8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

1/22

A MARKETING RESEARCH ONPERCEPTION OF THE UNIVERSITY

STUDENTS ABOUT FAST-FOODRESTAURANTS

Executive Summary

Fast-food industry is rapidly growing, although it causes undernourishment.

Demand for fast-food is increasing which results in perfect competition. This

competition leads to change and variation. Fast-food industry is trying to find ways of

attracting more customers.

In our research, we aim to determine the leading factors which affect fast-food

consumption of the university students who are the most important consumer groups

in fast-food industry. As young managers, we dont have enough information about

preferences of unviersity students and fast-food market. In order to gain insight,

firstly, we will conduct a exploratory research. Then, while extending our research,

descriptive research will be more useful to get further information. The questionnaires

are going to be used in order to gather data from respondents. We are searching for

significant statistical differences between factors determining our key variable fast-

food consumption.

To begin with; in order to determine factors, the previous literature in the area

needs to be reviewed and brain-storming should take place.

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

2/22

Table of Contents

List of Tables 4

Introduction 5

o Background Information

o Managerial Decision Problem

o Marketing Research Problem

Methodology 6

Findings 17

Conclusions and Implications 22

References 23

2

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

3/22

List of Tables

Chart Page

1. Factors Influencing MSU College Students' Choice of a Fast-food Restaurant 5

Table Page

1. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Sex 17

2. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Ages 17

3. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Monthly Budgets 17

4. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Monthly Fast-Food Consumption 18

5. Allocation of Respondents Preferences according to Location of Consuming Fast-food

18

6. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Spending on Meals in a Month 19

3

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

4/22

7. Allocation of the Respondent according to their Spending on Fast-Food in a Month 19

8. Perspective of Living without Fast-food 20

9. Means and Standard Deviations of Factors which Affect the Fast-Food Consumptionof the University Students

20-21

INTRODUCTION

Background Material

According to a previous research College

Students and Fast Food-How Students Perceive

Restaurant Brandsby Bonnie J. Knuttson, the most

important

factors that shaped the university students attitudes

are cleanliness, friendliness and price. Interestingly,

the driving force for 69 percent of these students was

how clean the restaurant is. In order to avoid food-borne ilnesses, students are

progressively more aware of and concerned about the safety of the good they

consume, including, of course the cleanliness with which it is prepared. Cleanliness

was folllowed closely by friendliness (67.5 percent) and the price (67 percent).

University students are pressured to earn top grades, they interact more with

technology and less with people. Therefore, a friendly restaurant is an interactive

place for them. Because most college students have

limited budgets, they would naturally be concerned about price of everything.

CHART IFactors Influencing MSU College Students'

Choice of a Fast-food Restaurant (N=200)Factor Influence

Cleanliness 69,00%

Friendliness 67,50%

Price 67,00%

Speed 61,50%

Consistency in menu items 60,00%

Menu variety 59,50%

Location 59,00%

Combination meals 43,50%

Discount coupons 43,00%

Atmosphere 40,00%

Drive-through 38,00%

Promotional menu items 32,00%

Add-on coupons 25,50%

The percentage shown represents thecombination of responses ranked "4" and"5" on a Likert-type scale where 1 = no

influence and 5 = great influence

4

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

5/22

Managerial decision problem:

What should be done to increase fast-food consumption of university students?

Marketing research problem:

To determine university students preferences and purchase intentions for the fast-

food.

METHODOLOGY

We want to conduct explotary research to gain insides for developing and

approach to our problem, to clarify concepts and generate measurement items and to

increase our familarity with the problem.

Firstly, we begin wtih a focus group interview because this method is a very

popular form of explotary research. We will bring 10 people together in a room to sit

and talk about their fast-food consumption habits. Our group should consists of

homogenous respondents in order to minimize conflicts. It should be homogenous in

terms of demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. In order to provide this

condition, we choose our respondents from the same university namely Boazii

University and having approximately same budget limitations. Students who have

already participated in numerous focus groups should not be included to avoid

serious validity problems. Research should be conducted in a relaxed and informal

atmosphere which will last from 1 hour. We choose to record on audiocasettes rather

than videotapes in terms of the fact that facial expressions and body movements are

not so important for our study and it is costly. The moderator plays a key role in the

success of a focus group because moderate style may contribute to respondent bias.

We choose most observational and interpersonal person in our team.

5

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

6/22

Focus Group Discussion for Fast-food Consumption

Preamble(5 minutes)

Thanks and welcome

Nature of a focus group

May ask obvious questions-humor me.

There are no right or wrong answers-all about finding out what people think.

Audio recording (no video!)

