blue talon student engagement strategy

Blue Talon Bistro

Alicia Howard, Erica Dimond, Hunter Gill, Salem Cone

2 Blue Talon Student Engagement Strategy


Table of Contents

Executive Summary 4

Design Brief 5

Design Thinking Process 6

What Is 9

Identified Opportunity 9

Scope the Project 10

Plans 11

Research 12

Insights and Criteria 15

What If 19

Brainstorm Ideas 19

Develop Concepts 19

Napkin Pitches 21

What Wows 24

Surface Key Assumptions 24

Prototypes 24

What Works 27

Feedback from Stakeholders 27

Learning Launches 28

Design the On-‐Ramp 30


Executive Summary

The Blue Talon Bistro is a renowned restaurant in Williamsburg, Virginia that prides itself on holding

true to its mission of offering “serious comfort food”: high quality food in a comfortable setting. It brings a

touch of the classic French bistro to America, and to our historic city.

The College of William & Mary is situated right near the Blue Talon, and while many students are

aware of the Blue Talon, few dine there frequently. Upon doing research with both the restaurant and the

students, we noticed there was a disconnection between the two groups. Students were only aware of the

Blue Talon’s major student specials, but not of any other deals available to them. They were dissuaded by the

higher price of menu items as compared to other restaurants, though stated that the quality of food at the

Blue Talon was notably high. The Blue Talon will thus create a design strategy that reconciles this and rebrands

itself as an integral part of the William & Mary college experience.

While the Blue Talon does have good deals for William & Mary students, there is low awareness about

the deals, thereby contributing to the image of the restaurant as a less agreeable option. The restaurant

should approach the students in a personal way to build a relationship with them, and both increase the

probability of repeat dining and awareness of specials featured. The Blue Talon can do this by expanding its

many community events to include student-‐focused events, increasing social media engagement, and

personal advertisements such as flyers in individual mailboxes. Our major recommendation is to host a

Tribe•Talon Tasting Table, a table set out on the central location of the Sadler Terrace spotlighting free

desserts. This would give employees an opportunity to both make a connection with students and inform

them about the restaurant’s other events and deals, which leads to higher restaurant attendance and social

media interactions.

Our goal is to increase the demographic of students at the Blue Talon Bistro by 10-‐15%. We anticipate

this change within about a year, if the table were to be hosted early next fall.


Design Brief Project Description The Blue Talon Bistro will be able to increase engagement from students at The College of William & Mary through improving expanding advertising including boosting social media engagement, hosting an event for students during the Williamsburg Harvest Celebration (WHC), and introducing a new Tribe•Talon Tasting Table event on the Sadler Terrace to increase student awareness. Through these marketing efforts, the Blue Talon Bistro will become an integral part of the William & Mary college experience. Scope & Intent The scope of our project will create a better understanding about the student specials and events that the Blue Talon Bistro offers the students of William & Mary. Through engagement with the restaurant through our marketing efforts previously mentioned, students will be more likely to dine at the Blue Talon. The Blue Talon Bistro will explore what the students of William & Mary look for when choosing restaurants outside of on-‐campus dining options. It aims to create a design strategy that differentiates itself from other restaurant competitors in and around Colonial Williamsburg. Opportunities for the Blue Talon Bistro include boosting campus awareness through a tasting table and aesthetically-‐pleasing flyers, hosting a WHC event, increasing online engagement through social media, and ultimately adjusting of student’s perception of the restaurant into one that is consistent with their needs. Target Users The project will focus on students from The College of William & Mary. Exploration Questions The project will inform key strategic questions including:

1. What do students value most in choosing a restaurant? 2. What is the current demographic of consumers at the Blue Talon: how much is comprised of students, and what is the

target student demographic? 3. How can we boost brand awareness and engagement among students so that they come to recognize the Blue Talon

as a part of their college experience? 4. How can we create an advertising campaign catering to students’ restuarant needs?

Research Plan We will do primary and secondary research on restaurant options for the students of William & Mary. We hope to understand what help would most benefit Adam Steely in our design consulting project as well as insight as to what students look for in restaurant options. We will conduct an in-‐depth interview with one William & Mary student and survey at least 60 William & Mary students. Expected Outcomes We expect to discover:

1. Student interest in dining at Blue Talon Bistro 2. Consumer insight in perceiving the quality of the Blue Talon experience 3. How students could see Blue Talon Bistro as a part of the College of William & Mary experience

Success Metrics 1. Increase the demographic of student Blue Talon customers. 2. Increase the number of Blue Talon Bistro events specifically for students 3. Increase the number of students attending student specials 4. Increase in quality of social media and student engagement with it

Project Planning The tasting table will be held in Fall 2015, ideally during the week before parents’ weekend so students are inclined to visit the restaurant with their families.


Empathize

Define

What Is

What If


Ideate

Prototype

Test

What Works

What Wows


“The student market is a market we have failed to penetrate effectively.”

-‐Adam Steely, Manager

What Is:

1

Identified Opportunity Our team has identified an inadequacy of student knowledge concerning student deals at the Blue Talon restaurant. There is an opportunity to increase the student customer base at the restaurant by raising awareness and publicizing money saving opportunities. The customer needs a way to attract more students from the College of William and Mary because they are an underutilized demographic compared to the rest of the greater Williamsburg area. This problem is in fact human-‐centered because we want each individual student to feel a connection to the restaurant. If students leave campus each year feeling as if the Blue Talon was a positive part of their experience, then we will have been successful. We clearly understand the problem because we are students ourselves, and can obtain the opinions of our peers very easily. The level of uncertainty is low, because when polling our

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friends and colleagues, it quickly becomes clear that students are not aware of deals offered.

