The 8:10 café is used by ALL Owen students, providing quick snacks and refreshment for all. However, the 8:10 café’s image and product line have suffered in the recent past. This is a problem because the café is a central meeting place for students, visitors, and faculty.
The café’s has NEW OWNERSHIP (Todd Johnson and Abhi Pardeshi) are committed to turning around the cafe’s image and producing an environment that creates more sales of more products/food items that people want. This is our chance to CHANGE 8:10 FOR THE BETTER. Here are our 3 simple, yet profitable ideas that will begin the transformation for the 8:10 café:
1. Offer breakfast items
Many students have 8am class. Others arrive at Owen during breakfast hours having not eaten breakfast. These early hours are a critical purchase decision time for students as hunger is at its peak—just look at the amount of donuts and pastry bags we see from Starbucks every morning at Owen. At this critical time, students lack time and food. Targeting this critical purchase time is critical to enhancing sales revenue for 8:10; students’ willingness to pay will be higher at this time. Additionally, the 8:10 café is a virtual captive market—with breakfast products right there, it will be too much of a chore to walk over to Breugger’s or Starbucks.
Breakfast items will include fresh items such as bagels, fruit, breakfast sandwiches and granola. Hot items would include microwaveable breakfast burritos and other hot breakfast options. Although these items will have a shorter lifespan “on the shelf”, they will serve the specific purpose of satisfying the breakfast meal for students.
2. Stock Frozen Meals
According to a qualitative study done in one of Owen’s qualitative marketing courses, researchers found that students do not consider the 8:10 café to be a viable “meal” option—only a “snacking” option. The research also showed that “dinner options” would be a big help to those who remained at Owen after the last class. By offering full frozen meals we seek to allow the café to occupy a different space in the consumer’s mind—the space occupied by an actual “meal place” rather than just a quick snacking option. We believe that by making 8:10 an option from which a full meal can be purchased, sales from those meals (and resulting cross-sales of drinks and other items) will help enhance revenue.
These frozen items will be kept in the freezer in 8:10; outside the freezer will be a list and pictures of the food inside. Prices will also be listed on the outside of the freezer. Students can enjoy these frozen meals for lunch, dinner, or any other occasion they feel appropriate. The point is that you shouldn’t have to leave Owen in order to get a full, satisfying meal. Lean Cuisine, TV Dinners, and small frozen personal pizza’s would be the types of items on the list.
3. Add a ‘Suggestion Box’
The reputation of the 8:10 café as a business entity has fallen over the past months due to improper inventory and product offerings. By giving students a forum to express their opinions and interests, it not only can expose the items that customers want, but give them a sense of loyalty that the 8:10 cares about them. A suggestion box can allow customers to request items that are not being sold and can further expose areas that need improvement. We expect that increased item sales will increase revenues and the feeling of loyalty will increase traffic and purchase volume.
The suggestion box can come in two formats, physical or virtual, or both. A physical box would allow for spontaneous input, as the students are there experiencing the café. It can also provide for anonymity. An electronic version can allow customers to give their feedback from anywhere, but may spur some privacy issues.
As a further idea, Todd and Abhi can use the box as a promotional tool, possibly offering a prize for the best suggestion…
I like the suggestion box idea. I feel that there are a lot of ideas that could really help the owners to more accurately stock the products people want. I like the breakfast idea too but I feel given the opportunity to only do one thing the suggestion box is more powerful as a tool. Also, having told Todd and Abhi that I wanted G2 Gatorade and them stocking it, I know they are receptive to feedback.
ReplyDeleteI like the breakfast foods ideas. Adding some "breakfast" items is consistent with the already held view of the Cafe as being a snack food option. Breakfast items such as the ones mentioned can be snacked on all day. The suggestion box is another good idea since they will be better able to gage demand for items.
ReplyDeleteI like frozen meals for a cheap cost. The evolution of frozen foods has created a huge supply of perfectly viable and healthy meal options for even the most scrutinizing consumer. Also, it goes well with my group's problem, which is the 810 microwave issue. I believe the 810 has been a sore spot for students of late and is needing drastic improvement. By enhancing the viable "meal" options available to students, you could truly create an environment that lives up the expectations of students. Not to mention for those in need of a quick meal before a round of classes or something to dine on at 1 am when all other dining options are closed and they are pulling an "all-nighter" would greatly appreciate the addition of a stouffer's microwaveable lasagna.
ReplyDeleteGood idea - can't wait for execution.
I love the idea of offering frozen food. As you mentioned there is definitely a demand for this. I think offering breakfast options is a good idea too. The key will be making sure that you offer these items at a lower cost than the competitors across the street. While the suggestion box is also a good idea, I think you will see more immediate results by taking action to add products to the cafe. This will get the message across that the 8:10 cafe is serious about change. In response people will be more likely to use the suggestion box if they believe their voice will be heard.
