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Survey research
1.
Finding what Auburn
University Students are Looking for in an Ice Cream Shop: A Research Study for O Town Ice Cream Anna Laura Killian, Courtney Guidy, Hannah Gornto and Megan McKinstry
2.
Table of Contents Executive
Summary………………………………………………………....….2 Research Specifics……………………………………………………………..4 Literature Review……………………………………………………………….6 Media Analysis…………………………………………………………………..8 Methodology……………………………………………………………………12 Results………………………………………………………………………….13 Discussion/Recommendations……………………………………………….15 Appendices…………………………………………………………………….18 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………....45 1
3.
Executive Summary O Town
Ice Cream is a locally owned business in historic downtown Opelika. O Town strives to increase the amount of customers who are in college and also raise awareness of their lunch menu. As they are looking to increase their customer base, they also hope to add to their lunch menu in the future. This would help O Town Ice Cream maintain business throughout the winter season. We have conducted thorough research through an online survey with questions specifically aimed toward discovering what O Town Ice Cream can do to attract more college students and increase awareness of their lunch menu. The study conducted asked the public two type of questions: screener questions and questions related to solving the problems. The survey begins with questions referring to the age, gender and education level of the respondent then moves into more specific questions having to do with their knowledge of O Town Ice Cream and whether or not they have been there. The questions varied between open ended and multiple-choice questions. The open-ended questions allowed the respondent to give more detailed answers so we could gauge their interest on the matter. We collected the data through an online survey through Qualtrics. The data was collected during a two-week period and had a total of 149 respondents. The population was randomly selected as we sent the survey out through social media. Majority of the respondents were in the class category of Auburn seniors at 41 percent, followed by Auburn juniors at 35.37 percent, etc. One possible area for error was that majority of respondents were female, and we were aiming to target both male and females. 2
4.
Some major findings
from the survey conducted were 80 percent of respondents had never been to O Town Ice Cream, 55 percent of respondents are somewhat likely to go to an ice cream shop in the winter if the shop serves food items as well as ice cream and 80 percent of respondents are likely to use Instagram to follow a local business on social media. As a result of our findings, we recommend that O Town builds a presence on Auburn’s campus, aim their social media, specifically Instagram, at college students, and increase overall awareness of their lunch menu. 3
5.
Research Specifics The research
conducted was necessary for O Town Ice Cream to learn how much knowledge Auburn University students have about the ice cream shop. O Town Ice Cream will use the results to implement a better communication plan with students in the Auburn/Opelika area. O Town customers mostly consist of families living nearby. Increasing communication with Auburn University students would greatly increase its customer base and also its profits. The research conducted helped O Town to learn what students look for when going out to get ice cream as well as the best ways to communicate with student customers. The research was conducted randomly through an online survey using Qualtrics. The survey was distributed through social media, specifically Facebook and GroupMe. Since the survey was distributed online, there was no control over who took the survey. This resulted in a random population that we counted in the survey. Over the span of one week, the survey received 149 responses. The results of the survey provided O Town with various interesting statistics. Those surveyed said that flavor was the most important influencer when deciding where to go to get ice cream and brand recognition was the least important. This supports O Town Ice Cream as they focus heavily on the flavors they serve. Of those surveyed, 65 percent agreed that getting ice cream should be an experience. O Town focuses on making every customer’s trip to its shop and entertaining, unique experience. The majority of those surveyed were more likely to go to an ice cream shop that serves food; however, 94 percent of respondents had no clue O Town served food. The results 4
6.
showed that O
Town has all of the popular characteristics that students seek when choosing where to go for ice cream. The problem is that 80 percent of those students had never heard of O Town Ice Cream. By increasing communication with students, specifically on Instagram where students prefer to follow local businesses (according to the survey), O Town could attract many more customers. 5
7.
