Taco bell cdp_bozhura_angelova (final)

Running head: TACO BELL WEBSITE ASSESSMENT

2015

Taco Bell Website Assessment

COMMUNICATION DASHBOARD PROJECT

Northeastern University

CMN 6910: Organizational Communication

Assessment

Bozhura Angelova

December 19, 2015

Running head: TACO BELL WEBSITE ASSESSMENT 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Communication vehicle and company information ....................................................... 2

Marketing and Communications Objectives ............................................................... 10

Marketing strategy & organizational environment ...................................................... 11

Benchmarks ............................................................................................................... 21

Best practices ............................................................................................................. 27

KPIs ............................................................................................................................ 29

Measurement Tools and Key Findings ....................................................................... 30

Analysis and Recommendations ................................................................................ 34

Dashboard visuals ...................................................................................................... 39

References ................................................................................................................. 42

Appendices ................................................................................................................ 45


COMMUNICATION VEHICLE AND COMPANY INFORMATION

ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION

After leaving the Marines at 23, Glen Bell opened a hot dog stand in his home town - San

Bernardino, California. He was not interested however in selling the typical fast food staples like

burgers and hot dogs, so he began selling tacos for 19 cents from a side window of his hot dog

stand. The tacos were very well received, so he started opening Taco Tia stands where tacos

were the main menu item. (“Taco Bell”, n.d.-a, para. 1)

In 1962, Bell sold the Taco Tia brand to his partners and opened the first Taco Bell in Downey,

California. Franchising began two years later. (“Taco Bell”, n.d.-a, para. 1)

Since its founding, Taco Bell has become the second most profitable brand in the U.S. and one of

the leading Mexican-style fast food chains in the country (“Taco Bell”, n.d.-b, para.1 ).

The Yum!Brands subsidiary offers made to order and customizable tacos, burritos, quesadillas,

gorditas, nachos, chalupas, beverages, desserts and sides, and other specialty items (“Company

Overview”, n.d., para. 1).

The restaurant serves more than 36 million customers at its nearly 6,000 American locations.

Taco Bell primarily operates in the U.S. market, but Yum!Brands is planning to make the

company its third global brand (along with KFC and Pizza Hut).

Outside of the U.S., there are currently around 300 Taco Bell restaurants in 20 countries.

In 2014, Taco Bell ranked #4 on the 50 QSR (Quick Service Restaurants) list and in 2013 it was

named Ad Age “Marketer of the Year” for reaching over $1 billion in sales of Doritos® Locos

Tacos (“Taco Bell”, n.d.-b, para. 3).

COMMUNICATION VEHICLE

In 2015, Taco Bell introduced its redesigned website which expands “the availability of order

and pay ahead capabilities and customization options which were previously available only via

the brand’s mobile app” (Jennigs, 2015).

In addition to using the traditional www.tacobell.com, users can now reach the website by

simply typing ‘ta.co.’ in their browser address bar, which according to company officials makes

the website fun and easier to access (Jennigs, 2015).

Taco Bell’s VP for digital innovation and on demand, Tressie Lieberman, says the brand’s new

URL is supposed to remind of an emoji in its simplicity. The brand aims to create simple and

pain-free experience as they believe that “ease is the new loyalty” (Jennigs, 2015).

Taco Bell’s new website gives the full brand experience – users can find nearby Taco Bell

locations, place and customize an order, check its nutritional value and even buy Taco Bell gear.

The website also provides opportunities to engage with the brand through their “The Feed” tab

and social media buttons which are located at the bottom of almost every page.

http://www.tacobell.com/


HOMEPAGE STRUCTURE

1. Top section – This section of the website allows visitors to search Taco Bell’s menu, login or

create a user profile and review their order by clicking the shopping cart button.

2. Side navigation – This is the main website navigation where users can browse the menu,

order food, find Taco Bell locations and learn about the company and its initiatives.

- The ‘Food’ menu item opens up a sub navigation allowing users to look up different food

categories.


- ‘Locations’ opens a map that lets visitors find their nearest Taco Bell by typing a zip code or

using their current location.

- ‘The Feed’ provides curated content and blog posts that appear to be an entertaining and

casual way to “start a conversation” with the audience.

- ‘More’ opens up a submenu that allows users to access Taco Bell’s fan store website

(http://www.livemasstore.com/storefrontB2CWEB/), Taco Bell’s career website

(http://jobs.tacobell.com/), nutrition information (letter from the company and their registered

dietician, nutrition calculator, full nutrition info, allergen info, ingredient statements &

FAQs), company information and initiatives (history, news, careers, franchise). From the

‘More’ tab users can also register and use gift cards and contact the company with comments

and suggestions.

http://www.livemasstore.com/storefrontB2CWEB/

http://jobs.tacobell.com/


3, 4 & 5 Main body

3. Taco Bell’s website is designed mostly as a one-page, infinite scrolling website – currently

the most functional design for mobile and small screen browsing (Cao, 2015). The home

page provides a quick glimpse of some highlighted sections of the website. There is very

little text and a lot of visuals.

Taco Bell’s homepage currently includes a large picture (promoted food item) with a button

for quick ordering. Clicking the button opens up a page that allows the visitor to fully

customize the product and also read through a short entertaining intro formatted as a blog

post.

As we scroll down the main body of the homepage we see an oversized animated image (GIF)

and the title of a blog post, which also links to the full text of the post (this specific post is also

part of ‘The Feed’).

4. This section of the homepage provides a quick overview of the newest products and offers

available to registered visitors plus a quick link to the entire menu.


5. ‘The Feed’ – This part of the home page offers a preview of all the short posts published by

Taco Bell under ‘The Feed’ tab. There is one highlighted post that has a prominent position

at the top. The name of the section is a clever word play combining ‘feed’ as the act of giving

food and feed as the ‘news feed’ on social networking sites.


6. Social media follow buttons with a call for action – Stay connected - As Vaughan (2014)

says, these buttons are great for businesses to promote their presence on various social

networking sites and gain new fans/followers.

7. Bottom navigation pane – This navigation panel leads to the same pages that are available

through the ‘More’ button in the main side navigation. Providing access to the same page

from several different places instead of just one specific place makes it easier and quicker to

find the desired information.

8. Additional sub navigation – this pane includes more specialized information such as details

about Taco Bell’s ads, legal notices, privacy policy and terms of use. Since this information

is most likely not something that the general population would read, this pane is

appropriately located at the very bottom of the home page.

