Pregnancy A Time Of Either Joy Or Anxiety For Many Moms...

Running head: DEVELOPMENTAL 1 DEVELOPMENTAL 12 Developmental Analysis Stephanie Hernandez Liberty University Abstract Pregnancy is a time of either joy or anxiety for many moms to be. When my mother, Becky Siekmann, was pregnant with me the pregnancy was normal with no complications with my birth happening on my due date of July 10, 1990. Breastfeeding is the best form of nutrition for babies and children under the age of 2 years old per the World Health Organization (WHO) (WHO | Infant and young child feeding, 2016). When talking with my mother about my development as an infant I found that I was a normal infant, but that I got repeated ear infections that ultimately resulted in having tubes put in before the age of one. Formula Fed babies are linked with having more cases of ear infections and other diseases then babies that are breastfed. My mother chose to formula feed me because of the negative stigma that breastfeeding had around the time of my birth. As a toddler, I was very apprehensive to new situations and places per my mother. This would be the result of having a slow to warm tempe rament. Having a slow -to-warm temperament means that one is very passive and needs adequate time to adjust to new situations and people (Wong, Hall, Justice, Hernandez, 2015). This goes also with Erik Erikson?s first stage of Psychological Development which addresses trust versus mistrust. Trust is fostered when needs areShow MoreRelatedFlashbacks : Nightmares During Pregnancy Essay2287 Words   |  10 PagesNightmares During Pregnancy By:- Aditi Kapoor Its true that during pregnancy or shorty after they’ve given birth dream perception of the people changes. But have you wondered why this happens? (Of course, We’re talking to the women in this post, but you men can feel free to read along and learn something as well). Many women complaints that they encounter dreams about miscarriages or some miss happening to their baby, not only dreams related to the pregnancy but themselves too or about family orRead MoreAbortion Should Not Be Legal2517 Words   |  11 PagesA debate as old as time, abortion. An issue that went from being social to political. Some believes that abortion should be legal, others want it to be restricted. Hence, one afternoon I sat down with my laptop to find out the right stance on the issue. After doing a thorough research, I came across many views and ideologies on why it should and should not be legal. As a result, the following paper will discuss all that I came across. Firstly, there are people who believes that abortion leads toRead MoreChildren Living From Single Parent Homes2148 Words   |  9 Pagescases we find that the child will act out and find ways to fit in with other crowds. This would be the child seeking attention in other places because they do not feel as if they get enough from the parents. â€Å"A child who lives with one parent may find many things to resent about his life. He may be angry with one or both parents for having to grow up in a single-parent home, and blame one or both for being the cause of a single-parent arrangement. He may also resent other kids who appear to have a happierRead MoreMy Own Personal Development And Development Essay3115 Words   |  13 PagesUniversity Abstract Development takes place over the course of one?s lifespan. Development starts from the conception and pregnancy and goes through different stages of life. Each stage of development comes with its own sets of challenges and accomplishments. Once accomplishments are made one moves on into the next stage of development. Pregnancy starts development which then moves to toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and lastly oldest age. Each stage has significantlyRead MoreSuccessful Women Hr in India13762 Words   |  56 Pagesare likely to see many capable women in the country as HR heads going forward. Women are blessed with excellent multi-tasking abilities†¦ Most women are gifted with tremendous resilience and are equipped with a great quality to have to survive the corporate world. Two, they can empathise with people well and tend to collaborate more often than not. And finally, they multi-task with ease. And these are primarily the most essential personality traits of an HR manager. There are many challenges to beingRead MoreLifespan Essay14430 Words   |  58 PagesAt 0 months: ARDA sleeps virtually all of the time, only waking when hungry, cold, or wet. He usually drifts back to sleep toward the end of the feeding. You talk quietly to ARDA during the feeding, making sure ARDA sees your face a great deal of the time. You try to wake ARDA up for some parent-baby interaction time. You dance gently around with him in your arms, and talk or sing out loud. You figure that ARDA needs the sleeping time for brain development so you dont disturb him. A Read Morepreschool Essay46149 Words   |  185 Pagespart of the daily curriculum and be responsive to the needs of each student. In addition, a recent report from the American Academy of Pediatrics concludes that play is vitally important for healthy brain development. These reports, as well as many others, make clear that preschool children’s play and integrated learning are vital components of high-quality preschool programs. With the goal of ensuring that all preschools in California offer highquality programs, the California DepartmentRead MoreFundamentals of Hrm263904 Words   |  1056 Pagesresources With WileyPLUS: Students achieve concept mastery in a rich, structured environment that’s available 24/7 Instructors personalize and manage their course more effectively with assessment, assignments, grade tracking, and more manage time better study smarter save money From multiple study paths, to self-assessment, to a wealth of interactive visual and audio resources, WileyPLUS gives you everything you need to personalize the teaching and learning experience.  » F i n d o u tRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pages David M. Adams, California State Polytechnic University These examples work quite well. Their diversity, literacy, ethnic sensitivity, and relevancy should attract readers. Stanley Baronett. Jr., University of Nevada Las Vegas Far too many authors of contemporary texts in informal logic – keeping an eye on the sorts of arguments found in books on formal logic – forget, or underplay, how much of our daily reasoning is concerned not with arguments leading to truth-valued conclusions