The General Manager of the venue has metrics on how many students eat at his restaurant, and he wants a higher percentage of his customers to be students. The degree of complexity is moderate to high, depending on how much a response is desired. We have delved into a few opportunities for the restaurant, to be explored in the next section. We have data available in the form of an interview with the GM, who has techniques for measuring who eats at his restaurant, namely in the form of a sheet of paper requesting the customer’s email address and basic information in order to retain them as a consumer. Additionally, we have survey data from approximately 80 students. Our level of curiosity is high because we want to help the restaurant, and our potential to influence is also high since we are students with a unique perspective and ability to coordinate with campus resources.


“We’re proud we have been able to reach the students thus far, but our work is not done… there has been a failure to understand access points.” –Adam Steely, Manager

Scope the Project Our area of opportunity is focused on the students of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Two important reasons explain why this is a crucial opportunity. The first is that the Blue Talon restaurant has a strong demographic of Williamsburg residents, but not of students. Creating a strong student demographic produces customers that will be lifelong visitors even as alumni. The second reason is that while college students typically spend less on food than adults, there are many student deals and incentives that will entice them to come to the restaurant. This in turn causes students to choose the Blue Talon over competing restaurants when dining out in general, generating a large amount of new revenue. One barrier that arises is the difficulty of reaching large groups of students at once, meaning that we must find a differential opportunity to communicate such as flyers delivered personally to students’ CSU boxes. A second barrier to success is the cost of an average meal at the Blue Talon compared to other restaurants, which defers students from visiting in the first place. The most advantageous project scope we propose is to establish a tasting table on the terrace outside of the Sadler Center on a day with heavy student traffic. Traction is almost guaranteed since many pairs of student eyes will see it, and because it will generate talk amongst the student population. The items offered will be free, to incentivize students to try it, and the restaurant representatives will promote the deals that the Blue Talon offers, and seek consumer feedback simultaneously.

Creating a strong student demographic

produces customers that will be lifelong

visitors.


deals. Empathy for Mr. Steely is developed through meeting him face to face, and understanding the challenges that come along with running a restaurant. He faces daily logistical issues, in addition to tracking long-‐term strategy goals that will keep the company relevant into the future. Concerning students, we are especially empathetic towards their finances. Many students do not have steady access to large sums of money, preferring instead to save by purchasing a meal plan or cooking their own meals. We must be sensitive to this when crafting a plan that involves their cash flow.

Research plan Our team will interview Adam Steely, the general manager of the Blue Talon bistro (Appendix B). His insight should help us focus our purpose. He will provide the insight to the company’s needs and wants: who he wants to reach out to more, what he wants Blue Talon’s image to reflect in the future, how he wants us to go about increasing his marketing reach.

We will also interview a student at the College of William and Mary to use as a baseline for our consumer feedback (Appendix D). The questions are from the Customer Equity Review Guide (Appendix C). Upon creating an action-‐oriented plan, we will create a survey for Blue Talon customers to fill out. We will share the survey on social media, specifically Facebook, to reach out to more than 60 students.

Some issues we will explore are the contrast between the Blue Talon’s target audience and the students. The typical customer is of a higher socioeconomic status than the students, who are quite young and more often than not have little spending money for eating out on a regular basis. Normalizing the restaurant experience for college students is our objective. The other issue is brand recognition. The logo of Blue Talon, a stylized black rooster with “blue talons”, is eye-‐catching. It is a classic animal, used in many of their dishes, with a modern shape. We will implement it in any visual marketing efforts to help solidify their brand DNA.

Project plan The manager of the Blue Talon, Mr. Steely, would like the amount of college students who frequent the restaurant increased 10 to 15 percent. We will target marketing plans at students of the College., and ideate a few ideas to raise awareness about the restaurant’s student deals and increase overall student visitation. The Blue Talon has never put marketing first, and Mr. Steely would wish to gain new, steady customers instead of one-‐time customers. Consistently high-‐quality food and reasonable prices help keep customers around. College students are quite receptive to social media for events and promotions. It is important to reach out to a students in a more personal way to truly make a lasting connection with them, and we consider this when choosing our plan.

People plan We interviewed people to empathize with their point of view and how their behavior and actions need to be different in order to address challenge: Stakeholder 1: Mr. Adam Steely. His current point of view is that while his company has customer stability, there is potential for growth from college students, who are all in rather close proximity to the restaurant. His business actions need to change from servicing socioeconomically stable, well-‐to-‐do locals, and market to a younger crowd with fewer resources. (Refer to Appendix B to view interview transcript) Stakeholder 2: W&M student(s). Our current point of view is that Blue Talon is a high-‐quality restaurant. It is conveniently close to campus, and is in an aesthetically pleasant area of the city: nestled just in between Old Campus and Colonial Williamsburg, along the shopping centers. While Blue Talon’s food is very good, it caters to mainly tourists and locals, and while some students do go there to eat, they do so mainly for special occasions. A special occasion such as a birthday is especially inviting because of the deal (a free meal) that comes with it. In regards to Mr. Steely, we are curious about how concerned he is about retaining the Blue Talon’s image intact while reaching out to more college students. It is a quality establishment, and prefers to advertise through word of mouth rather than print advertisements. For the students, we are curious how much the cost of the dishes at Blue Talon influence their decision to go there, and if they would be willing to frequent Blue Talon more often if they knew about other special


Blue Talon…maintains

its place as a loved “local” member of

the community.