SHOPPING EXPERIENCE

The users can order on Taco Bell’s website several different ways. They can search for a specific

food item by typing its name in the search bar at the top. Simply clicking in the search field

opens a list of shortcuts to the most popular categories on the menu: tacos, burritos, breakfast,

combos, etc.

The second way to order is via the main website navigation.

Clicking on ‘Food’ leads the user to the menu, while the button expands to show a list of the

different food categories for easy access. Alternatelively the user can browse through all of them

by simply scrolling down.


There is also more than one way to customize a product and order.

Users can click on the ‘customize’ button under each item to modify the product or buy it as it is

by clicking the shopping cart.

Alternatively, users can click on the picture of the desired item and they are taken to a separate

page where they can fully customize the product by adding ‘tasty upgrades’ or changing what is


included by default. Once they have finalized the item, they can add it to the order by clicking

the bright pink button. The order can be reviewed in the shopping cart at the top right.

The next steps include putting a desired payment method and selecting a pick-up location.

As a whole, ordering is very straightforward and easy thanks to the intuitive design and

responsiveness of the website.

ENGAGING THE VISITOR

The modern design, responsiveness and freshness of Taco Bell’s website fully resonates with

their target audience of young people – mostly teenagers and millennials.

The first thing that we see as we visit Taco Bell’s website is that it is extremely visual.

According to a Digiday study, 95% of marketers find visual content to be much more effective

than text and almost 10% of them believe it is 10 times more effective (The State of Industry -

Visual Marketing: Scale to Win, 2015).

When we browse through the food menu, we notice something interesting: all food items

pictures are formatted as if someone took a picture of their meal and shared it on social media –

something very typical for millennials. At the same time, the pictures are high-quality and

professionally taken so that the food looks as tempting as possible.


In the few text sections, the language is carefully chosen to sound casual and fun, yet intelligent.

When visitors click on some of the food items on the menu, they are taken to a page focused on

that specific item which allows customization, but also includes a short description of the

product. The description sounds more like a story rather than an advertising message. The text

does not focus as much on the product and its ingredients, but mostly on the emotions and

thoughts that the product can evoke in the audience.

Description of Boss Nachos

Source: www.tacobell.com

“The Feed” tab provides curated content and blog posts and most of them are focused on pop

culture and trending topics and involve Taco Bell in a subtle and unobtrusive way. For example,

one of the newest posts focusses on the recent introduction of the Taco emoji and the post

features a lot of social media messages posted by real people which makes it sound like a story,

casual article or a blog post.

In addition, a prominent section of the ‘Company’ page is named ‘Taco Bell gives back’ and it is

focused on the company’s charitable work.

MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVES

1. Promote online sales & increase revenue

One of Taco Bell’s key objectives is to increase online sales and overall revenue. Their website

is generally focused on providing a quick and painless way to order, customize your meal and

avoid waiting in line.

According to Jennings (2015), nearly 5 million people visit Taco Bell’s website each month.

The new and improved online platform aims to mimic the elevated experience of Taco Bell’s

mobile app.

Taco Bell was the first company to introduce a mobile app with order and pay-ahead features in

2014 which to date was downloaded by 3.7 million people. The feedback from customers has

http://www.tacobell.com/


been overwhelmingly positive: they love skipping the line and the customization options

increased average spending by 30% (Jennigs, 2015).

2. Engage users and increase loyalty

Despite the decrease in customer spending and signs of saturation, investment in the fast food

industry remains high with new stores opening across the sector. The convenience of fast food

makes it more important to the customer than a simple source of food, but what really drives

customer loyalty is the investment in brand building (MarketLine Industry Profile: Fast Food in

the United States, January 2012).

When it comes to rising above the competition relationship to customers plays an incredibly

important role. According to Paine (2011) companies who have good relationships with their

clients are more likely to be forgiven when they make a mistake. Also, companies who listen and

tend to their customers’ needs are the one to prosper and rise above the competition. (p.5)

3. Change perception of Taco Bell’s food & create food innovation

With today’s increasing focus on healthy lifestyle and wellbeing, fast food chains are struggling

to find a way to capitalize on this trend.

The endless customization options including fresh and vegetarian choices available through their

website and mobile app is enabling Taco Bell to attract this new health-conscious crowd and

change the perception of the brand.

MARKETING STRATEGY & ORGANIZATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

MARKETPLACE

The fast food market in the U.S. accounts for 32.5% of the global fast food market value and has

been steadily growing since 2009. The market volume is expected to reach 52.4 billion

transactions by the end of 2016 (multiple purchases made during the same visit are counted as

one transaction) with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 3% for the 2011-2016

period (MarketLine, 2012, p.10-12).

In 2016, the fast food market value is expected to reach $93,600.3 million - an increase of almost

14% since 2011 (MarketLine, 2012).

In 2011, the restaurant-QSR segment was one of the most profitable with total revenues of nearly

$70 billion, which accounts for almost 80% of the market’s overall value (MarketLine, 2012).

The tables below illustrate the development in terms of industry ratios, number of establishments

and industry sales for the period 2013-2017.


Source: 2016 U.S. Industry & Market Outlook: Fast Food Restaurant Industry (NAICS 722513)



COMPETITION

The fast food market is highly competitive with a rather low concentration, apart from the burger

segment which is ruled by Burger King and McDonalds (MarketLine, 2012).

There are moderately low barriers to entry, as the U.S. fast food market does not require large

capital outlay and major companies can reduce the cost of expanding by utilizing the franchise

model (MarketLine, 2012).

New entrants could expect retaliation by existing players (such as the launch of a price war),

especially in more concentrated segments (MarketLine, 2012).


In any case, the considerable brand strength of the major chains should not be underestimated

and it may diminish much of the effect of low switching costs (MarketLine, 2012).

“Price competition is prevalent amongst industry players, especially between value meals. In

particular, the value meals within the $1-$2 range are a reaction to shifting consumer trends and

a larger focus on competition amongst industry players. This form of price dumping has become particularly

prevalent as a result of a fragile wider economic environment. “(MarketLine, 2012, p.16)

As a whole, brand power forms the greatest competition in the fast food market, with McDonalds

spending hundreds of millions of dollars on global advertising for example (MarketLine, 2012).

MARKETING STRATEGY

Yum!Brands, Taco Bell’s parent company, is one of the major players in the fast food industry

and Taco Bell is its most profitable brand in the U.S. Taco Bell’s current marketing strategy is

focused on changing the perception of food and promoting the concept of food as experience

(Niccol & Brandt, 2014, 01:13-01:20).