Colleagues viewing

Help self to refreshments

Going to be talking about fast-food consumption

Questions or concerns?

Intros&Warm-up (3 minutes)

First name

Best thing about consuming fast food

Worst thing about consuming fast food

Food Market (5 minutes)

When you have your meal, what kind of food do you prefer?

6

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

7/22

Lets start with the things you always like to eat?

FLIPCHART

What are the thing you often like to eat?

FLIPCHART

How many times do you prefer to eat outside in a week?

Fast-Food Consumption (10 minutes)

How many times do you typically consume fast-food in a week?

What are the some of the most common types of fast-food you consume?

BRIEFLY EXPLORE

If the fast-food restaurants were closed, what difference would that make to

your life?

BRIEFLY EXPLORE

Past Fast-Food Consumption Experience (20 minutes)

First, how you actually went about the process of choosing to consume fast-

food and second any criteria you had for the fast-food itself

Past Fast-Food Selection Criteria

Tell me what you actually looked for in a fast-food.

EXPLORE

Consumption of Fast-Food Characteristics

Thinking now about fast-food characteristics, Id like to start by a making a list

of all the fast-food characteristics you can think of- anything fast-food contains,

any characteristics you want to change etc

Well talk in a minute about which characteristics of fast-food you actually like.

FLIPCHART

7

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

8/22

Which characteristics of fast-food are indispensible for you?

Why?

EXPLORE

Desired Characteristics (3 minutes)

Are there any characteristics your favorite fast-food doesnt have but you wish

that it did?

EXPLORE

Closing Exercise (10 minutes)

Finally, Id like your creativity for a few minutes- to come up with ideas

Dont worry about whether its a good idea or bad idea.

The only word Im going to ban is free!

Thank to respondents and close the session.

Following the group discussion, we obtain some comments and findings.

However the number of participants is small, we are not going to report frequencies

and percentages in our focus group summary.

Through this interview, we get information about advantages and disadvantages

of consuming fast-food, frequencies of preferences, the most common type of fast-

food consumed, criteria effecting fast-food consumption selection and desired

characteristics of focus group which is selected from Boazii University students.

Due to this results, we have a general idea about university students attitudes

towards fast-food consumption. However, focus group results are not representative

of the general population and are not projectable. Consequently, focus group results

should not be the sole basis for decision making. We have obtained new ideas and

thoughts quickly and cost effectively, however this study is not adequate for reaching

8

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

9/22

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

10/22

pretreatment measure is taken on each group. Only the experimental group is

exposed to the treatment, but posttest measures are taken on both groups.

EG: R O1 X 02

CG: R O3 O4

Two similar university students groups are selected. Fast-food consumption in

both groups are observed. Then, in first group the price of the mostly consumed

menu is decreased and in second gruop no treatment was implemented. Finally, both

groups are observed again. After treatment, we expect that in the first group there will

be an increase in fast-food consumption since the prices decreased. However, in

control group, we do not expect any significant change.

We need data and this data can be primary or secondary. Primary data is

preferred by the researcher, because it addresses the specific purpose. There are

two ways of collecting data; communication and observation. In our research, we

choose communication method. It involves questioning the university students. They

know the answer and hopefully remember the answer. It is easy to respond to

questions about fast-food consumption. We think that students will be willing to

reveal the answer. Our communication method is undisguised and structured,

because we dont need open ended questions or if we tell our purpose to

respondents, it is not a sensitive issue. Our method of administration is mall-intercept

personal interview where respondents are intercepted while they are shopping in

malls and brought to test facilities in the malls. Advantage of this administration is

cost efficiency for interviewer. For instance, we will go to malls which are located

near the university campuses and in the food court we will start our interview by

10

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

11/22

asking whether they are university student or not. After this question, we make our

questionnaire which consists mostly of Likert Scales. These are the best way of to

measure attitudes and entities that have a strength dimension. We pay attention to

consistency in wording.

Through all these methods focus groups, casual research, mall-intercept personal

interviews- we have some basic information about prefences of university students

on fast-food consumption. So, it is time to design a questionnaire formally to solve

our managerial problem.

Randomly sampling 5000 students from Boazii University, we applied our

questionnaire in classes.

Questionnaire for Fast-Food Consumption of University Students:

1. Are you male?____ female?____

2. How old are you?

19 and less than19____

Between 20 and 22____

23 and more than 23____

3. What is your approximate monthly budget?

0-199 TL____

200-299 TL____

300- 399 TL____

400+ TL____

4. How many times do you consume fast-food in a month?

0-4____

11

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

12/22

5-8____

9+____

Stronglydisagree Disagree

Neitheragreenor

disagree AgreeStrongly

agree

5. Advertising plays a significant role in my

fast-food consumption.