Research Design Project Objectives: the principal purpose of initiating the project Our group’s principal purpose in beginning this project is twofold. The first segment is intended to research, analyze, and understand the design function of the Blue Talon Bistro located in Colonial Williamsburg, VA. After gaining an appreciation for their brand and brand awareness, our group will strategize with the manager, and elucidate clear steps that will help Blue Talon reach a wider student demographic without sacrificing their brand quality during day-‐to-‐day operations. These efforts will both aid a local business and help us better understand how design and branding play a key role in business.

Information about the Client Company Our principal contact for Blue Talon has been the manager, Adam Steely, who in turn has contacts throughout the Williamsburg restaurant community, as well as the city council and city governance. The Blue Talon holds a number of activities for the community throughout the year including a Thanksgiving Turkey Trot, live music or movie screenings on Sunday nights, breakfast with Santa Claus, the sponsorship of art and cultural festivals, and more. They also host culinary events within their own venue; recent events have featured craft cocktails and a truffle dinner. The restaurant has about 4,000 square feet, with 14-‐foot ceilings, giving it the size for a full kitchen and bistro atmosphere. It can hold about 120 guests at one time. It holds its own in the competitive environment, given its unique status and following within the community. Blue Talon does not advertise to the community strongly through media or print, proudly creating and maintaining its place as a loved “local” member of the community, rather than simply a profit-‐driven company. The manager communicates and shares with other restaurateurs in the area. The bistro is a chef driven restaurant, so its operational structure is traditional in the sense that it has hosts, servers, and chefs, but the business believes that the authority runs top down. So the chef decides what the food will be, and the customer arrives expecting to be served with minimal stress or fuss. The company’s identity is strong, with a focus on customer service and loyalty to their mission of “serious comfort food.” Their internal image is one of a professional food venue that offers high quality food and a relaxed but structured dining experience. Its external image is that of a French bistro which offers excellent fare and an

atmosphere similar to that of a bistro in any French city. They distinguish themselves by consistently being warm and welcoming, contrasting the sophistication of antique furniture with modern colors, music, and a lack of tablecloths to dispel any stiffness. Its business mission is to consistently deliver delicious comfort food, and combine continental and American comfort foods. Blue Talon has had positive growth in their economic and sociocultural evolution as they have many repeat customers, and have been making a profit essentially since their inception. Their price structure is upper median, with lunch entrees ranging from nine to thirteen, and dinner entrees varying from eighteen to twenty four. They complete market research by offering cards at the end of each dinner encouraging diners to email them with thoughts and responses, receiving about 40-‐60 a week. The manager also makes a point to personally inquire as to the dining experience of customers in order to get honest answers. Mr. Steely conducts lifestyle studies essentially through his long years of experience in the restaurant business,


and has achieved the style of the Blue Talon by putting tables closer together, increasing music volume, and using antique fixtures to create a cosmopolitan experience that will appeal to certain demographics.

Project Information Conceptual Data: The project is important because it will help the Blue Talon reach a wider audience in the greater Williamsburg area, especially the students. It will also teach our group to better understand the use of design as a strategic tool. Technical Data: Focus on food production by an executive chef trained in fine dining who worked at a previous restaurant that rated AAA triple diamond every year. Manager Adam Steely works with hosts, servers, chefs, and customers to create an experience which will help his business succeed financially, and create a positive work environment. Innovation comes from the kitchen, and he hopes to use more social media to attract a stronger student presence. Constraints arise from the customers themselves and what they want from their food experience. Some may want more fine dining, some may prefer more casual. Commercial Data: Publicity arises mostly from word of mouth. Blue Talon has become a community fixture because of their strong branding and community outreach efforts such as charity, showing movies, and the turkey trot. He works closely with customers to understand their expectations. Their brand is known for quality food for a reasonable price. It is also known for being a unique dining atmosphere Mr. Steely has achieved over the years. Marketing Data: The bistro has a strong following because of their branding, but wants to get that impression into more minds. The manager wants to create a slow, steady, word of mouth reputation that will result not in periodic floods of customers, but in a reliable stream of returning customers, along with a smaller number of new diners that will become regulars. While Blue Talon has reached the student market and they are glad to have done so, they feel their work in this segment has been incomplete. Mr. Steely stated, “The student market is a market we have failed to penetrate effectively.” Financial Data: From our initial interview with Mr.

Steely (Appendix B) would like to see a 10-‐15% increase in student visitation and a 3% increase in overall sales. Tourists typically make up 20% of visitors. The restaurant averaged 140 people a night in January. They have about 15,000 people on their email list who are reliable diners who took the time to sign up and respond. Customer Equity Interview Overview We conducted an in-‐depth customer interview with Arianna Roumeliotes, a senior at the college. She tends to eat outside of William & Mary dining about 6 times per month and dines at Blue Talon about 2 times per month. Her favorite types of cuisine are French and Italian. For Arianna, quality is the most important aspect of her dining-‐out experience. While she would rather pay less, since she is on a student budget, she is willing to splurge for a good meal. She believes that you get what you pay for. Arianna also values the brand image, ambiance, and reputation of the restaurant she visits. She thinks Blue Talon has great food along with presentation and she can tell that a lot of care was put into the preparation. However sometimes she finds the service to be lacking. Even though Arianna is signed up for Blue Talon’s emails, and she always is interest in attending the events, she never seems to make it to the event either because she gets too busy, or because it’s too far away. She loves the birthday special and has held her birthday dinner at Blue Talon multiple times as well as having attending lots of friends’ birthdays as well. In comparison with what Arianna believes to be Blue Talon’s main competition, Blue Talon wins in value, variety of student deals, as well as food quality over Dog Street Pub and Cheese Shop, In summary Blue Talon is the place where Arianna goes to eat out on special occasion and she believes the food is consistently good. She does wish that service was better and that deal and promotions were advertised more than just a an email. She would also be very receptive to more reasonably priced options for students and well as more student deals. (The interview guide as well as customer interview transcript is included in Appendix C and Appendix D, respectively.) We also sent out a survey to students, which had 78 responses. Data from the survey can be seen below, as well as further information in the appendices. This proved our belief that students were generally not aware of other Blue Talon deals, but value good food most importantly when choosing a restaurant.