ReplyDeleteI really like the frozen foods idea. Trying to find food for dinner at a decent price around Owen is not easy, and it usually ends up to be fast food. This would also be a good idea to further utilize the microwaves in the 8:10 cafe. I would be careful about the pricing, however, since it will be compared to fast food places across the street.
ReplyDeleteI really like the breakfast idea - I am always running behind and get so sick of brueggers that it would be nice to have a fast convenient option that i could default to. I personally would not go for the frozen food idea, but I think there are definitely people who get sick of the options around campus and run into time constraints during the lunch hour, so I think this is a good idea. I cannot believe there isn't a suggestion box already... Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI think that the breakfast idea would be a great addition to 8:10. Although it may not quell the notion of 8:10 being a snacking station, I would to drop in and pay .75 for a donut or $1.00 for a bagel instead of going across the street to Starbucks. Frozen food is interesting idea, and one that I think should be implemented on a trial basis. However, a lean cuisine at the supermarket often costs about $3, and to make a profit you would have to charge at least $1 more. Maybe if they focused on a niche market like vegetarians or the health conscious, it would provide a nice alternative. A suggestion box seems like a great way of taking the pulse of the student population. However, one person's food preference may not always be a profitable idea.
ReplyDeleteThe breakfast option sounds great. You're right, I'd love to get a good breakfast at Owen if it were possible. There is some risk with the short shelf life of the fruit, breakfast sandwiches, and bagels. Being able to accurately stock these items would be key.
ReplyDeleteThe frozen meals would not be as good as the meals from the breakfast option but they'd be easy. I think students would pay for these meals and you'd have just about no problem with expiration.
The suggestion box is interesting but it could bring some anger from students if their suggestions were not implemented, which all of them won't be.
If I was to choose, I'd pick the breakfast option and pay close attention to stocking these items.
I love both ideas one and two. I would definitely purchase breakfast items, and I think other students would as well. I'm not sure how popular the frozen meals would be, and perhaps not worth the investment in a freezer. Maybe a limited time trial period using one of the small freezers in the kitchen, as long as there was sufficient advertising to alert students of the availability.
ReplyDeleteThis is the only project I've seen where all three ideas are both good and implementable.
ReplyDelete#1 - sounds great. I agree the market is there.
#2 - if a suitable freezer is available in time for this project, this is a gold mine. In that case, I would also be sure to put frozen breakfast items in there too. They are good any time of day.
#3 - I suggest a physical suggestion box, with periodic feedback (1 per Mod?) sent out over ODN so they know the suggestions aren't just going into the shredder.
Humorous side note - I saw the old 8:10 owner getting sodas out of the vending machines 2 times during the fall semester, because her very own store was empty. Talk about a stock out!
I like the idea of offering breakfast items. I would definitely buy. There are times I’m rushing to school for an 8am class and don't have time to eat breakfast. Having breakfast @ 8.10 would come in very handy.
ReplyDeleteIt would be awesome to have frozen items available for a quick lunch or dinner. My only question is where you might find room for the freezer. One option would be to knock out the elongated table that no one ever sits at and use the space for the new equipment. This would require you to wrangle the powers that be at the school and University to push the idea through so it may not be immediately doable. In the interim, they could store one of the tables next to the TV and put it in the corner of the room.
ReplyDeleteOne last note - frozen meals sound great ... but using that disgusting microwave sounds horrible. If you go with option #2, it would be awesome to bundle in a microwave solution as well.
All of your ideas would help improve the 8:10 Cafe. I currently hold the view, as you mention above, that it is a place for quick snacking. Adding breakfast and other meal options would likely draw praise from the Owen community and drive additional revenue.
ReplyDeleteOffering breakfast options keep in line with the current snacking choices. Bagels, croissants, donuts would all be easy to add to a table spread and would likely sell out every day, assuming you can manage the logistics of having fresh food. Frozen breakfast burritos would be great, too, and take up very little freezer space.
Having full meal options would be great, as well; however, there is again the problem of managing the logistics. Is there enough freezer space to carry more than a couple handfuls of frozen entrees? I would definitely buy Lean Cuisines as quick meals, but I agree with Thomas - that microwave is a bit... disgusting.
The suggestion box is good if you can systematically implement good suggestions. It will be difficult to make everyone happy. Also, "the squeaky wheel gets the grease" may have implications here - if the suggestions are anonymous, people may stuff the box to get what they want. On the plus side, it will make people happier with the cafe on the whole, and when suggestions ARE implemented, customers will feel valued.
Love ideas one and two. Breakfast items would be awesome, and are easily bought in bulk at Costco. Specifically, small milk cartons, small cereal boxes, microwavable biscuits and burritos. Frozen meals would be great, especially if they included lean cuisines. ONly problem, where will these be stocked? Is the freezer space that 810 currently has large enough to accommodate these items?
ReplyDelete