Literature Review
Opening an ice cream shop is a dream that most people with a sweet tooth have at one point or another in their life. Starting an ice cream shop is the perfect gig because not only do you get to be your own boss, you also get to bring the local community together. Many people have gone from college degrees to owning their own ice cream shop, because there’s something about it that’s just bigger than food. Paul Nugent, a small business advocate whose background is in the startup space, mentions a few main areas of focus when opening an ice cream shop. These areas of focus are: knowing your product, dealing with seasonality, knowing your customers’ tastes and knowing how much to charge. Staying in business during the winter can be one of the biggest struggles of owning an ice cream shop. “You need to be able to scale a business quickly and efficiently in the summer… and then run a lean, efficient operation in the winter,” says Nugent. This puts a large demand for income during the other seasons, especially if you plan on closing shop during the winter. Studies have found that the most effective way to do this is to offer seasonal items. For example, offering holiday flavored ice cream like pumpkin or candy cane for the fall and winter seasons. It’s also important to advertise these seasonal flavors so your customers are kept up to date. An example of a successful seasonal flavor is Chick-fil-a’s famous peppermint chocolate chip milkshake. Iaments Susan Soorenko owns an ice cream shop outside of Washington, D.C., and said one thing she does to survive the winter season is creates custom flavors as a tool to set them apart from other ice cream shops. These are created for wholesale 6
8.
businesses, which sell
ice cream to an assortment of restaurants, supermarket chains and hotels. According to Malcolm Stogo, president of Ice Cream University, a business he operates where aspiring ice cream makers enroll to learn the trade, “diversification is absolutely necessary if an ice cream business is to survive.” Another area of focus we found in many articles was attracting children. Some ideas to keep children in attendance are to host birthday parties and events for the local community. While it’s important to keep the children happy, it’s even more important to keep the parents entertained as well. This is why many ice cream shops have started serving coffee and espresso drinks so parents can treat themselves while their children enjoy the dessert. “Kids want ice cream regardless of the temperature. Parents not so much,” says John Landis, an iconic store manager. 7
9.
Media Analysis SWOT Analysis Strengths 1.
O Town Ice Cream has a strong hometown voice and persona that it portrays through its locally named ice cream flavors and artwork inside of the store. This provides customers with a unique ice cream experience, unlike that of commercialized ice cream shops. 2. O Town Ice Cream offers a wide variety of food. It has eight rotating ice cream flavors, dairy-free Italian ice and seasonal treats such as caramel apples. It recently opened the “Lunch Stop,” where it serves sandwiches, soups and salads. 3. O Town Ice Cream has a strong, trustworthy and close-knit staff with great internal communication. The owners are passionate about their craft. 4. O Town Ice Cream has a strong social media presence on Instagram (3,000 followers), Twitter (1,000 followers) and Facebook (5,000 followers). It does a great job of responding to both positive and negative comments on social media. 5. O Town Ice Cream is conveniently located in the center of downtown Opelika, making it very accessible. 6. O Town Ice Cream has a stable and secure target audience. This audience consists primarily of local families. 8
10.
7. O Town
Ice Cream offers multiple immersive events for its customers. Some of these events include storytime every Tuesday morning, Daddy Daughter Date Night and Mom’s Night Out. Weaknesses 1. O Town Ice Cream does not advertise. Advertising is a good way to reach new audiences that don’t know about O Town Ice Cream. 2. The interior of the O Town Ice Cream shop is still being worked on. A mural is in the process of being painted. Once this is complete, it will no longer be a weakness. 3. O Town Ice Cream has very little connection to Auburn University and its student body. These students make up a large percentage of the population in the surrounding area. O Town should work to improve its relationship with the university community. 4. O Town Ice Cream’s new “Lunch Stop” is not well known by its audience. Many believe O Town only offers ice cream products. “Lunch Stop” has the ability to bring a wider variety of customers to O Town, so should be better advertised. 5. O Town Ice Cream’s website is outdated and needs to be revamped. The images are low quality and don’t show up well on the site. 9
11.
Opportunities 1. O Town
Ice Cream should partner with downtown Auburn to support each other’s local businesses. This would also help bring more awareness of O Town to the university community. 2. O Town Ice Cream should continue to work with Auburn University’s Greek Life. It can reach out to various sororities and fraternities about having ice cream at their events. This will help O Town advertise on Auburn’s campus. 3. O Town Ice Cream should continue to take its ice cream push carts to local events such as concerts and festivals. 4. O Town Ice Cream should create a marketing campaign focused on the “Lunch Stop” to promote its new food menu items. This would help to attract a wider variety of audiences. 5. O Town Ice Cream should follow seasonal trends especially in winter. For example, it could offer warm drinks and a special candy cane flavored ice cream. This will allow the O Town to continue to bring fresh new flavors and treats to its audience. 6. O Town Ice Cream should offer and advertise study spaces and meeting spaces for its customers. Many shops surrounding O Town are popular study locations for high school and college students. Because O Town already has Wi-Fi, it would be easy to host students. 10
12.