The company’s strong marketing team which is known for some of the best lines in the business

(‘run for the border’; ‘yo quiero Taco Bell’ and ‘think outside the bun’) does not hold on to the

past. Instead, they pay attention to customers’ evolving taste and preferences and respond

accordingly. (Niccol & Brandt, 2014) As a result Taco Bell is quickly turning into a social media

sensation despite its rather unfavorable reputation from the recent past. (Lutz, 2014).

For instance, Taco Bell still uses television as part of their marketing mix, but they also realize

that today’s millennial consumers need to be engaged and talked to, so the brand utilized new

channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, etc. (Niccol & Brandt, 2014, 01:44-

02:15).

As a consequence, Taco Bell has 10 million followers on Facebook, 1 million followers on

Twitter and they are the number one food brand on Instagram. Further, with their newly

established Snapchat presence, they helped define how brands are supposed to be using this

channel (Niccol & Brandt, 2014, 02:54-03:04).

However, engagement rather than mere numbers is what matters to Taco Bell’s executives: ‘It’s

not just about likes or clicks… What I really like to see is do people co-create off this? Do they

repeat the story?” (Niccol & Brandt, 2014, 03:20-03:32)

One of the biggest advantages of social media for marketers according to Taco Bell’s senior

management is that it enables companies to get real-time, unfiltered reactions from customers as

opposed to the past when the only indicators were the sales numbers or consumer research

studies (Niccol & Brandt, 2014, 04:02-04:15).

Along with the changes in its marketing strategy and approach, Taco Bell implemented changes

in other major aspects of the business (Lutz, 2014).

First, the brand revamped its menu – in 2012, they introduced Doritos Locos Tacos, which

turned out to be a major success (1 billion units sold in the first year). The company also

revealed a healthier ‘fresco’ menu as a response to the shift to healthier lifestyle (Lutz, 2014).


In 2014, Taco Bell went on to reinvent breakfast. Not only did the company launch unusual

items such as the waffle taco, the biscuit taco and the A.M. crunch wrap (bacon, cheese, eggs and

hash brown all in one place), they went after McDonalds with a hard-hitting marketing

campaign. The ad featured real people named Ronald McDonald trying the new morning items

and announcing their newly found love for Taco Bell’s breakfast (Morrison, 2014).

This proved to be a successful step as Yum!Brands second quarter earnings showed that

breakfast was responsible for 7% of Taco Bell’s sales in the quarter and was expected to add

between $70,000 and $120,000 in annual sales per restaurant (Morrison, 2014).

Moreover, the company improved the quality of its ingredients. According to Brandt, Taco Bell

now uses higher quality beef and rice and prepares a real pico de gallo, which had a big impact

on the bottom line – the brand’s sales rose by 5% in 2013 (Lutz, 2014).

To a great extent, Taco Bell’s success is connected to adequately responding to trends. For

example, in response to millennials’ love for snacking Taco Bell started ‘Happier Hour’, which

offers deals on Loaded Grillers and drinks, as well as ‘FourthMeal’, a sampling of Taco Bell

menu items (Epstein, 2014).

Earlier in 2015, Taco Bell announced their plan to start serving alcohol in selected locations as

part of their rebranding efforts. The first U.S. based Taco Bell restaurant to serve beer, wine and

cocktails is in Chicago and will be similar to their existing upscale locations in the U.K., Seoul

and Tokyo (Poppick, 2015).

Unlike other fast food companies, Taco Bell successfully tends to the needs of the

vegan/vegetarian community as well. The brand offers a 13-item vegetarian menu “that has been

certified meat-free by the American Vegetarian Association (AVA)” (Prater, 2015, para. 2). Taco

Bell has 35 certified vegetarian ingredients on its menu and 26 of them are vegan.

In a statement, Brian Niccol, Taco Bell’s CEO, announced the brand’s plans to start paying more

attention to vegetarian items and to demonstrate the brand’s commitment to “deliver food that

fits the customers’ evolving lifestyles” (Prater, 2015, para. 3).

In an interview from 2015, Brian Niccol also said that Taco Bell is working to eliminate artificial

colors, high-fructose corn syrup and trans fats from 95% of its menu (Giammona, 2015).

AUDIENCE PROFILE:

Source: Alexa.com


According to data from Alexa.com (2015), visitors seem engaged with Taco Bell’s website. The

bounce rate is comparatively low and the time spent on the website is well above the average

(Bounce Rate Demystified, n.d.). From this data, we can assume that the website is easy to use

and navigate and visitors seem to be finding what they are looking for.

Source: Alexa.com

Alexa.com (2015) indicates that female visitors are almost twice as much as male vistors and

men are generally underrepresented on Taco Bell’s website. According to QSR Magazine (2014)

women are one of the most powerful economic forces in the world. They represent 51% of the

U.S. population, possess as much as $7 trillion in purchasing power and are responsible for 85%

of consumer spending. The article further maintans that the rise of healthy eating and the

increase in women’s purchasing power are interconnected. Women typically care about fresh,

quality ingredients as well as customization options (Omazic, 2014). These findings seem to

reflect Taco Bell’s new concept, which may be an explanation of the growing number of female

visitors on their website.

The most represented age groups are 18-24 and 25-34 which shows that Taco Bells millenial-

focused marketing is paying off. However, we notice that all age groups are well represented and

are almost reaching the internet average point.


Visitors with children are underrepresented,

which makes sense as most of Taco Bell’s

customers are teenagers, students or young

professionals.

Source: Alexa.com

The educational profile of visitors is equally

distributed between those with some college

education and those holding a college degree. This

data also corresponds with Taco Bell’s target group.

Source: Alexa.com


Source: Alexa.com

In terms of visitors’ income, we see that all income levels are well represented. The most active

group of visitors are the ones making between $30K-$60K a year. Similar to all fast food

restaurants, Taco Bell offers food items starting at $1 targeted at people with lower income. At

the same time, visitors who use the customization options may end up paying $6-$7 per item.

This array of prices may be a possible explanation of the wide range of income levels

represented.

As far as ethnicity goes, we can see a very strong preference from African Americans and

Caucasians toward Taco Bell – about twice the internet average. Taco Bell offers an

Americanized Mexican food. This may explain the lack of more Hispanics as they might prefer

more authentic Mexican cuisine.

While we still see some Hispanic visitors on Taco Bell’s website, Asian, African and Middle

Eastern nationals are extremely underrepresented.

