bias, there were a few people that were surveyed

which were friends of members of our team. This could have led to bias responses. Also, some

people did not read the questions correctly. For instance one person noted 1 for all the

satisfaction levels but said they would recommend the place which might have been because they

did not understand the question.

Lastly, the team learned that managing time is very important. As well as paying

attention to details. This can be as simple as changing one word in a question to make it clear for

the reader. Acknowledging people’s reactions taking the survey to see if they may be confuse or

get a better insight on their reaction to certain questions.

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APPENDIX A: Research Proposal

University of Texas at Dallas - Student Research Group800 W Campbell Rd

Richardson, TX 75080 David Blair, General ManagerHard Eight BBQ

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Mr. Blair, As part of our Marketing Research course at The University of Texas at Dallas Naveen Jindal School of Management we are required to conduct marketing research for a local business. We selected Hard Eight BBQ as a candidate for this project due to your company’s established reputation and impressive growth in recent years. If you and your management team are interested, we would like to conduct a marketing research analysis for your newest location in The Colony. There will be no costs associated with this project and you will receive a copy of the analysis upon completion.

Our marketing research will survey:

· General restaurant dining habits and preferences

· Awareness of your new location in The Colony

· Awareness of The Grandscape development

· Customer satisfaction in regards to your existing restaurants

· Alcohol preferences

· Basic non-identifying respondent demographic information (age, gender, income)

Additional survey questions that you or your management team would like to have analyzed can easily be added and we welcome your input on our survey process.

With your permission we can begin the survey process immediately and have the results ready for review by the end of April. We look forward to working with you on this project.

Sincerely,

Rubi Herrera, Priscilla Vitela, Joel Gardner, Dali Harmouche

APPENDIX B: Questionnaire

Hard Eight BBQ – The Colony Survey This is a research being conducted for Hard Eight BBQ which has 3 restaurants currently opened (Coppell, Stephenville, and Roanoke). We want people to become aware of the opening of the new restaurant in The Colony. We also want to know how your visit was to Hard Eight BBQ.

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Please take this quick survey, to inform you about the new opening and to let us know in what we can improve. (Coding in red italics) 1. How many times a week do you go out to eat? (Circle one)

1-2 times(1) 3-5 times(2) other(3) ___________ 2. Do you like Texas BBQ? (Circle one)

Yes(1) No(2) 3. How far are you willing to drive for BBQ? (Circle one)

1-5 miles(1) 6-10 miles(2) 10+ miles(3)

4. How long are you willing to wait in line for food? (Circle one)

5-10 minutes(1) 11-20 minutes(2) 20+ minutes(3) 5. Did you know about the opening of the Hard Eight BBQ in The Colony? (Circle one)

Yes(1) No(2)

6. How far away do you live from The Colony? (Circle one)

1-5 miles(1) 6-15 miles(2) 15+ miles(3) 7. If you have been to Hard Eight BBQ, please rate each of the following: (1-10, 1 being the least and 10 being the greatest) Please circle.

Food Quality 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (1-10)

Customer Service 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (1-10)

Overall Experience 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (1-10)

Speed of Service 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (1-10) 8. How likely are you to recommend Hard Eight BBQ? (Circle one)

Very likely(1) Somewhat likely(2) Not likely(3)

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9. Are you aware of the Grandscape in The Colony? (Circle one)

Yes(1) No(2)

10. Which of the following are important to you in a restaurant? (You may check more than one)

Casual Dining ___(1,0)

Family Friendly ___(1,0)

Live Entertainment ___(1,0)

Bar Lounge ___(1,0)

Other ___(Fill in blank) Now the one in The Colony is going to provide a full bar, the following questions will be in regards to your taste of alcoholic beverages. (If you do not consume alcohol you can skip this section) 11. What kind of alcoholic beverages do you prefer? (Check all that apply)

Domestic Beer ____(1,0)

Import Beer ____(1,0)

Wine ___(1,0)

Liquor ___(1,0)

Mixed Drinks ___(1,0) 12. Which are your preferred brands? ____________________________(Fill in blank) 13. How often do you go out to a bar? (Circle one)

Twice a week(1) Once a week(2) Once a month(3) I don’t go to bars(4)

14. How much do you spend when you go out to the bar? (Circle one)

$5-10(1) $11-20(2) $20+(3)

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Please circle one to the following:

Gender: Male(1) Female(2)

Age: 15-25 years(1) 26-50 years(2) 50+ years(3)

Annual household income: 10K-35K(1) 36K-55K(2) 55K+(3)

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APPENDIX C: Frequency Output with Descriptive Statistics

Variable Avg Std Dev

Min Max Sample

Food Quality from previous Hard 8 visit(s) 9.0 1.3 3 10 92

Overall Experience from previous Hard 8 visit(s) 8.9 1.3 4 10 91

Customer Service from previous Hard 8 visit(s) 8.8 1.6 3 10 90

Speed of Service from previous Hard 8 visit(s) 8.4 2.0 1 10 90

Which are your preferred brands? 5.9 3.9 1 13 88

How much do you spend when you go out to the bar? 2.6 0.6 1 3 107

How often do you go out to a bar? 2.4 0.9 1 4 113

Annual household income 2.4 0.8 1 3 125

How far are you willing to drive for BBQ? 2.2 0.7 1 3 126

How far away do you live from The Colony? 2.2 0.8 0 3 126

Age 2.0 0.7 1 3 127

How long are you willing to wait in line for food? 1.9 0.7 1 3 126

How many times a week do you go out to eat? 1.5 0.5 1 2 119

Gender 1.5 0.5 1 2 126

How likely are you to recommend Hard Eight BBQ? 1.2 0.5 1 3 112

Do you like Texas BBQ? 1.0 0.0 1 1 127

Casual Dining importance? 0.8 0.4 0 1 127

Domestic Beer preferred? 0.6 0.5 0 1 117

Family Friendly importance? 0.6 0.5 0 1 127

Liquor preferred? 0.5 0.5 0 2 116

Import Beer preferred? 0.5 0.5 0 1 117

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Bar Lounge importance? 0.4 0.5 0 1 127

Mixed Drinks preferred? 0.4 0.5 0 1 116

Are you aware of the Grandscape in The Colony? 0.3 0.5 0 1 126

Live Entertainment importance? 0.3 0.5 0 1 127

Did you know about the opening of the Hard Eight BBQ in The Colony?

0.3 0.5 0 2 126

Wine Preferred? 0.3 0.5 0 1 117

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