Research Results

0%

100%

Yes No

72% 28%

NUmbe

r of S

tude

nts

Birthday Entree Special: ASendance

0%

50%

100%

Yes No

28%

72%

Num

ber o

f Stude

nts

Other Student Specials: Awareness

0 1 2 3 4 5

Brand

Quality of Food

Service

Affordability

Value

3.69

4.08

3.58

1.96

2.91

Unimportant to Very Important

CharacterisUcs

Importance of ASributes


The central question is, how do we attract 10-‐15% more

college students without risking brand integrity?

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Dinner, and 2) geographically; they cannot be very steady consumers if the maximum amount of time they spend in Williamsburg is four years (and most students only discovering BT or being compelled to go as a sophisticated upperclassman v. a teenage freshman). Upon gathering online reviews along with the customer interview of Ms. Roumeliotes, service does not rank highest for BT’s achievements. Negative reviews were peppered with complaints of wait staff attitude and error, while complaints of food quality and atmosphere were hardly present. We then considered a few options to make up for these discrepancies. The film screenings and beverage-‐centered events could become more inclusive of college students. Although there are a plethora of on-‐campus events, off-‐campus ones are often talked about between students looking for a night away from academia. It is no secret that college students would be attracted to upgraded drinks, but Blue Talon may not be the first in line to dole out its reputation for that of a bar. On the other hand, they would still be new customers who are willing to pay more for higher quality drinks. Given the scattered reviews of wait staff, it would perhaps be prudent to approach that. Packing customers from back of store to front when they are not busy seems to create issues for customers. There could be a small discount

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with a William & Mary ID, once a week or once a month? Word would likely spread quickly, similar to how it did with the birthday deal. New and returning customers could subsequently make it a point to eat at BT regularly during the days offering discounts. Mr. Steely clearly runs a very efficient and streamlined business. He knows exactly what he wants from his employees as well as his consumers and every little detail in the restaurant has an explanation behind it, from the design of the restaurant to the pour-‐your-‐own water jugs placed on the tables. Mr. Steely manages Blue Talon with confidence in the food and atmosphere he wishes to create, as he does with who he wishes to attract. He really wants to make dining at Blue Talon a part of the William & Mary student experience. Mr. Steely’s goal is to bring in 10-‐15% more college customers in the coming year. The central question is, how do we attract 10-‐15% more college students without risking brand integrity. Making it clear to students that they can both save money and eat quality food can only yield net benefits for the Talon. Saving money is a strategy that works, as has been proven with the birthday dinner. If hosts and hostesses take note of these events, they have the opportunity to have a one or two minute conversation with the table about future opportunities for them to save money, such as the Tribe Thursdays. By taking advantage of this preexisting popular feature, the restaurant can look to expand its marketing effectiveness with

Insights and Criteria The Blue Talon is, at its core, a higher quality establishment in a small college town. For increasing its reach, it utilizes a mostly word-‐of-‐mouth network that is effective more in the Williamsburg community than in the William & Mary community. The occasional events, such as the Turkey Trot and Breakfast with Santa, are mostly targeted at families. The general atmosphere, prices, and food selection target older, settled, well-‐to-‐do residents as well as families in the area. Williamsburg is famously an old city with no lack of aged residents, many of whom enjoy a sophisticated life. As for attracting more college students, the price is the biggest hurdle. The majority of WM students are on a budget, and aside from the BT birthday special, don’t see why they should splurge when they are already paying a hefty price for campus dining. Mr. Steely no doubt understands this, and makes decisions regarding what clientele he wishes to attract. His lack of print and media advertising is likely purposely against the grain of video and “click” ads that grab the attention of young demographics. His business has been steadily growing without the need to rival flashy start-‐ups. A sense of community is implied by Mr.