6. I pay attention to caloric values of fast-food.

7. The quality of provided good is important forme.

8. The cleanliness of restaurant is importantfor me.

9. I prefer restaurants always providing samequality of standards.

10. The warmth of the fast-food is important for

me.

11. The meals should be served quickly andtimely.

12. I pay attention that services are providedas they promised.

13. Variety of the menus influences my choice.

14. The prices should be suitable for mybudget.

15. Services should be provided in a diligent

manner.16. I prefer fast-food restaurants nearly locatedto the campus.

17. The friendly atmosphere of the fast-foodrestaurant is important for me

18. I generally choose modernly designed fast-food restaurants.

19. Brand image affects my choicesignificantly.

20. I prefer to choose restaurant which has

customers similar to me.

12

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

13/22

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

14/22

28. Can you think of a life without fast-food?

Absolutely____

Yes____

Indifferent____

No____

Never____

While designing our questionnaire, we have avoided sensitive topics which are

embarrassing and threatening, and not asked unless absolutely necessary questions.

We have obtained basic information first followed by classification. We prefered

Likert scales which are the best way to meausure attitudes and entities that have a

strength dimension. We have used simple words and avoided ambiguous words and

leading questions. We used funnel approach which is going from general to specific

in questions. Logical order of question 26,27 and 28 is an example for this approach.

Namely general questions should precede the specific questions.

After finishing our questionnaire design, we need to pretest it in order to identify and

eliminate potential problems. Then, our questionnaire is ready to be conducted.

In our study, while we were taking from 5000 students from Boazii

University, we made sampling. Our goal was to select a sample that represents the

population to which we seek to make generalizations. At first, we have determined

relevant population, namely university students. Our parameter to be estimated is

percentage of university students income spent on fast-food consumption. Our

subset of the population, namely sample is 5000 students from Boazii University.

Our statistic is percentage of 5000 students from Boazii University income spent

14

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

15/22

on fast-food consumption. We first conducted one of the nonprobability sampling

techniques, namely judgmental sampling. We selected Boazii University students

because they are expected to serve our research purpose. We believe that they are

representative of the larger population and they can offer the information needed.

Since there are students coming from many different regions of Turkey, we assure

that our sample is representative.

We will now apply one form of probability sampling techniques because in

probability sampling each population element has known, nonzero chance of being

included in the sample. It is useful for our study because we can statistically assess

level of sampling error and make inferences about the population- and not just the

specific sample. We select 5000 students from all Boazii University students by

simple random sampling. In this technique, each population element has a known

and equal chance of being included in the sample and sample is drawn randomly via

random number table. The reasons we choose this method are its being easily

understood and its results projectable to the entire population. We have decided to a

larger sample size such a 5000 in order to decrease random error, increase

statistical power, decrease importance of outliers and increase representativeness,

namely minimazing systematic errors.

All this process of sampling process, we are aware of the fact that we make

sampling errors. Since our research does not contain sensitive issues, we expect a

high response rate that means response errors are almost eliminated. People

respond, remember the answer and understand the question appropriately.

Nonresponse error such as refusals or not-at-homes are eliminated through applying

questionnaires in classes. Random error is simply random. For one respondent it

moves in one direction, for another in the opposite direction. We use a relatively large

15

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

16/22

sample therefore we minimized random error. Increasing sample sizes moves

sample mean to population mean.

Findings:

Table 1. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Sex

Table 2. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Ages

Age groups Number Percentage

19 and less than 19 X A

20-22 Y B

23 and more than 23 5000-(X+Y) 100-(A+B)

Sex Number Percentage

Female X A

Male 5000-X 100-A

Total 5000 100

16

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

17/22

Total 5000 100

Table 3. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Monthly Budgets

Monthly Budget Number Percentage

0-199 TL X A

200-299 TL Y B

300-399 TL Z C

400+ TL 5000-(X+Y+Z) 100-(A+B+C)

Total 5000 100

Table 4. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Monthly Fast-Food

Consumption

Monthly Fast-Food Consumption Number Percentage

0- 4 X A

5-8 Y B

9+ 5000-(X+Y) 100-(A+B)

Total 5000 100

Table 5. Allocation of Respondents Preferences according to Location of

Consuming Fast-food

Location of Consuming Fast-food Number Percentage

17

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

18/22

Near the campus X A

Malls Y B

Widespread fast-food restaurant Z C

Ordering through internet W D

Ordering through phone 5000-(X+Y+Z+W) 100-(A+B+C+D)

