1. This programme has been funded with
support from the European Commission
Session 3 Customers
MODULE 1 Market
study
"The support provided by the European Commission for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of its
contents, which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be
made of the information contained therein.

2. 1
This programme has been funded with support from the
European Commission. The author is solely responsible for this
publication (communication) and the Commission accepts no responsibility for
any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
2
3
4
Meeting the needs
Session 3
Customers
Contents
Who are my Customers?
How do they buy?
The survey

3. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
1 - Meeting the needs
Feeding meets a physiological need of the human body such as
drinking, sleeping and breathing.
According to the pyramid of Abraham MASLOW, an American
psychologist known for his studies on motivation, he identified 5
levels of needs. His analysis has been widely used in occupational
psychology but also in market research. In order to reach the full
satisfaction of the individual's needs, the user has to go up one
level after the other.
The 1st degree being "EAT".
Check out
The Pyramid
of MASLOW

4. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
2 - Who are my customers ?
It is important to get to know one's future customers better in order to adapt your offerings.
To achieve this, you need to segment your market:
it is about dividing it into subsets the market
with different characteristics.
A company may decide to
work on the overall market
or on one or more segments of
this market.

5. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
2 - Who are my customers ?
The first questions to consider
are the following:
Who is consuming my
products or services?
Individuals, professionals,
communities…

6. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
For segmenting and targeting your customers
from private individuals, several features can
be used:
Socio-demographic criteria:
Women, men, young people, seniors?
What is the usual occupation and income level?
Geographic criteria: Where do they live? Where do they work?
Behavioural criteria :
Habits, hours of eating and drinking,
lifestyle, activities, opinions...
2 - Who are my customers ?

7. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
For example : Lunch for employees
For employees who do not have a catering
facility in their company, the lunch remains a
preoccupation.
Their restrictions are manifold: lack of
of time, restricted mobility, habits
food, etc.
A large majority use the fast-food industry :
- lunch outside the office
- packed lunch
- workplace delivery
2 - Who are my customers ?

8. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
For example : Lunch for employees
The choice is manifold, starting with menus
(starter+dish+dessert+drink), as well as single
dishes, salads, pizzas and even sandwiches.
Travelling has fostered the discovery of so-
called world cuisine, the variety of choices are
wide.
2 - Who are my customers ?

9. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
3 - How do they buy?
The buying behaviour of people refers to the
actions they take before purchasing a
product or service. This includes research on
the Internet, benchmarking websites,
conversations between consumers or on
various social networks.
Knowing purchasing behaviour
of the consumer can be used to exert an
influence or limit the customers barriers

10. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
-
3 - How do they buy?
A few other questions to consider:
• When do they usually buy the product or when do they
• use your service?
• How do they choose to use your service? How? Where?
• How often?
• What are their motivations?
• Do they face any obstacles?
• What are their opinions about the product or service?
• What is the feature of the product that encourages
purchase? Price, comfort, safety, efficiency?

11. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
4 -The Survey
How do I collect information about the needs of my clients?
In order to obtain answers to all of these
questions, conducting a survey is certainly the
best way to achieve it.
This survey, which is a questionnaire, is based
on surveying and interviewing your potential
customers.

12. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
An alternative way is through observation. By
standing close to your future premises, you can
analyze the flow of potential customers (number,
age, socio-professional categories, ...).
The survey is the key that will determine the
feasibility of your project and its future success. All
these answers will help you to adapt your offer to
the expectations of your target and to reduce the
risks as much as possible.Translated with
www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
.
4 -The Survey

13. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
4 -The Survey
In 5 steps:
It's a one-time survey that consists of asking, in your catchment area...
a group of people ("representative sample") using a face-to-face questionnaire.
It provides information on the opinions, facts and intentions of potential clients at a
given time.
The survey is thereby a snapshot of its potential
clients.

14. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
STEP 1: Framing phase
Definition of study objectives
Identification of the population to be studied
Means and constraints : deadline, budget, tool, and who carries out the survey
Framing phase

15. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
STEP 2: Sampling phase
A sample is a group of persons taken from a
population called the parent (or base)
population that has the same features as this
population.
Features of the sample :
It must maximize results (hence precision) and
minimize costs, hence the importance of its
size and representativeness.
Sampling method
Non-probabilistic or
empirical :The sample is set
up in the field,
representativeness is
consequently an
assumption.
Quota method: building a
reduced population model
based on the characteristics
of the base population (e.g.
age, gender, living area,
etc.).

16. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
STEP 3: Drawing up the form
Its design and length depends on the way in which
the questionnaire is conducted and also the sampling method.
General guidelines :
- Funnel-techniques (from the general to the particular)
- Begin with an introductory wording
- Ask short and easy to remember questions

17. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
• They should not be of such a nature as to influence the
interviewed person.
• They must be clear, easily understandable, accurate and precise.
• They can be: open, closed, multiple choice, scoring, scale
(Osgood, Likert), filter, to control, etc.
It must be tested first with
Friends, connections, family... before it's used in the treatment.
The questions of your survey
questionnaire template : CREATEST

18. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
STEP 4: Managing the Survey Questionnaire
Approach Perks Downsides
FACE TO FACE o Response Verification
o Good equipment
conditions
o Representativeness of
the sample
o Targeted catchment area
o Expensive
o Need to train investigators
o Influence of Investigators
By phone o A great way to touch a large
o number of dispersed
o Individuals geographically
o Mobility expenses reduced hence
lower cost
o Short questionnaire
o Hard to verify answers and get the
proper answer
o Need to train investigators
Online o Low cost, speed,
o no influence of
the investigator
o Doubtful sample
representativeness,
o planning and implementation

19. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
Introduction (announce how long it will actually take
to answer)
Some Example of sample questions for a culinary project :
Q1 - Habits of people that usually go to restaurants,
What types of restaurants do they usually go to?
Q2 - How often does it happen? Presentation of your project
Q3 - Are you interested in this concept? If so :
Q4 - Type of consuming, When? When? How?
Q5 - What aspects of the project do they prefer?
Q6 - What price are they willing to pay?
Q7 - Associated services they would like to have.
Q8 - Socio-professional category - Respondent details.
Sample : Structure of the questionnaire
Create and Submit your survey

20. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
STEP 5: Scanning, Analyzing
Depending on the type of questions chosen, different softwares
offer you the possibility to have digital analyses. You can, for
example, choose the type of graph to get displayed (pie chart,
histogram, point and line...).
Food truck market research questionnaire
A sample of a market research questionnaire
for the opening of a restaurant.

21. BACKING ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES IN THE CULINARY SECTOR
You have detected the needs of the customers, in order to
adapt your business location and your services, it is interesting
to fill in sheets describing the needs for each target.
Customer needs sheets you can fulfilled