According to Wong (2013), ethnicity is the strongest predictor of taste when it comes to fast

food. To a certain extent, the ethnic variation can result from the geographic concentration of fast

food chains in a specific area. Based on that, we can assume that many Taco Bell restaurants

might be located in areas where most of the population is African American or Caucasian.

In addition, the article reveals that another reason could lie in marketing targeted specifically to

reach certain ethnicity groups (Wong, 2013). Taco Bell’s marketing is mostly age-focused, so

this might explain the lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity.

AUDIENCE PROFILE COMPARISON

Pain (2011) advises to benchmark against two or three competitors: “a stretch goal, a peer

company, and an underdog (…).” (p.37) For the sake of this analysis, McDonalds could play the

role of a stretch goal and Chipotle could be seen as the underdog.


In 2014, McDonalds had nearly three times more locations than Taco Bell (≈15,000) and almost

five times more sales (nearly $35 billion) (The QSR 50, 2015).

On the other hand, Chipotlle Mexican Grill is considerably smaller with only 1,755 locations and

$4 billion in sales compared to Taco Bell’s nearly 6,000 restaurants and $8 billion in sales (The

QSR 50, 2015).

Source: Alexa.com


Source: Alexa.com

The first difference we can see is in the educational level of visitors: most of McDonalds’

visitors have some or no college education, other educational levels (graduate school and

college) are underrepresented.

In terms of age, McDonalds has a wider range of overrepresented visitors where 45-54, 55-64

and 65+ are the most active groups (above the internet average), as opposed to Taco Bell’s

audience that is mosly between 18 and 35 years old.

In terms of income the metrics look rather identical, however McDonalds’ most active group is

$60K-$100K which correlates with the average age of McDonalds website visitors.

McDonalds’ visitors with children and without children are equally distribited whereas in Taco

Bell’s case people without children prevail.

Ethnicity data is also very similar, with African Americans and Caucasians being the most

frequest visitors.


Source: Alexa.com

When we compare Taco Bell and Chipotle, the first difference is in the gender section. Chipotle

is visited by an overwhelming number of females – possible reason is the perception of the brand

as all natural and higher quality than Taco Bell.

The age section looks similar with the exception that Chipotle also attracts a large amount of

people between 35-44 years of age.

Chipotle has an almost equal distribution of people with and without children with a slight

majority of people with no children.

In terms of education level, Chipotle attracts a vast number of people with college degree which

corresponds with the average age of visitors.

Again, most likely connected to age, the income level of Chipotle visitors is higher: people with

income between $60K and $100K+ are overrepresented. On a side note, Chipotle doesn’t have

any dollar options and most items are over $6.


As far as ethnicity goes, there is one significant difference – Hispanics are overrepresented at

Chipotle’s website. A possible explanation might be the quality of the food and its authenticity.

Aside from Caucasians and African Americans, other ethnicity groups are extremely

underrepresented similarly to McDonalds and Taco Bell.

BENCHMARKS

INTERNAL BENCHMARKS

“A key point to remember about any evaluation program is that measurement is a comparative

tool; to decide if you are successful you compare your results to something else.” (Paine, 2011,

p.37)

According to Paine (2011), comparing a company to its past performance is one of the most

effective benchmarks. She advises against simply choosing a random date in the past and

recommends to select a benchmark that is related to a significant event. (p.37)

To measure Taco Bell’s performance, I think it is important to analyze several key indicators

before and after two significant events for the company – the website redesign in 2015 and the

lauch of its mobile app in 2014. Thus, it will be interesting to compare financial results in 2013

vs. 2015.

Some of the indicators we can evaluate are:

Sales & Revenue:

Total sales in 2013/Total sales in 2015

Sales made through the mobile app to date

Sales made through the website to date

Most popular products in 2013/Most popular products in 2015

Average value of customers’ orders 2013 vs. 2015

Cost of customer aquisition in 2013 vs. 2015

Engagement & Awareness

How many followers on social media in 2013/How many followers in 2015

How visitors find us on social media

Most popular content on website/Facebook/Instagram/Twitter/etc. – assess all different

channels

How far into the website visitors are going in 2015 vs. 2013

How many user profiles created on website/mobile app

Average time spent on website in 2013/Average time spent on website in 2015

Daily page views (average) in 2013/Daily page views (average) in 2015

Unique website visitors per day in 2013 (average)/ Unique website visitors per day in

2015 (average)

How many returning visitors 2015 vs. 2013

How many website items shared on social media 2013 vs. 2015


EXTERNAL BENCHMARKS

For external benchmarking, I will once again use McDonalds and Chipotle.

Taco Bell, Chipotle and McDonalds experience very different traffic levels with McDonalds

getting the highest numbers and Taco Bell being the least visited website (in the past 6 months).

I chose to look at data from the past 6 months because I wanted it to be relevant to Taco Bell’s

new website, which was introduced in September 2015.

It is interesting to note that Chipotle’s traffic is closer to that of McDonalds (especially from

June to August) even though it is the smallest company of the three.


Source: Alexa.com

From this data, it looks like Taco Bell’s visitors are the most engaged – the site has the smallest

bounce rate and the largest number of daily page views per visitor. In terms of daily time on site,

Chipotle and Taco Bell differ by only 3 seconds.

Chipotle and Taco Bell have lower than the average bounce rate and more than the average daily

time on site (Bounce Rate Demystified, n.d.). What is concerning in Taco Bell’s case however is

that the bounce rate percentage grew by 19%.

On the other hand, Chipotle has less than the average daily page views, which is about 4.6

(Bounce Rate Demystified, n.d.).

While Taco Bell’s and Chipotle’s metrics are very similar, McDonalds seems to be doing a poor

job in terms of engagement. The website bounce rate is very high. If we view this kind of

website as closest to a retail website, the bounce rate should be between 20%-40% (Bounce Rate

Demystified, n.d.). McDonalds should definitely be worried that half of the website visitors leave

almost immediately after they open the site.

Looking at the bounce rate combined with the traffic data shown above, we can assume that

McDonalds gets lot of its website traffic from ads and landing pages.