Threats 1. Like many
ice cream shops, the changing of seasons will be difficult on O Town Ice Cream. In the winter months ice cream becomes less popular. For this reason, it is crucial that O Town establishes its “Lunch Stop.” 2. O Town Ice Cream is surrounded by multiple competitors, especially commercialized ice cream shops like Marble Slab and Bruster’s. O Town must continue to advertise what makes it different from these competitors: its hometown attitude. 3. O Town Ice Cream gets its ice cream from a creamery. Because it is not made in store, O Town must always have a backup plan in case something was to happen to the creamery. 11
13.
Methodology We conducted an
online survey using Qualtrics in order to assess how knowledgeable Auburn University students are about O Town Ice Cream. Aside from increasing college student awareness, we also tried to focus on their new Lunch Stop, as this is a critical component for O Town to be successful in the winter. We distributed this survey through different social media platforms, but focussed on Facebook and GroupMe. The respondents were random because we had no control over who took the survey. Over a two week span, the survey received 148 total responses. The survey included 17 screener/qualifier, demographic, multiple choice, open ended and scale questions. The data concluded that flavor was the most important influencer when deciding where to go to get ice cream. This result backs up O Town because their main selling point is the unique flavors they offer. However, 80 percent of students had never heard of O Town, and 94 percent of respondents had no clue they served food. This further emphasizes the communication O Town should have with students in the future because based on the survey, O Town has all of the popular characteristics students look for in an ice cream shop. For all the specifics of the survey we distributed please see the appendices. 12
14.
Results This survey was
intended for current Auburn University students, and we were able to ensure we got responses from our target audience through a screener question. Within the two weeks of the survey being open, 147 eligible people took it. There was one other participant, making the total number of respondents 148, but since he or she was not a current Auburn student, he or she was not able to complete the survey. Of the 147 respondents, 8.87 percent were freshmen, 13.61 percent were sophomores, 35.37 percent were juniors, 41.50 percent were seniors and .68 percent were graduate students. The majority of or participants were female, at 92.52 percent, and most have lived in the Auburn/Opelika area for two to four years. When asked what their favorite place to get ice cream was, the majority of respondents said Marble Slab Creamery, Bruster’s, Toomer’s Drug Store or various fast food restaurants. Most respondents ranked flavors as the most important factor when picking a place to get ice cream ranked brand recognition as the least important. When given the statement “going out for ice cream should be an experience and not just a purchase,” 64.63 percent of respondents either somewhat or strongly agreed, 22.45 percent were neutral and only 12.92 percent either somewhat or strongly disagreed (see Question 10 in Appendix B). Over 80 percent of our respondents have never been to O Town Ice Cream before. When asked how likely they were to go to an ice cream shop that only served ice cream in the winter, 54.42 percent said they were either somewhat or extremely likely to go, but when 13
15.
asked how likely
they were to go to an ice cream shop that also serves food during the winter, the number of respondents who were either somewhat or extremely likely to go increased to 80.95 percent. We found that 138 of our respondents, 93.88 percent, were not aware that O Town Ice Cream had The Lunch Stop in its shop, but when asked what items they would like to see added to the menu, soups, salads, grilled cheeses, chicken fingers and other sandwich choices were the top answers (for a full list of responses see Question 15 in Appendix B). Only five respondents follow O Town Ice Cream on social media: four follow on Instagram, one follows on Facebook and no respondents follow on Twitter, but the majority of respondents claimed that if they were going to follow a local business on social media, they would follow the business on Instagram. For all the specifics of the results of our survey please see the appendices. 14
16.
