A syndicated tracking study helps Marie Callender's Restaurants stay in touch with the needs of the Los Angeles-area market

One complaint a restaurant chain probably wouldn't count on hearing from its customers is that its portions are too large. But that's just what some patrons of the Marie Callender's restaurant chain said in focus groups.

The focus groups were used to follow up on findings of a syndicated study of patrons of Los Angeles/Orange County area coffee shop/family-style restaurants.

Specifically, says Neil Naroff, vice president, marketing, Marie Callender's, the study found some customer dissatisfaction with the relationship of price to value at Marie Callender's. To isolate the source of dissatisfaction, the focus groups looked at the components of price/value—ambiance, price, quality of food, and portion size.

"We've always thought that we had a good price/value relationship mainly because our portions are so big," Naroff says. "But the fact that a customer has a lot of food doesn't always justify the price that they're paying for it. In fact, when there is food left on the table, sometimes they believe they're paying too much because they can't eat it and it's not of value to them."

As a result, Naroff says, the company is evaluating its portion sizes to establish a better price/value relationship in the eyes of its customers.

Quarterly survey

The syndicated study, which is conducted quarterly by Restaurant Research Associates (RRA), Tustin , Calif. , surveys 500 randomly selected users of coffee shops and family-style restaurants in the Los Angeles/Orange County area for several major competitors.

During the 10-minute telephone interview the respondents answer questions in key areas such as brand image and advertising awareness, purchase intent and category usage. Study subscribers can also insert proprietary questions to obtain more in-depth information.

Lynn Stalone, partner, Restaurant Research Associates, says the study gives clients concrete data on specific topics.

"If a company sees sales going down, they may not know the reasons why. They may have sales data, but the study can give them specific information, telling them, for example, which groups of people have slowed their use, or stopped going to their restaurants. You may have a gut feeling about what's going on, but it's nice to have the numbers to back it up."

"That's the rationale for using a tracking study," Naroff says. "It can tell us the dynamics of our customer base over time and give us an idea of how effective our competitors are in marketing as well as how effective we are. It's important for us to have a grasp on who uses the restaurant and why, what they think of us, and how they compare us to others in the family dining category so that we can provide the kinds of things they're looking for."

Identify trouble spots

By keeping Marie Callender's aware of the shifts and changes of its own scores as well as those of its competitors, Naroff says the study has enabled the company to identify potential trouble spots in advance.

"I think it's a good gauge of subtle differences. It makes you aware of a direction and enables you to do something about it before it becomes a problem. To me, that's the important thing. You want to be aware of what's going on before it becomes a serious issue.

"For example, we're starting to see interesting shifts in speed of service scores because people are increasingly convenience- and time-oriented. The study has been sensitive to those shifts—not only for us but also in relationship to our competitors—so we can be aware of those which we have to take action on."

Broader competitive matrix

Ron Clark, senior partner, Restaurant Research Associates, says that along with cost-efficiency, the main benefit of syndicated tracking study is that it provides what he calls a "broader competitive matrix" than a company might get if it performed its own tracking study.

Private tracking studies can paint an unrealistic picture of the market since they often compare the client's brand with just one or two others because companies may find it hard to justify devoting a great deal of time and money to studying their competitors.

"The restaurant marketplace is very diverse, very competitive, and it's becoming more and more competitive all the time. Being able to compare yourself against seven brand image matrices is much better than doing it against two. It has a wider competitive frame of reference," Clark says.

Operating plan

Naroff says work sessions with representatives of RRA and Marie Callender's helped formulate an operating plan for the remainder of 1989 and 1990 addressing areas in which the company has to move to remain competitive.

"(RRA) specifically analyzed Marie Callender's in relationship to the other companies that they're tracking and helped identify for us some of the key trends and key areas that they felt we needed to pay attention to, near-term and long-term, in order for us to compete well."

This data, combined with information gathered from focus group research and other customer comment data, has been used in creating several programs to Improve service.

One of those programs involves streamlining the menu to shorten the time it takes for a customer to place their order, after research showed that customers felt they were being asked an inordinate amount of questions.

"Our menu was structured such that you had so many options that it could take a server several minutes per person at a table to complete the ordering process. We discovered that giving the customer so many options is not always a benefit," Naroff says.

So while still allowing ample choices, the new menu will speed up ordering times by more clearly specifying which items the customer automatically receives. Naroff says other speed of service options will also be tested, including an express lunch program with a limited menu for speedy lunch service.

Brand awareness

Another area where the study data has been used is in the area of overall brand awareness. Marie Callender's only recently started advertising, unveiling an outdoor advertising campaign last summer which drove sales impressively in the short term. But now the company is noticing that overall brand awareness hasn't changed appreciably, so it is currently evaluating its advertising program to determine what changes are necessary.