FUNCTIONALITY COMPARISON

Website functions McDonalds Taco Bell Chipotle

Clear navigation tabs

Full detailed menu

Nutrition information

Ingredients information

High-quality product

images

Food customization

options

Order & pay ahead

capabilities

Use gift cards

Shop gear

Nearest location map

FAQ section

Search function

Join mailing list

Personal account

Contact us

Shopping cart

Social media buttons

Company information

Calls to action

News

Mobile version Navigation: food, I’m

loving it(special

offers), careers,

locations; join mailing

list; connect on social

media – website looks

completely different on

mobile

Navigation menu

(minimized): food,

locations, the feed,

more (same as desktop

website, the layout is

optimized for mobile);

mobile app download

link; social media

buttons; sign up/login;

shopping cart

The navigation menu is

minimized, includes the

following tabs: order

now, menu, nutrition,

company news and

information, etc. (same

tabs as desktop version

included); search bar,

locations, email list,

social media – looks

very similar to desktop

website


The three websites have very similar functionality and options. In my opinion, Taco Bell’s and

Chipotle’s websites look slightly more modern and clean compared to McDonalds’ website.

The location of the main navigation is intuitive on all three sites – McDonalds and Taco Bell

have a left navigation and Chipotle has chosen to position the main navigation at the top.

All three websites have oversized image on their homepages, which is a good decision according

to the best practices research I conducted.

The color scheme of all three websites reinforces the brand identity of each company. All three

websites clearly communicate to the user the type of services that are provided.

All three brands have a detailed and very visual menu, nutrition information and list of

ingredients for all products.

There were some differences as well:

What I found strange on McDonalds website was the location of their search tab, which is kind

of buried in the navigation:

In contrast to McDonalds and Chipotle, it is harder to locate the FAQ section on Taco Bell’s

website. The afore mentioned two sites have placed their FAQ section either as a separate button

in the main navigation or under ‘Talk to us’. In order to find Taco Bell’s FAQs on the other

hand, users have to scroll all the way down to the footer of the website (which is a fairly long

process considering that this is a site with an infinite scrolling feature).


Both Chipotle and Taco Bell offer online ordering. However, Chipotle’s process in not as simple

as Taco Bell’s.

To order online, Chipotle’s customers have to go to another website by clicking ‘Order now’.


On Taco Bell’s website, customers can order directly from the menu or by clicking on one the

promo pictures.

The customization process also looks slightly different. Taco Bell’s customization is more

visually appealing with pictures of all ingredients whereas Chipotle has only text.

Both Chipotle and Taco Bell require a user profile to order, but Taco Bell has the option to sign

up with Facebook which makes registration easier and faster.

Also, Chipotle’s ‘shopping cart’ doesn’t have a very intuitive position and it isn’t visible at all

times during ordering.

After one item is added to the order, the shopping cart expands and takes half of the screen. In

order to add another item, the user should minimize it which then makes it hard to see. It

minimizes to the bottom of the page, instead of to the side for example where there is a lot of

empty space.

BEST PRACTICES

With its new website functionality and newly established focus on online sales, Taco Bell has

already entered the e-commerce space. Therefore, I believe it would be interesting to explore the

best practices in this field and see how the brand’s website measures up to ecommerce standards.

1. Design

According to Volusion (2014), the look of the website is the first important thing that gets

customers excited, especially for food-related ecommerce sites.


Marketers are advised to use large, professionally taken photos of their products. Stock

photography is not recommended, as differentiation and uniqueness is key in this business

(Volusion, 2014).

Images should have a central position on the homepage to catch the eye of the customer and

attract interest.

According to a case study conducted by Visual Website Optimizer (n.d.) the increase in picture

size may increase sales by 9.46% (Deswal, n.d)

However, the visual aspect of the website doesn’t end with great pictures. Typography is another

detail that should not be underestimated – it can “set the tone of the website (playful,

sophisticated, casual) in a subtle, but powerful way”. (Volusion, 2014)

Visual hierrarchy is another vital component of superior websites. According to Fitt’s law,

human eyes are drawn to larger objects. Therefore, important elements (containing links) should

be made large, as it also makes them more clickable (Macdonald, n.d.).

One of the most popular design trends of 2014 is the so called ‘flat design’ characterized by

clean and simple forms and appearance. This approach can work great with food stores as it

suggests a “clean, pure environment” and this is exactly the kind of place, from which people

would be inclined to buy food (Volusion, 2014).

Another critical component is the shopping cart. Visitors should always be able to see how many

items they have in their cart and check out quickly and effortlessly.

2. Content

In terms of content, marketers are advised to focus on a “targeted niche” (Volusion, 2014).

Keywords like ‘food’ are too broad, thus they are less likely to deliver any benefits for the

business. On the other hand, optimizing for specific terms such as “gluten-free”, “fair trade”,

“southern cooking” will enable people interested in these topics to find you and learn about your

products and organization.

Providing original and interesting descriptions of products can further differentiate some brands

from the competition. Approaches include telling a story about the product, using bullet points,

answering FAQs, etc. (We Make Websites, 2015).

Having a blog or “knowledge center” for your products is also a good idea. This way, brands can

share recipes, highlight new products, share customers’ reviews and other content that will

attract the attention of visitors (Volusion, 2014).

3. Miscellaneous

Short and descriptive URLs work better with SEO and are easy to share

Descriptive page titles

Site speed is critical – research by KISSmetrics (n.d.) shows that slower loading times

directly affect sales – 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to

load; 1 second delay in page response results in 7% less conversions and for a website

that makes $100,000 a day it may lead to $2.5 Million in lost sales annually

Be imaginative

Use “you” more than “we”

Include strong calls to action (We Make Websites, 2015)


KPIS

According to Paine (2011), after we have determined our objectives, target audience and

benchmarks, we are ready to “establish the specific criteria of success, or the key performance

indicators (…).” (p. 37)

In order to find which KPIs would be the most appropriate for Taco Bell’s main marketing and

communication objectives, I carefully analyzed the website functionality and tried to determine

how it relates to the objectives that I identified previously. Looking closely at each website

function enabled me to see its distinctive purpose and the potential attitudes and behaviors that it

may evoke.

The KPIs listed in the matrix below are divided into three distinctive categories: output,

attitudinal and behavioral KPIs and each set of KPIs is linked to a specific marketing objective.

The next step in my process was to determine the most appropriate measurement tools to help

measure each of these specific indicators.

