Eating on the go

Customer Research 2010.09-2011.01 (group work)

Customer Research in New Product
Development

Societal shifts such as irregular working hours, longer time
spent in transit, and fragmented mealtimes are driving
consumers to feel more time pressured. As a result,
consumers are increasingly consuming food and drinks
on-the-go. In this project, the emerging trends driving and
potentially inhibiting on-the-go food and drinks consumption
are to be explored in qualitative and quantitative research.
Besides, insights can be used to develop and design a new
and better eating on the go experience for LU, a biscuit
company in the Netherlands.
Eating on the go
Project goal
The research group aims to help LU in the process of designing a new set of foods/snacks that can be eaten on-the-
go. There can be problems or issues which people face while eating on-the-go. The group wants to explore and fnd
these issues to help LU design better eating experiences.
Qualitative Research
Target group
Young student aging 15-25
years old, who are people
with purchasing power.
Methods
Observation methods: non-participant observation and
participant observation
Sampling methods: convenient sampling and intentional
sampling
Objective
Understand human behavior when eating on-the-go
and to gain some insights in solving or improving their
situation when they eat while on the move.
Food
Different kinds of food are bought and consumed in the observation.
Locations
Observations are made in several places where more students are active.
Eating on the go
Key fndings
In the analysis the research team categorizes eating on-the-go behavior and its related environment in several aspects.
Eating on the go
Quantitative Research
Objective
Social Interaction
Interaction within peer groups and
interaction with the environment
when people eat on-the-go
Multitasking
The most common and diffcult activity
people perform simultaneously while
eating on the go and peoples emotions
Clean Disposal
The necessity, frequency and
common way of cleaning hands
before eating
The previous observation
presents three main issues
affecting eating on-the-go
behavior: social interaction,
multi-tasking and need of
clean disposal. Next to that
hypotheses of correlations
between the issues are stated
and a quantitative research is
conducted to verify them.
An online questionnaire is developed to collect quantitative data and 81 students participate in the study. There are total 19 questions which ideally
enable respondents to fnish in fve minutes. The data is further analyzed via Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS).
Methods
Findings and suggestions
There is no signifcant gender based
difference for food choice and there is
no need to design an eating-on-the-go
product specifcally for one gender.
Gender and food preferences
Easy-open package or portion
The package or portion of the food
should make it easier for consumers
to do other activities such as using
cell phone at the same time. So LU
could develop smart package design
which is easy to open with one hand
or smaller portions for products.
Most of the respondents prefer bakery
products and beverages. So it would
be advisable to LU to develop a set of
bakery products and beverages as a
breakfast menu.
Bakery product and beverages
Respondents emphasize on cleaning
of hands and disposal of packages
after eating on-the-go. LU could work
on exploring packaging material
that could be used as a tissue and
disposed off easily after the food
product is consumed.
Hands cleaning and disposal package