Discussion/Recommendations Social Media While O
Town Ice Cream is doing well with its social media, there are changes that could be made in order to improve. The main recommendation is to completely redo the website because it’s very out of date and underutilized. By revamping the website it would add many valuable features for both current and potential customers. The “Flavors” page should be changed so it could be updated with the daily flavors. There should be a “Who We Are” page that tells the story behind O Town Ice Cream and its mission. Since O Town Ice Cream is currently trying to promote The Lunch Stop, a section about it should be added. This section could include the menu and any specials they are having. There is currently only a link to O Town Ice Cream’s Facebook page, so links to the Instagram and Twitter should be added, as well. There are many great pictures on the Instagram and Facebook, so those should be added to the website since there are currently only three blurry photos on the main page. There are also a couple recommendations for the Instagram and Twitter. The Instagram has many great images and lots of helpful information for customers, but we feel it would be more beneficial if more of those images were turned into graphics. For example, on Wednesdays, there is always a post with a picture of a waffle cone and a caption about “Waffle Cone Wednesday,” but if “Waffle Cone Wednesday” were included on the image, it would be easy for customers to see at a glance. Although there are some updates about what is going on at O Town Ice Cream, the Twitter account consists mostly of retweets from other Opelika businesses. We feel that in 15
17.
addition to those
retweets, more consistent posts about the daily specials or events that O Town Ice Cream is having should be added. The Lunch Stop Since one of O Town Ice Cream’s goals is to spread awareness for The Lunch Stop, we recommend that The Lunch Stop be featured more on the social media accounts. With updated social media, this would be a great opportunity to promote The Lunch Stop. There are a few pictures of the lunch options, but they haven’t been posted lately. If O Town does decide to add more options, they should be featured on the Instagram and Facebook. On top of being added to the website, an image of The Lunch Stop menu should be added to the Facebook, so interested customers can see what is available online. Campus Promotions We found that O Town Ice Cream’s qualities align with many of the qualities Auburn students are looking for in an ice cream shop, so we believe the reason not as many students are coming to O Town is because they don’t know about the shop. To fix this, O Town should try to promote more on Auburn’s campus. We know O Town has done a few events with sororities, but we believe this should be expanded on. O Town should get in touch with Auburn organizations such as the Student Government Association and University Programs Council. These organizations put on events for all Auburn students, and many of them involve food catered by Auburn restaurants. This is a great way for Auburn students to get a taste of O Town Ice Cream. One great event O Town should try to get involved with is Welcome Week. This event takes place during 16
18.
the first week
of school every year and is meant to help freshmen make new friends. This is a great opportunity to create customers at the very beginning of their Auburn career. 17
19.
Appendix A Survey conducted
on Qualtrics for O Town Ice Cream: The following survey is being conducted by students in PR Research at Auburn University for our client, O Town Ice Cream, to help them better understand what college students are looking for in an ice cream shop. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. Q1 – Are you currently a student at Auburn University? o Yes o No Q2 – Do you live in the Auburn/Opelika area? o Yes o No Q3 – What year are you at Auburn University? o Freshman o Sophomore o Junior o Senior o Graduate Student Q4 – What is your sex? o Male o Female o Other o Prefer not to answer Q5 – How long have you lived in the Auburn/Opelika area? o 1 year or less o 2-4 years o 5 or more years 18
20.
Q6 – How
much do you like ice cream? o Like a great deal o Like somewhat o Neither like nor dislike o Dislike somewhat o Dislike a great deal Q7 – How often do you go out to get ice cream? o Never o Once every few months o 1-3 times a month o Once a week o Multiple times a week Q8 – Where is your favorite place to get ice cream in the Auburn/Opelika area? __________________ Q9 – Please rank the following on how important they are when choosing a place to get ice cream. (With 1 being your top preference and 4 being your last preference) Flavors Price Distance Brand recognition Q10 – Going out for ice cream should be an experience and not just a purchase. o Strongly disagree o Somewhat disagree o Neither agree nor disagree o Somewhat agree o Strongly agree Q11 – How many times have you been to O Town Ice Cream in the past year? o Never been o 1-3 times o 4-6 times o 7-9 times o 10 or more times 19
21.