Marketing objective Output KPIs Attitudinal KPIs Behavioral KPIs

Promote online sales

& increase revenue Design and convenience of the

order process (heuristic

assessment, usability testing)

Special offers availability

(amount, variety, frequency of

posting – heuristic assessment)

Variety of products (number of

products and product categories

– heuristic assessment)

Ease of customization process

(heuristic assessment, usability

testing)

Optimization of the order

process for mobile devices

(heuristic assessment, usability

testing)

Relative ease of

registration/signing in (heuristic


Design and reliability of the

location feature (heuristic


Accuracy of the ‘use current

location’ feature ((heuristic

assessment)

Perceived value of

ordering online/via mobile

Perceived ease of online

ordering (survey, focus

group)

Degree of motivation to

purchase (survey, focus

group)

Level of interest in special

offers (survey, focus

group)


use customization options

Perceived value of

customization process

(survey, focus group)

Perception of calls to

action as persuasive


Number of visitors who use

special offers (website

metrics)

% of visitors who order food

(website metrics)

Average value of website

purchase (website metrics)

% of visitors who use

customization features

(website metrics)

% of repeat purchase

(website metrics)

% of abandoned shopping

carts (website metrics)

Number of profiles created

(website metrics)

% of total sales generated

online (website and

company metrics)

Engage users and

increase loyalty Strength of brand identity

(visuals & messages) (heuristic

assessment)

Variety of engagement methods

(heuristic assessment)

Originality of ‘The Feed’ content


Understanding of Taco

Bell’s brand (survey,

focus group)

Level of interest in Taco

Bell (survey, focus group)


follow the brand on social

media (survey, focus

group)

Number of returning visitors

(website metrics)

Number of clicks on social

media links (website

metrics)

Number of new social

media followers coming

from the website (social

media analytics)


Timeliness of content published

in ‘The Feed’ (heuristic

assessment)

Content mix in ‘The Feed’


Consistency of posts in ‘The

Feed’ (heuristic assessment)

Sharing options for ‘The Feed’

content

Hashtags that enable users to

join the conversation on social

media

Perception of website as

entertaining and engaging



interact with the company



visit ‘The Feed’ (survey,

focus group)

Perception of ‘The Feed’

posts

Level of motivation to

read through ‘The Feed’


% of followers actively

engaging with the brand

(social media analytics,

website metrics)

Number of people using

hashtags introduced in ‘The

Feed’

% of visitors going to “The

Feed” tab (website metrics)

Average time spend on site

(website metrics)

Average time spend reading

“The Feed” posts (website

metrics)

Number of likes and shares

of ‘The Feed’ content

(website/social media

metrics)

‘The Feed’ bounce rate

(website metrics)

Change perception

of Taco Bell’s food

& create food

innovation

Truthful depiction of products


Option to remove/replace

fattening ingredients (heuristic


Richness of nutrition

information (heuristic

assessment)

Depth of nutrition content


Ease of use of the nutrition

calculator (heuristic assessment,

usability testing)

Opportunity to get nutrition data

for customized items (heuristic


Opportunity to filter menu based

on allergies/diet (heuristic


Detailed information about

ingredients and recipes (heuristic

assessment)

(Based on a website visit):

Level of trust in the brand


Perception of products as

unique and innovative


Perception of food as

fresh and healthy (survey,

focus group)

Perception of ingredients

as high quality (survey,

focus group)

Level of interest in new

products (survey, focus

group)

Degree of interest in

nutrition information

Perception of nutrition

information presentation

Sales numbers of vegetarian

products (company metrics)

% of people purchasing new

innovative products (such as

the breakfast items) (website

metrics)

Number of people talking

about new products on

social media (social media

analytics)

Number of people sharing

pictures of their Taco Bell

meal with a positive

comment (social media

analytics)

% of people checking the

nutrition information

(website metrics)

% of people using the

nutrition calculator (website

metrics)

Average time spend on

nutrition information pages

MEASUREMENT TOOLS AND KEY FINDINGS

HEURISTIC ASSESSMENT

I have designed a heuristic assessment tool to evaluate the effectiveness of Taco Bell’s website

based on a set of output KPIs which were identified earlier. The major items to be assessed are

the order and customization capabilities and their supporting functions – store locator, sign-

in/registration, etc.


Taco Bell’s website is being evaluated along with two competitor websites – Chipotle and

Panera Bread. My intention was to continue analyzing the same two competitors from the

benchmarking analysis - Chipotle and McDonalds. However, since McDonalds’ website does not

have the order and pay ahead capabilities, I decided to use Panera Bread instead.

The assessment tool has 10 items and each of them is ranked using a score from 1-5 where 1 is

poor and 5 is excellent. The highest possible total score is 50 points.

Fig. 1 below shows the total score for each website. Taco Bell and Panera got an almost perfect

score of 49 points as both websites demonstrated impeccable functionality and responsiveness.

In contrast, Chipotle’s website had a fair number of flaws and unresponsive fields.

Fig. 1 – Total score

Further, Fig. 2 gives a detailed overview of the individual scores for each of the ten items. While

Taco Bell and Panera Bread had excellent scores for almost all 10 items, Chipotle had less than a

perfect score for more than half of them. The main problem for Chipotle comes from

unresponsive buttons and fields that create a frustrating customer experience. Chipotle’s website

is mobile friendly, i.e. users are able to open and browse the website without significant

difficulties. However, the website is not optimized for mobile devices. As a result, visitors need

to constantly zoom in and out in order to be able to use the website functionality, which once

again leads to an unsatisfactory website experience. The existence of Chipotle mobile app for

online ordering probably made website ordering on mobile less of a priority for the company.

By way of contrast, Taco Bell and Panera have perfectly optimized websites despite the fact that

they have mobile apps with the same functionality.

36

38

40

42

44

46

48

50

Taco Bell Panera Chipotle

Heuristic AssessmentTotal Score


Fig. 2 Detailed overview

The full heuristic assessment tool can be found in Appendix 1 at the end of this document.

SURVEY

The second measurement tool that I employed as part of this communication dashboard project is

an online survey. The purpose of this measurement tool was to evaluate the attitudes and

emotional responses of visitors to Taco Bell’s website. The aforementioned survey was designed

to measure numerous attitudinal KPIs which were previously identified and listed in the KPIs

section of this document.

My goal with this survey was to not only get a general idea of visitors’ attitudes toward the

website, but to also explore their point of view on two specific website sections on which I

focused in my KPI matrix – ‘The Feed’ and the nutrition information section.

The survey comprises 10 questions and eight of them utilize a 5-point positive/negative Likert

scale. All questions use a verbal scale to avoid any ambiguity. Further, one question was a yes/no

question and one was a multiple choice question.

The full survey can be found in Appendix 2.