Steely, and his image of customer growth is very cohesive to that sense: slow, steady growth, with reliable customers... But WM students are more or less unreliable in two areas: 1) financially; paying for a high quality


the campus community. Making it clear to students that they can both save money and eat quality food can only yield net benefits for the Talon. Saving money is a strategy that works, as has been proven with the birthday dinner. The next step to help our project move forward is how to inform students that avenues for saving money already exist, and should be enjoyed. The next step was to incorporate the insights that we identified into an ideal scenario. This would be the solution that best encapsulated both Mr. Steely’s objectives, and our goals, into one cohesive plan. To do this, we used some brainstorming techniques that forced us to push the boundaries of our imagination, which was helpful in better understanding what we really wanted to accomplish with the restaurant. We decided that if anything were possible, our ideal solution to the problem of a lack of student engagement would be to place a personalized, three dimensional message card in the CSU box of every student on campus. This message would contain information urging them to visit both the restaurant, and free tastings of Blue Talon products on a given date, likely a Friday when student traffic is heavy. The message would outline the best deals the Blue Talon offers, such as the birthday dinner and the half priced wine nights. Between viewing the message, attending the free tasting, and the subsequent student chatter, the restaurant would notice a sizeable increase in student consumer activity during the dinner hours and extra events. Clearly, this would be the exemplary solution, but its creation still helps act as a guide for our work. Next, questioning the design criteria allowed us to explore which options we could accomplish, and what resources were at our disposal. Design Goal: The Blue Talon will develop an initiative to increase student interest and attendance. This initiative will address the client problems of:

• Lack of student consumerism at normal meal times

• Lack of student attendance at extra events such as running and movie nights

• Failure to maintain steady student awareness of deals and pricing options

• Failure to attract student customers who will

• (Cont.) graduate to become spending alumni User Perception: The initiative should be classy and understated to make customers buy into the idea of serious comfort food. It should also make students believe that they can afford to eat at the restaurant, even on a less expansive budget. Physical Attributes: The card placed inside the CSU boxes of students should be thoughtful and unique. Color will bring the attention of their eyes to money saving opportunities, and a minimalist design will reinforce their perception of the Blue Talon as a classy and upscale restaurant worthy of their time. The tasting table should focus on desserts such as ice cream and the chocolate mousse, both of which contain lots of sugar that results in short term, high level pleasure. Functional Attributes: The intervention must reach students. That is to say, the ideal scenario would have every student on campus at least be aware of the ways that they can use their status as college members to save money and take advantage of discounts. The next functional attribute after that is for the plan to have a real draw. Small percentage savings will not attract crowds or create a following. Instead, students need to feel excitement when they hear about the money they save, which should be an acceptable slight loss of revenue for the restaurant since they are essentially investing in their future by increasing their consumer base. Constraints: The Blue Talon must accomplish their marketing strategy without sacrificing the strong brand they have built up over the years. They still need to be considered a relatively fancy, destination location to eat quality food. In addition, the Blue Talon would ideally accomplish their goals with minimal cost to time, energy, or financial resources. The restaurant business is notoriously difficult to maintain a profit in, and they should rely on their brand name as much as possible without taking employee time or spending too much cash.


What If: Brainstorm Ideas Our team utilized the ten tools listed in Liedtka’s text while coming up with concept ideas for our project. The tools we used most often were a combination of brainstorming and rapid prototyping, which utilized our innovative mindsets and allowed us to think outside traditional paths of thinking. Mind mapping and concept development ensured that we honed in on the important parts of our project, such as customer satisfaction and increased student awareness. Visualization was also a key aspect of the process, because as the target audience, we as college students are uniquely placed to create a design strategy for the restaurant. As we continued to brainstorm, it was important for us to step back and remember the bigger picture of what we were trying to accomplish. This goal was to determine the “what if?” What if one idea was better than the rest? What if one idea sacrificed efficacy for a lower cost in time and energy? What if one idea received more backing from the restaurateurs? Our next step was to come up with trigger questions that would help us move forward. We wanted to explore the possibilities of what we could accomplish, and also open ourselves up to stimulus. With these thoughts in mind, we came up with several trigger questions that could be posed either to one another, or to participants of a survey. Trigger Question #1: What tactic, no matter how drastic, could the Blue Talon use to make every college student at William and Mary visit them over the course of a single week? Trigger Question #2: If the restaurant offered free samples of their chocolate mousse to students on the terrace every day for a month, would student visits spike? Trigger Question #3: How often do students actually check their CSU, and how often do they actually read the contents of their mailbox?

Develop Concepts Our goal was to build multiple concepts, which included a table in front of the Sadler terrace or inside Sadler, CSU fliers, advertisements on announcement boards across campus, advertisement for a Blue Talon special deal, advertisement for Blue Talon in general, sampling table, Williamsburg Harvest Festival, use of logo and possibly a sample of food to attract students, implement strategy to make Blue Talon a “must-‐try” experience for William & Mary students Our action-‐oriented strategy will be personal. We are planning to interact with customers in a way that makes them participate in finding out about Blue Talon, rather than people telling them what it is. A tasting table would be a good strategy to follow this theme. Another strategy is to create an


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ad for a special deal on a specialty item, such as Mousse, so new customers can develop their interest in Blue Talon through a trial visit to the restaurant. Similar Concepts included advertisement as the core strategy is implemented in CSU fliers, or paper advertisements on announcement boards across campus. The plans for sampling and tabling could be combined to make a Tasting Table. Instead of a plain flier, a table with samples would be an inviting solution to bring people to the booth or table. Blue Talon’s food is high quality, and a passerby would be able to see and taste that. Timing: A crucial aspect of implementing a marketing campaign in a college campus is timing. Advertisements distributed just before the school year finishes will most likely be forgotten by the time students return in August. Advertisements and fliers would be much more useful in the beginning of the year To combine visual marketing and action-‐oriented marketing efforts, advertisements could be created for the Tasting Table or Williamsburg Harvest Festival.

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We then decided on three concepts:

1. Williamsburg Harvest Celebration Student Event: Blue Talon will either host a class or have a booth with samples at the WIlliamsburg Harvest Celebration Event this coming Fall.

2. Student Engagement Tasting Table: This will be a booth somewhere in campus providing free samples to students who pass by.