Q12 – How
likely are you to go to an ice cream shop in the winter, if all the shop serves is ice cream? o Extremely likely o Somewhat likely o Neither likely nor unlikely o Somewhat unlikely o Extremely unlikely Q13 – How likely are you to go to an ice cream shop in the winter if the shop serves food items as well as ice cream? o Extremely likely o Somewhat likely o Neither likely or unlikely o Somewhat unlikely o Extremely likely Q14 – Were you aware that O Town Ice Cream has a lunch menu called “The Lunch Stop” inside the shop? o Yes o No Q15 – The Lunch Stop serves chicken salad sandwiches, pimento cheese sandwiches, and pb&j sandwiches. Please list below other food options you would want to see at O Town Ice Cream. _______________ Q16 – Do you follow O Town Ice Cream on any social media platforms? (Check all that apply) o Instagram o Facebook o Twitter o None Q17 – If you were to follow a local business on social media, which platform would you most likely use? o Instagram o Facebook o Twitter o None of the above 20
22.
Appendix B Graphs, charts,
and figures from the survey: Q1 - Are you currently a student at Auburn University? Q2 - Do you live in the Auburn/Opelika area? 21
23.
Q3 - What
year are you at Auburn University? Q4 - What is your sex? 22
24.
Q5 - How
long have you lived in the Auburn/Opelika area? Q6 - How much do you like ice cream? 23
25.
Q7 - How
often do you go out to get ice cream? Q8 - Where is your favorite place to get ice cream in the Auburn/Opelika area? brusters on campus Toomers Marble Slab Toomers Marble Slab Toomers Marble slab Busters 24
26.
marble slab chick-fil-a Marble slab The
grocery store TCBY Chickfila TCBY Brusters Chill Sonic brusters Zaxbys Marble Slab Steel City Pops Marble Slab Brusters Grocery store toomers The grocery store Kroger tbh 25
27.
Chill Dairy queen Brewster's kroger Chill Marble Slab N/A chickfila Steel
City Pops marble slab Brusters marble slab Not sure brusters Marble slab mc donald's Kroger Walmart Brewsters Marble Slab 26
28.
Grocery store toomers o-town Toomers Toomers Brusters O Town TCBY brewsters Brusters TCBY Sonic
or Dairy Queen Brusters McDonald's Dairy queen or steak and shake bc quick no where really :( Brusters Bofa Marble slab n/a 27
29.
Marble slab brusters Brusters Toomers Froyo TCBY tcby Chill Brusters Brewster’s Toomers Toomers Corner Toomers Mcdonalds browsers Toomers Marble
slab Kroger Marble slab Marble slab 28
30.
Kroger1 Toomers Brusters Brusters Brusters Toomers Toomers not sure Marble Slab Dairy
Queen Don't really have one Steel City Pops Marble Slab Bruster’s chill Marble Slab or O-Town marble slab Toomer's Drug Store Brusters O Town 29
31.
Bruster's Marble Slab TCBY Sonic Brusters marble slab Brusters Brusters chill Custard
from Freddys Marble slab Toomers Brusters Marble Slab Marble Slab Toomers Drugs Marble slab Marble slab Chill Sonic 30
32.
Brusters Wherever my friends
are going. Brusters Steel City marble slab Dairy Queen Toomers Marble slab Sonic Marble slab Marble slab Marble Slab Creamery Toomer's Marble slab McDonalds or Brusters Marble slab Brusters Tcby Q9 - Please rank the following on how important they are when choosing a place to get ice cream. (With 1 being your top preference and 4 being your last preference) 31
33.
Q10 - Going
out for ice cream should be an experience and not just a purchase. 32
34.
Q11 - How
many times have you been to O Town Ice Cream in the past year? Q12 - How likely are you to go to an ice cream shop in the winter if all the shop serves is ice cream? 33
35.
Q13 - How
likely are you to go to an ice cream shop in the winter if the shop serves food as well as ice cream? Q14 - Were you aware that O Town has a lunch menu called “The Lunch Stop” inside the shop? 34
36.
Q15 -
The Lunch Stop serves chicken salad sandwiches, pimento cheese sandwiches, and pb&j sandwiches. Please list below other food options you would want to see at O Town Ice Cream. BLT salads soup BLT Light snacks Grilled cheese!! None Salad Soup coffee!! grilled cheese 35
37.