The majority of people who received the survey are between 17-35 years old which corresponds

very well with Taco Bell’s target audience. The survey was sent to both people from the U.S. and

people who live in Bulgaria. Taco Bell doesn’t have any stores in Bulgaria, but young people are

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Order process

Special offers/Promotions

Customization

Optimization for mobile

Registration/Sign-in

Store locator

Visuals


Ingredients & Recipes

Engagement & Interaction

Heuristic AssessmentDetailed overview

Chipotle Panera Taco Bell


generally familiar with the brand thanks to Internet and social media. Sending the survey to this

specific group of people enabled me to get results that were to a great extent unbiased. The

attitudes of Bulgarian respondents resulted exclusively from looking at the website rather than

from personal experiences with the brand and prejudice.

The first couple questions aimed at capturing the general impression that the website produces.

For the vast majority of respondents this was the first visit to the website - 96%, which enabled

me to get a glimpse of visitors’ authentic first impression and reaction to the website.

Over half of them responded that they are “very interested” in further exploring the website.

An almost equal number of people described the website as “very engaging” and “moderately

engaging” and 13% thought it is extremely engaging.

The next couple questions focused on a specific section of the website - ‘The Feed’. People seem

to think that the content of this section is entertaining (59% agree and 29 % strongly agree) and

relevant (59% agree and 29% strongly agree). Further, respondents found that the Taco Bell

brand is not aggressively promoted (42% agree and 33% strongly agree). However, there was not

a distinctive majority of people who were interested in reading future posts.

The following questions focused on the attitudes towards purchase and the responses revealed

that the website is doing a great job in influencing people’s buying decisions. The majority of

people said they were either very likely or extremely likely to order food from Taco Bell based

on a website visit. Also, almost the same number of people indicated a preference toward using

the customization options. Further, around 70% of people chose to order online/via mobile app

versus at the store.

The Nutrition section also ranked high with survey respondents: almost 90% thought nutrition

information for all items is easy to find; 80% said it is well organized and about 84% thought the

nutrition calculator is easy to use.

The last question asked visitors to rank some of the attributes of the website in an attempt to get

more details on what makes it engaging and visually appealing if so.

In terms of visuals, design and overall appearance, the website scored high: around 90% of

visitors thought the website is doing either a good or a very good job.

Same goes for the content of the website (quality and richness of information) with over 80%

answering “good” or “very good”.

The full collection of survey responses can be found in Appendix 3.


ANALYSIS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

ANALYSIS OF RESULTS

As it was brought up before, the heuristic assessment tool was designed to evaluate several KPIs

as they relate to the three communication objectives.

Fig. 3 Taco Bell heuristic assessment detailed overview

1. Promote online sales & increase revenue:

Design and convenience of the order process

Ease of customization process

Optimization of the order process for mobile devices

As shown in Fig. 3, Taco Bell’s website received a perfect score on all the items related to online

sales and revenue. The website has a clean and modern design with only a few major functions

where online ordering is the primary one. It seems like every aspect of this website is designed

with the users’ convenience in mind. This certainly reflects Taco Bell’s belief that “ease is the

new loyalty” (Jennigs, 2015).

Special offers and promotions are prominently displayed on the homepage and upon login.

The customization process blends and works as an extension of the order process. The

customization functionality is intuitive and very interactive utilizing nice visuals to represent

each item that can be added or is part of the original recipe.

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5

Order process

Special offers/Promotions

Customization

Optimization for mobile

Registration/Sign-in

Store locator

Visuals


Ingredients & Recipes

Engagement & Interaction

Taco Bell


The website and specifically the order process are optimized for mobile devices and work

seamlessly.

Further, registration and signing-in are straightforward with only a couple of fields to be

completed. Alternatively, the user has the option to login with a Facebook account, which takes

under 30 seconds if the profile is already connected to that specific mobile device.

When users order online, they pick up their food at their nearest store. This is why the store

locator is an important component in supporting online sales.

The store locator has a central position in the main navigation. It shows the nearest stores based

on a zip code entered by the user. An even quicker way is to let the website access the user’s

current location and show the closest store based on that data.

Additionally, the store locator shows a detailed map, store hours and phone number of all stores

in the user’s area.


Strength of brand identity

Engagement methods

As part of the second communication objective (user engagement), I chose to evaluate the use of

visuals as a way to support the brand identity of the company. In this regard, Taco Bell got a

perfect score as well.

As it was discussed earlier, the brand employs high-quality visuals that resonate with its target

audience (visuals utilize the so called ‘food selfie’ look). In addition, the colors of the website

reflect the color scheme of the brand – white, black and purple. The website also uses a number

of oversized visuals, which matches the best practices in the industry.

Related to this communication objective is also the only area where Taco Bell did not receive a

perfect score - the availability of engagement methods. While the website lists four different

social media channels, the ways to interact with a company representative are rather limited and

indirect. Users can only submit comments through an online form and select how the brand

responds (email/phone). On the contrary, Panera Bread provides two options for direct customer

support – chat and phone call.



In relation to the last communication objective, Taco Bell does a good job by having a well

organized and detailed nutrition information section. Visitors can use the nutrition calculator to


estimate the nutrition value of their entire purchase. Alternatively, there is a tab providing full

nutrition information for each separate menu item. The website also offers a nice way for people

with allergies or special diet to find suitable food options. By providing this information and

making it easy to use, Taco Bell enables people to make conscious decisions about their meals.

This approach certainly plays a role in changing the perception of the brand and challenges

obsolete fast food concepts such as not disclosing the list of artificial ingredients on the pretext

that they are a part of the “secret recipe”.

Further, the conducted survey aimed to evaluate the general impressions generated by Taco

Bell’s website, as well as a specific set of attitudes as they relate to the three communication

objectives:

1. Promote online sales & increase revenue:

• Perceived value of ordering online/via mobile

• Degree of motivation to purchase

• Degree of motivation to use customization options

The questions related to the first communication objective aimed to determine if the website

prompts visitors to make a purchase; whether they would prefer online ordering vs. at a store and

how likely they are to use the customization options. The responses to this set of questions

confirmed that the website successfully influences visitors’ desire to purchase Taco Bell products

and strengthens the preference for using customization options and online ordering.

Fig. 4 Survey results as they relate to communication objective # 1


• Degree of motivation to follow the brand on social media

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Likeliness of purchase Preference for using

customization

Preference for online

ordering


• Perception of website as entertaining and engaging

• Degree of motivation to interact with the company

• Perception of ‘The Feed’ posts

The survey indicated inferior performance in relation to the second communication objective.

When asked to evaluate how engaging the website is, only half of the people said it is either very

or extremely engaging and only about 60% said they are interested in further exploring the

content.

Further, an underwhelming number of people showed strong interest in following the brand on

social media (24%).