3. Blue Talon Visual Advertising: We will create paper advertisements for Blue Talon in general, and a special deal of Blue Talon. Both will be posted around campus.

The next steps would be to create napkin pitches for each concept.

We are planning to interact with customers

in a way that makes them participate in

finding out about Blue Talon.

Our action-‐oriented strategy will be

personal.


Napkin Pitch #2: Student Engagement Tasting Table We would set up a table on the terrace selling pastries and snacks at a free or reduced price. This leads to one on one conversations with customers which the GM wants. Raises awareness of student deals and discounts. We will choose a sunny day and set up at noon. We can resource tables from the Sadler Center, and Blue Talon can provide a tablecloth and food. We would only require one or two representatives from the Restaurant to be friendly, and take down student feedback. This action will address the restaurant’s principal concern, which is the lack of student knowledge about deals that would draw them in. The terrace is a major hub for students in the middle of the day, and having a table will generate talk. We are uniquely capable of delivering because the Blue Talon has real pull owing to its positive reputation. Competition will not react, as most restaurants already have established advertising procedures. To sustain this advantage, the Blue Talon representatives will pass out flyers, or verbally inform students about student deals that will interest them.

Napkin Pitch #1: Williamsburg Harvest Celebration Student Event The Blue Talon would host an event for students during the Williamsburg Harvest Celebration next November. Students would be interested in doing this because it would give them a cheaper way to be involved in the WHC with fellow students. It would provide great food as well as community in a nicer setting than students usually experience. We are also looking to see if students could use Dining Dollars or Express to pay for this, which is a greater incentive to participate. We will host a large student dinner catered by the Blue Talon in an esteemed location-‐-‐either on the Sunken Gardens or DoG Street. The Blue Talon has already agreed to host an event for students during the festival, and would like to cater to get students more familiar with their food. This event allows the Blue Talon to reach out to students in a fun and engaging manner. The Blue Talon could use the buzz of this event to further advertise for their deals which students currently know little about. The Williamsburg Harvest Celebration is an annual event in its inaugural year and thus provides a unique opportunity for the Blue Talon. Students would associate the Blue Talon with an enjoyable experience that they can return to year after year, and this provides an excuse for them to return to the restaurant more frequently than otherwise. No other restaurant is looking to host a student-‐centered event during the festival, so the Blue Talon has the advantage here. They can sustain this advantage by continuing to host the event in the following years, and using the time this upcoming year to promote the restaurant’s deals.


Napkin Pitch #3: Blue Talon Advertisement We will create two advertisements: one for BT in general, and one for a deal on a specialty item, most likely mousse (example: free mousse for a meal purchase on Mondays with a valid W&M ID). The manager had mentioned that he wants a greater reach to students. The Blue Talon logo is stylized and inviting. Many clubs and organizations on campus reach out to students through makeshift advertisements and posters on announcement boards in dorm and academic buildings. After creating the ads, we will need to either a) place them in the student mailboxes or b) put them up on to bulletin/announcement boards all over campus. The opportunity we are addressing is to reach out to the W&M campus. With analysis, we have concluded that a marketing campaign such as this will increase BT’s visibility. Students are busy, and an ad based on visual marketing such as this has the potential to capture their attention for enough time.

We decided to pursue the Tribe•Talon Tasting Table pitch, since it is the most personal and efficient option to reach students quickly. It appeals most to students’ needs of good food at an affordable (free) price, and

gives the restaurant plenty of positive publicity.


Both students who do and do not often dine at the Blue Talon will be drawn in.

What Wows: Surface Key Assumptions Tribe•Talon Tasting Table Value Test assumptions:

1. Students will want to eat free mousse. 2. Students who eat free mousse will listen to the other Blue Talon promotions. 3. Both students who do and do not often dine at Blue Talon will be drawn in.

Execution Test assumptions: 1. Using the terrace is a convenience that will attract more students than a less central

location. 2. Funds are available to host this to boost the student demographic.

Scale Test assumptions: 1. We can handle demand for this tasting table. 2. A majority of students who will be more inclined to visit the Blue Talon after trying out

their mousse and hearing about their specials. Defensibility Test assumptions

1. Blue Talon offers promotions to students that other restaurants do not offer. 2. Their advantage here increases as promotion is boosted.

Our design prototypes can be found in Appendix K. We went through several rough prototypes

of advertising flyers before deciding on a final streamlined design.


Value is the most important aspect.

What Works: Feedback from Stakeholders

We conducted two types of research, both qualitative and quantitative. The first step was an in-‐depth interview in which we interviewed a candidate, Arianna Roumeliotes, for 45 minutes to get her feedback and insights about her current perception of Blue Talon and what we could do to make it more appealing and accessible to students (Appendix D). During this interview we found that value was the most important aspect, and while students would rather pay less money, they are willing to pay a premium price for a premium product.

The second mode of research we conducted was an online Qualtrics survey in which we got 79 respondents to take our questionnaire. Our target population was students of all social classes at William and Mary. We used non-‐probability sampling as well as snowball sampling and distributed the survey through sending mass emails in each of our classes, as well as posting the link to the survey on our various forms of social media. Even though the participants were based on convenience, ease of access, and respondent references, we believe that the entire group of participants gave a reasonably representative sample of the overall William & Mary student target population-‐ 14 freshman, 27 sophomores, 18 juniors, and 19 seniors.