N/a Soups Chicken fingers Hot sandwiches Salad Turkey
or ham sandwhiches Burger Idk fries Chicken nuggets Soft pretzel, pizza, turkey sandwich Side choices to go with the sandwiches Cookies Grilled cheese Corn dogs grilled cheese! BLT, Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup other sandwiches Turkey sandwiches burgers soup salad Quesadillas 36
38.
paninis grilled cheese French fries
and chicken fingers Pizza Grilled cheese chicken fingers Mozzarella sticks, Grilled Cheese soup or salad Reuben grilled cheese, turkey sandwiches None hot dog Chicken fingers i like all of those! Turkey sandwiches, Caesar salad wrap Meat sandwiches french fries Soft pretzels, soup Soup burgers 37
39.
pimento cheese Coffee Fries Turkey sandwiches burgers More
appetizer options pizza Nothing Idk Soups French Fries no Burger chips, cookies, candy Hummus Deez That all sounds good, maybe like BLT’s or something with avocados salads and soups Pasta salad na 38
40.
Sides like fruit,
pasta salad, etc Fries Cookies Burgers fries Wraps N/a Hotdogs and paninis Salads Egg salad sandwich Cheese curds Hot dogs and frito pies? n/a N/a Mac and cheese Fries Hot dogs, wraps Sandwiches N/A Chips 39
41.
Burger No salad Turkey sandwhich In n
out grilled cheese n/a Grilled Cheese Soups n/a Hamburgers and hotdogs Crinkly Or Waffle French fries, chicken tenders yum I think those are good! Maybe some sides? hotdog Grilled Cheese grilled cheese Hamburgers cupcakes grilled cheese sandwiches 40
42.
Chicken wraps, soups n/a Salad n Baked
Potatoes and Soup grilled cheese salads Salad Other desserts like cookies, pastries, doughnuts, cake, pies, etc Chicken tenders Wraps Chicken fingers Fries N/a Soup Grilled cheese Sodas French fries Chicken nuggets Grilled cheese! 41
43.
I don’t know Hot
foods those sound good! Grilled Chicken Sandwiches Chicken Fingets and fries Salads Cheesy ranch fries Quick Mexican options, like tacos or burritos Grilled cheese Idk Deli-style sandwiches Hot dogs Na Chicken tenders and fries N'a Club sandwich Q16 - Do you follow O Town Ice Cream on any social media platforms? (Check all that apply) 42
44.
*For Question 16,
the survey didn’t show our option for “none,” so even though it says 80 percent of respondents follow on Instagram, in fact only five do. One respondent follows O Town on Facebook. 142 of respondents do not follow O Town Ice Cream on any social media. Q17 - If you were to follow a local business on social media, which platform would you most likely use? 43
45.
Bibliography 44
46.
Barrette, Sarah. (2004).
Ice Cream Parlors. SBDC Net. Retrieved from http://www.sbdcnet.org/small-business-research-reports/ice-cream-parlors. English, Thea. (2017). How to Open an Ice Cream and Coffee Shop in a Small Town. Bizfluent. Retrieved from https://bizfluent.com/how-8397152-open-coffee-shop-small-town.html. Glass, Evan. (2011). Ice Cream in Winter? CNN Money. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/07/smallbusiness/ice-cream-makers-in-winter/inde x.htm. Nugent, Paul. (2014). The Sweet and Simple Guide to Opening an Ice Cream Shop. Shopkeep.Retrieved from https://www.shopkeep.com/blog/are-you-really-ready-to-open-an-ice-cream-shop . Sagan, Aleksandra. (2016). Ice Cream Shops are Reinventing Soft-Serve. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/small-business/sb-growth/h ow-soft-serve-ice-cream-companies-can-survive-winter-and-hold-onto-customers /article31427308/. Qin, Helen. (2014). We Bought An Ice Cream Store. The Billfold. Retrieved from https://www.thebillfold.com/2014/02/we-bought-an-ice-cream-store/. Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/otownicecream/ 45
47.
Instagram: http://instagram.com/otownicecream Twitter: https://twitter.com/otownicecream?lang=en Website: http://otownicecream.com/ 46
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