The next set of questions was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of ‘The Feed’ in terms of

engaging visitors. Despite the fact that the vast majority of respondents thought the content was

entertaining and relevant (87.5%), less than half wanted to see future posts.


• Perception of nutrition information presentation

Lastly, in connection to the third communication objective, respondents were asked to evaluate

the nutritional information section. Similar to the heuristic assessment, this section ranked high

with survey participants. Over 80% of them said it is well organized and easy to find and use.

RECOMMENDATIONS

As a whole, Taco Bell’s website meets the three communication objectives and their respective

KPIs. However, based on the results of the heuristic assessment and the survey, I have identified

several areas that can benefit from some improvement.

My first recommendation addresses one of the issues that came up during the heuristic

assessment - the lack of ways to get an immediate assistance or feedback from the company. I

would suggest adding a customer service phone number in addition to the online form for

comments and complaints. A quick google search showed that such number already exists, but

cannot be found on Taco Bell’s website. Another valuable addition would be a live chat

functionality which has become an industry standard when it comes to customer service.

If neither of the above suggestions is implemented, one way to improve the current form would

be to add a disclaimer about how long it usually takes the company to respond to customers.

Based on the survey results, I would also recommend that Taco Bell focus more effort on clearly

defining the potential benefits of following the brand on social media. Their current call to action

is “stay connected” which to me as a customer does not sound compelling enough. I believe they


would be able to attract more users and increase participation by giving a more persuasive reason

for people to engage on social media (promotional codes, sweepstakes, exclusive content, etc.).

After studying Taco Bell’s Facebook page, I noticed that engagement is in fact an issue. The

brand has over 10 million followers, yet less than 1% of them like, comment or share posts. I

also noticed that the posts lack variety in terms of format – most of them utilize a picture with a

caption. As quoted earlier, the company’s CEO emphasizes the importance of participation over

likes and clicks (Niccol & Brandt, 2014), but it seems like Taco Bell struggles to really engage

users. Considering the importance of social media as a part of Taco Bell’s marketing strategy, I

believe dedicated effort should go into generating and maintaining high engagement.

My last recommendation focuses on online ordering. Taco Bell aims to revolutionize the fast

food industry by being one of the first companies to introduce and popularize mobile and online

ordering. Online ordering certainly makes the customer experience fun and more efficient and is

also beneficial for the company as its customization component boosts user spending by 30%

(Jennigs, 2015). I believe, however, that the current version of the website does not make it

immediately clear that online ordering is fundamentally different from ordering at the store. If

Taco Bell wants to drive more people to order online, it has to communicate loud and clear the

advantages of online ordering versus ordering at the store such as skipping the line and being

able to fully customize your meal.


DASHBOARD VISUALS

DASHBOARD VISUAL #1

Rationale

As noted earlier, Taco Bell is interested in driving more people to the website and have them use

the customization options when they make a purchase.

For visual #1 I used three KPIs. Two of them are attitudinal (perception of customization as a

valuable tool and degree of motivation to buy online) and one is behavioral (online sales as

percentage of total sales). As a benchmark I used Panera Bread whose website has identical

functionality.

My choice of KPIs is based on the assumption that if a visitor clearly sees the customization

function as an advantage of online ordering, he will be more inclined to use the website to make

a purchase, which will ultimately boost online sales.

Considering the fact that visitors should go to the store to pick up their food regardless of how

they chose to order, their perception of the customization functionality is an extremely important

factor influencing their buying decision. If they do not see a clear advantage of online ordering,

they will most likely stick with their old habits and order at the store instead.


DASHBOARD VISUAL # 2

Rationale

For the most part Taco Bell’s website is designed to mimic the mobile app (to introduce visitors

to the concept of online ordering and customization and motivate them to make a purchase).

There are only four items in the main navigation and two of them are oriented toward online

sales – ‘Food’ and ‘Locations’. ‘The Feed’ is the only main section of the website that serves

communication objective #2: Engage users & increase loyalty.

For the second dashboard visual, I focused on this specific section of Taco Bell’s website to help

me analyze website engagement. I am using two attitudinal KPIs (perception of content as

relevant and perception of content as entertaining) and one behavioral KPI (‘The Feed’ bounce

rate). The benchmark is the company’s goal for bounce rate value.

Considering the nature of the Taco Bell brand and the age of its target group (18-35 years old),

the content needs to be casual, fun and easy to read. To represent this condition, I am using

‘perception of content as entertaining’ as my first KPI.


In addition, young people usually care about pop culture and current events, so in order to appeal

to visitors, content needs to be relevant. This is why I chose ‘perception of content as relevant’ as

my second KPI.

Further, bounce rate can be interpreted in two ways: 1) percentage of visitors who only see one

page of the website or 2) percentage of visitors who stay on the website for a small amount of

time (Kaushik, 2007, para.8). For the purpose of this analysis, I am using the latter definition. I

would presume that lower bounce rate would mean that visitors are spending time reading

articles or watching videos depending on the piece of content, i.e., they are engaged with the

section.

The main assumption behind Dashboard visual #2: if the content is entertaining and relevant,

visitors will be more likely to stay and read it, thus contributing to overall website engagement.


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APPENDICES

Appendix 1: Heuristic assessment

Item Taco Bell Chipotle Panera Bread

The order process is

clear and intuitive

5 3.5

(Upon ordering the

system requires a

name for the order

and the typing field is

not always

responsive.)

5

The website

provides visitors

with special

offers/promotional

prices

5 4

(buried at the

bottom, very small

font, offers available

after joining mobile

list)

5

The customization

function is easy to

use and allows a full

modification of the

order.

5 5 5

The order process is

fully optimized for

mobile devices.

5 3

(mobile-friendly, but

not specifically

optimized; some

buttons are not

responsive)

5

Registration/signing-

in is straightforward

and effortless

5 4

(a lot of information

needed which makes

registration slower)

4

(a lot of information

needed which makes

registration slower)

The ‘locations’

feature works well

and includes a map,

store hours and

contact information.

5 4

(doesn’t have a map,

links out to Google

maps)

5

The website has

strong, high-quality

visuals that support

the brand identity.

5 5 5

The website

provides detailed

5 4 5


nutrition

information.

(Allergen info table is

very confusing)

The website

provides

information about

ingredients and

recipes.

5 5 5

Visitors have a

variety of options to

interact and engage

with the company.

4 4 5

Total: 49 41.5 49


Appendix 2: Survey questions




Appendix 3: Survey Results