After collecting, organizing, and analyzing the data, we discovered some fantastic insights and information that greatly helped and supported our project. When asked how many times students dine outside of William & Mary’s on-‐campus dining options, the majority of students (32%) said that they dined out over six times per month. When asked if they had ever heard of the Blue Talon, 100% of respondents said they had! Next, we discovered that 90% of those students had actually dined at Blue Talon, which is a considerable percentage of participants. In regards to Blue Talon’s birthday entree special, a large amount of the William & Mary student population is aware of the special at 97% awareness, and 72% of these students have either attended a birthday dinner at Blue Talon, or have hosted their own birthday dinner there. However, even though students are extremely acquainted with the birthday special, they


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are not as aware with other student deals like Tribe Thursdays which is $10.95 for entrees, half-‐priced bottles of wine, and free hot chocolate for students on snow days. Only 28% of students are aware of these deals. This shows us that there is a lot of room for improvement. In ranking the attributes of Blue Talon on a scale from 1 to 5 of importance, students ranked the quality of food as most important at 4.08, brand image second at 3.69, then service at 3.58, followed by value at 2.91, and finally affordability at 1.96.

This data surprised us in that even for college students, quality trumps affordability and students are willing to pay more for a great meal. Blue Talon’s brand is also very important to students, and we believe that Blue Talon already has a great image, and with our recommendations to improve social media engagement and drive visitation with our Tribe Talon Tasting Table this will only increase brand equity. 58% of students believe that Blue Talon is a part of their William & Mary experience. This is a fantastic starting point, but we definitely believe that we can increase this percentage. On a similar note, 56% of students would choose to dine at Blue Talon when returning to William & Mary as alumni. And finally, in regards to advertising methods, Facebook was overwhelming the number one choice for students at 71%. (The survey as well as survey results and graphs are included in Appendices E and F.)

Learning Launches Using the napkin pitch concerning the tasting table, we set to work on designing a prototype learning launch that would provide us with valuable feedback on customer preferences, and consumer willingness to pay. We understood after reviewing the handbook and discussing it as a group that risk aversion is a very interesting phenomenon. Designing and running the learning launch becomes far more valuable than analysis at a certain point. Humans are emotional creatures, and it is easy to become overly attached or over-‐invested in one’s idea or brainwave. At the critical juncture when a team believes their project to be mission-‐capable, it must be tested with a launch. To that end, we prepared a learning launch that would feature a tasting table of Blue Talon products, using helpful steps.

1. Set Tight Boundaries: Our tasting table will feature a variety of foods, geared towards attracting attention, and pleasing the average

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taste bud. These items will be strategically chosen to be small in size, in order to serve and satisfy large numbers of students. The table will feature two desserts; the chocolate mousse, and the burnt sugar ice cream. These sugar heavy foods will leave a lasting impression of happiness of students on a hot day, and will also draw crowds as people inform their friends of its presence through social media. The table will be active for two hours, since any time longer than that risks the table running out of food and creating disappointed students. It will be operated by no less than two, but no more than three restaurant representatives at a time, who will be wearing Blue Talon shirts and hats. They will have coolers containing food, be smiling as much as possible, and engaging students in a friendly manner. The table will be resourced from the Sadler center, and the representatives will also bring the email sign up cards for anyone who wants to fill one out.

2. Design With a Sharp Focus on Key Assumptions: One of our key assumptions is that students want to save money, which drove us to offer free samples as opposed to pricier ones. While the restaurant is sacrificing some resources, it is gaining a huge amount of publicity and goodwill from students who otherwise may not know much about the cuisine offered. Another key assumption is that students will enjoy the serious comfort food of the venue when they arrive. To solve this, we chose sugar and taste filled dishes that will please the largest demographic of students. When they reach the tasting table and take a bite, they should exclaim about how good the food is.

3. Build a Team That is Both Disciplined and Adaptive: The team members chosen to represent the Blue Talon should be either hostesses or wait staff from the restaurant. Age is no guarantee of effectiveness. Rather, they will be chosen based on service time with the restaurant, and on general demeanor. Being a veteran employee makes them invested in what they are doing, and more readily equipped to answer any questions that the students may have when approaching the table. As for demeanor, the team should consists of extroverts who draw their energy from others, and who are genuinely excited to spend an


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afternoon chatting with young college students. Smiling is a very important and underrated feature of advertising, and team members will be chosen who are outwardly positive. The manager will vet the candidates ideally from a group of volunteers, instead of having to task out. As student advisors to Mr. Steely, our group will be present at the event assisting where needed, and also engaging with students through social media and by asking questions of acquaintances who try the food.

4. Work in Fast Feedback Cycles: To accomplish this step, we will have one member of our group keeping track of the number of students who visit the station. They will also track which food ran out first, and which food ran out last. This data will help provide information as to student interest in the table, and which food grabbed their interest. Knowing the foods they prefer could help Mr. Steely develop new marketing techniques focused on meals or products that will draw students into the restaurant. Another important consideration is the involvement of Mr. Steely himself. Dinner is their busiest time, so holding the event in the afternoon would provide him with the opportunity to visit campus in person and supervise for a brief period, or at least

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check in on his staff. His presence will ensure that the staff remains professional, and will help him get a first hand look at his client base at the college.