Total 5000 100

Table 6. Allocation of the Respondents according to their Spending on Meals

in a Month

Spending on Meals Number Percentage

0%-20% X A

20%-50% Y B

50%70% Z C

70%-90% W D

90%-100% 5000-(X+Y+Z+W) 100-(A+B+C+D)

Total 5000 100

Table 7. Allocation of the Respondent according to their Spending on Fast-

Food in a Month

18

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

19/22

Spending on Fast-Food Number Percentage

0%-20% X A

20%-50% Y B

50%70% Z C

70%-90% W D

90%-100% 5000-(X+Y+Z+W) 100-(A+B+C+D)

Total 5000 100

Table 8. Perspective of Living without Fast-food

Perspective of Living without Fast-food Number Percentage

Absolutely X A

Yes Y B

Indifferent Z C

No W D

Never 5000-(X+Y+Z+W) 100-(A+B+C+D)

Total 5000 100

Table 9. Means and Standard Deviations of Factors which Affect the Fast-Food

Consumption of the University Students

n MeanStandardDeviation

19

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

20/22

Advertising plays a significant role in my fast-foodconsumption.

I pay attention to caloric values of fast-food.

The quality of provided good is important for me.

The cleanliness of restaurant is important for me.

I prefer restaurants always providing same qualityof standards.

The warmth of the fast-food is important for me.

The meals should be served quickly and timely.

I pay attention that services are provided as theypromised.

Variety of the menus influences my choice.

The prices should be suitable for my budget.

Services should be provided in a diligent manner.

I prefer fast-food restaurants nearly located to thecampus.

The friendly atmosphere of the fast-food restaurant

is important for me

I generally choose modernly designed fast-foodrestaurants.

Brand image affects my choice significantly.

I prefer to choose restaurant which has customerssimilar to me.

Parking capacity should be adequate.

Promotional menu items affect my choice.

Combination of the meals is important in mydecision.

Discount coupons lead to an increase in myconsumption.

First column (n) will denote the number of people who has responded to each

of Likert scale items. Second column is mean, which is out of 5. Because we have a

scale consisting of 5 choices. The third columns denotes standard deviation, which is

20

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

21/22

a measure of the variability or dispersion of a population. In case of standard

deviation is low, the data points tend to be very close to the mean. We hope that

standard deviation is low, so our sampling will provide successful results. In addition

to this, if mean value is greater than 4, factors we have chosen are significantly

affecting fast-food consumption.

Conclusions and Implications

Firstly, we began wtih a focus group to gain insight about the fast-food

consumption of university students. After that, we have studied causality between

price, cleanliness, location and advertising and fast-food consumption of our

population. When we take all the things into consideration, we decided to implement

field experiment, type of pretest-posttest control group design. As managers, we pay

more attention to external validity. Besides, we were able to minimize extraneous

variables. Face-to-face communication will yield unbiased, reliable and accurate

results so we used mall-intercept communication method.

When designing our questionnaire, we use structured and undisguised form.

Likert scales are the fundemantal tools of our questionnaire. We tried to use simple

words, avoid ambigious leading questions and we pay attention to arrange our

questions in a logical order. Sensitive issues are out of topic in our research.

21

8/7/2019 ad 202 proje

22/22

We needed to sample in order to find respondents for our questionnaire. Since

we have to make inferences about population, we select a sample of 5000 Boazii

University students. Firstly, we decided to have our sample from Bogazici University

by judgmental sampling.(Non-probability). Then, we created our sample of 5000 by

simple random sampling. As managers, we know that simple random sampling is

difficult to construct sampling frame and it is expensive, however, it is easily

understood and results are projectible.

Based on the questionnaire findings, we aim to create quantitative data regarding

our research and we determined the most important factors affecting fast-food

consumption.

References

http://cqx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/68

Malhotra, Naresh K. Marketing Research. New Jersey: Pearson Education,

2007.

Levine, Stephan, Krehbiel, Berenson. Statistics for Managers. New Jersey:

Pearson Education, 2008.

http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2004/09

/09/News/FastFood.Lifestyle.Weighing.On.Campus-713932.shtml

http://cqx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/68http://cqx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/68http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2004/09/09/News/FastFood.Lifestyle.Weighing.On.Campus-713932.shtmlhttp://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2004/09/09/News/FastFood.Lifestyle.Weighing.On.Campus-713932.shtmlhttp://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2004/09/09/News/FastFood.Lifestyle.Weighing.On.Campus-713932.shtmlhttp://cqx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/68http://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2004/09/09/News/FastFood.Lifestyle.Weighing.On.Campus-713932.shtmlhttp://media.www.ndsmcobserver.com/media/storage/paper660/news/2004/09/09/News/FastFood.Lifestyle.Weighing.On.Campus-713932.shtml