5. Make it Feel Real: The most valuable attribute of a successful learning launch is its ability to expose flaws and mistakes in real time, because of its purposeful direction. Theory and supposition hold no place when conducting the launch. Instead, usable data and results should be noticed and recorded, helping researchers and project developers enhance their idea. If our idea is a near-‐total failure, it is still a step in the right direction; at least it would make us aware that that particular idea would not have succeeded as a marketing tool to encourage students to eat at the Blue Talon. With this in mind, our tasting table will be a very real testing ground to see what kind of response we get, and to find out from representatives how many students knew about the restaurant’s deals already, and how many were exposed for the first time. Having the manager stop in, perhaps at the one-‐hour mark, combined with having actual venue staff present at the event will lend the table with an air of authenticity. The students need not be aware that

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the table is an experiment. For the group and for the restaurant, however, it will be a valuable tool to advertise and to learn.


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Design the On-‐Ramp We will have two “On-‐ramp” ideas: 1) A promotional advertisement for the Tasting Table will be put up across campus on announcement boards in dorm and academic buildings (Appendix L). 2) We will create a Facebook “event” and share it with our Facebook networks, reaching potentially hundreds of William and Mary students.

• Artifacts: We will attract passersby with samples of Mousse. The Blue Talon logo is prominently featured on their storefront, and the same chicken logo will be a focus point for our tasting table. An advertisement created specifically for the event will also feature the chicken logo. The paper advertisement will be simple. Apart from the chicken log, there will be no visuals. Successful fliers and promotional posters found on campus are simple and eye-‐catching; students do not have a lot of time to read much text while briskly walking from class to class. Although Blue Talon is a higher-‐end establishment, especially for college students), many successful fliers also include hand-‐drawn details made by students, as it shows more care and effort than something typed up on the computer. The poster will include a quaint title drawn in alongside the logo copied from the Internet. The only information on the poster will be the crucial details (once we have the details in place): the when, and the where. The less professional features of the visual advertisement will help attract students who are worried that Blue Talon is out of their price range; if W&M students (our group) are promoting this restaurant to be student-‐friendly, it is much more believable.

• Network Value and Social Pressure: We can create a Facebook event for the Tasting Table, which students can “share” to their Facebook network. Sharing events on Facebook is effective in quickly getting the word out; our team has experience in Public Relations through social media, and we have seen this. As people say that they will go to this event on Facebook, their network will see this, and feel compelled to join. This effect is compounded as more and more people “join” the event. Added up, the four people in our group have approximately 1000 “friends” on Facebook from William & Mary alone. Taking into account that some people do not check Facebook often, we will still reach hundreds of W&M students. We will launch the event 2 weeks prior, to 1) give enough time for people to find out about it but 2) not be too far ahead of time that people forget about it. The Facebook event will also feature the Blue Talon chicken logo on the web page.

What Now? What Next? Solutions for failures of Learning Launch: The Tasting Table is not a drastic tactic, but it will also most likely be effective enough to gather attention. The Sadler Terrace is in the center of campus, and even when students are not dining in Sadler, many of them walk past it to get to another class. If the Tasting Table is done in early September, which is still the summer, students will love the chance to eat cold desserts, especially free ones from a quality establishment. Such an experience, although it may be a one-‐time thing, will stick in students’ minds. The Blue Talon desserts will set the restaurant apart from dining that the students’ are used to. This approach will hopefully be enough to help achieve Mr. Steely’s goal of 10-‐15% additional W&M student customers. Revise Concept and Napkin Pitches: One revision we have for the Tasting Table is that not only will we provide free mousse samples, but there will also be the specialty item: Blue Talon’s burnt sugar ice cream. Both are cold desserts, and since we will be holding the Table during the end of August, will be popular among the tired and hot students as they walk from class to class. The logistics for the Tasting Table, such as reserving the table itself, have been added in Step 14. Refine Key Assumptions: The key assumptions listed in Step 11 are still accurate, and all of them still pertain to our Learning Launch. Although the On-‐ramp action of creating a Facebook event will give us an indicator of whether or not students are interested in such a thing, only the Learning Launch. The students who have not seen a paper advertisement or the Facebook event may very well still pass by the Tasting Table. Conversely, students who said on Facebook that they would attend the Tasting Table event may forget about it on the day of, or have too busy of


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a schedule, or not have the chance to pass by the Sadler Center. Carrying out the Launch will allow us to have face-‐to-‐face interactions with students who have both never been to Blue Talon, and students who have, to receive quick feedback if they choose to provide it. Alternative Learning Launch: A hypothetical alternative Learning Launch is a special deal on a Blue Talon product. The specialty deal would be mousse to tie in with our current Learning Launch. The specifics would be something along the lines of Napkin Pitch #3: (1) free mousse dessert with purchase of an entree dish on Mondays with a valid W&M ID. We would title this “Mousse Monday.” The Tasting Table would then serve as advertising for Mousse Monday.

Learning Loops: 2D Paper Prototype (Visual Advertisements): We will post the visual advertisements across campus two weeks before the event. We will also create the Facebook event at this time. Implementing both marketing strategies at once will compound the effect, as it is more likely that students will spread the word if they see it at the same time, especially if they see it from different sources. There will be no expenses, since creating a Facebook event is free and we can simply print out more copies of the visual advertisement. 4D Test (Tribe Talon Tasting Table): We will contact Blue Talon during August. We will coordinate a date in early September for the mousse, ice cream, and workers’ availability during one weekday when classes are occurring. We will contact the Sadler Center two weeks ahead of time to rent a table, and to let them know that we will be tabling in front of the Sadler Terrace on the assigned day.

Students will love the chance to eat cold desserts, especially free ones from a

quality establishment. Such an experience… will stick in students’

minds.

blue talon student engagement strategy

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