Why Is Knowledge Important Than Knowledge Essay - 1388 Words

â€Å"In gaining knowledge, each area of knowledge uses a network of ways of knowing.† Discuss this Statement with reference to two areas of knowledge. â€Å"I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Forknowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.† - Albert Einstein The above lines were quoted by Albert Einstein which states the importance of ways of knowing in gaining knowledge. It also emphasizes the utilization of other ways of knowing in different areas of knowledge. From many years the knowledge has been passed down from people to people by many mediums or by many ways. We gain knowledge through different ways of knowing.My knowledge question is â€Å"In what ways does the network of Ways of knowing used in gaining knowledge influence the knowledge gained?† I will try to answer this knowledge question while writing my essay. In order to understand the title of the essay or the question one must know what does it really means, therefore it is important to look at the subject matter topic in hand and understand the key terms. â€Å"Network† of ways of knowing means that there is a connection between ways of knowing to share knowledge .Areas of knowledge represents all the basic and theoretical or conceptual things knowledge consists of, like an area of knowledge shows the places from where people canShow MoreRelatedMary Shelly s Frankenstein And The Hidden Self1662 Words   |  7 PagesKnowledge is a distinct gift that is gained through the power of learning from mistakes, progress, and experience, which is why knowledge is has been proven to be a push for mankind to create and learn about new things each and every day. Without knowledge, people feel empty, and they feel that way because they feel useless, and they feel useless because they don’t know what to do, and this is what leads me to believe that texts like Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein or Pauline Hopkins of One Blood: orRead MoreWhat Is Self Knowledge?1282 Words   |  6 PagesWhat Is Self Knowledge? How to Improve Your Life Through Honesty With Yourself By Adam V Talbot | Submitted On May 11, 2015 Recommend Article Article Comments Print Article Share this article on Facebook Share this article on Twitter Share this article on Google+ Share this article on Linkedin Share this article on StumbleUpon Share this article on Delicious Share this article on Digg Share this article on Reddit Share this article on Pinterest Expert Author Adam V Talbot Anyone who s seenRead MoreHayek Essay1379 Words   |  6 PagesDiscussion Questions: â€Å"The Use of Knowledge in Society†, Hayek, Friedrich A. 1. â€Å"The peculiar character of the problem of a rational economic order is determined precisely by the fact that the knowledge of the circumstances of which we must make use never exists in concentrated or integrated form, but solely as the dispersed bits of incomplete and frequently contradictory knowledge which all the separate individuals possess (H.3)† a. What does Hayek mean by a â€Å"rational economic order†? Read MoreThe End Of Remembering, And Paulo Freire844 Words   |  4 Pagesconsider yourself to have a bad memory? Can you remember more than four phone numbers and more than three immediate family members birthdays without using any technology? If you cannot answer those simple questions than maybe you should reconsider on working on your memorization side of your brain. Joshua Foer, the author of The End of Remembering, and Paulo Freire, author of The â€Å"Banking† Concept of Education, both write about how important memory is in the world today. In Foer’s passage he states thatRead MoreBSHS 345 Week 1 Assignment Personal Exploration Worksheet1307 Words   |  6 Pagesconcerned about, or intimidated by? Why would understanding diversity issues be important to you as a human services worker? When working with this group I would be concerned about their overall health physically and mentally. Many diseases such as arthritis and AL timers’ disease occur at this age. Also hip and back problems. I would also be curious if they receive any financial help or health insurance to help with expenses. Understanding diversity at this age is important because there are different culturesRead MoreWhy Is College Important?900 Words   |  4 PagesKien La Prof.Russell ESL-301 Why College is Important Education is always a famous topic for students to talk about, they should understand deeply that how education is playing a big role in their life. Allan Bloom claims that Education is the movement from darkness to light. In other words he is saying that education is the key to opening a better future. He tries to indicate that education is very important in human society, and attending college is even more necessary for everyone, especiallyRead More It is Important to have Knowledge of History Essay1099 Words   |  5 PagesIt is Important to have Knowledge of History Though the past may bring a revival and restoration of the misery(Limerick 473), I believe it is necessary to know and study our past. Through this essay I shall explain how knowledge of the past helps improve the quality of future output, satisfy our human thirst for knowledge, and understand certain polices and regulations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Even in our everyday life we can see how past knowledge helps to improve the futures outcome. Whether it is improvementRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Kingdom Triangle 1111 Words   |  5 PagesJ.P. Moreland’s book, Kingdom Triangle, asserts the irreplaceable role of knowledge in the Church’s duty of guiding the world out of darkness and into what the author calls â€Å"life indeed†. Moreland presents the human race as a lost people in search of truth. In life, truth holds the ultimate authority because it remains the end goal. The world constantly looks for a guide in the search of life’s ultimate meaning. Any individual, any idea can quickly become a source of hope for the lost. ReligiousRead MoreThe Importance Of Education1505 Words   |  7 Pages Education is a goal-oriented process during which people acquire knowledge and skills. It gives them an opportunity to obtain some desirable results from such knowledge assimilatio n in the future. Education increases the chances of a person to having a successful career and a secure life. According to Freeman Hrabowski in his article â€Å"Colleges Prepare People for Life,† â€Å"Yes, colleges prepare people for jobs, but more critically, they prepare people for life† (260). Some people could argueRead MoreThe Importance Of Knowledge, Purpose, And Meaning1243 Words   |  5 Pagesconveying. Without knowledge, why would we live? Everyone is going to die eventually, so without knowledge, we would not have any reason to go about our lives. Using the ways of knowing, humans have been acquiring knowledge since the first humans walked the Earth, but why did they need the knowledge and why do we need knowledge today? The early humans needed the knowledge to survive. They analyzed animal movements and discovered new ways to build shelter. Today, we need knowledge to better improve

Subway Restaurants free essay sample

Secondary data investigates past research undertaken in customer satisfaction surveys and the market position of Subway in relation to its major competitors. The purpose of the study is also revealed here with the objectives and the usefulness that the findings will serve. The analysis then details the methods used to carry out the research process. The use of selfadministered surveys and the exploratory research undertaken is documented including the use of focus groups and reverse engineering. The conceptual diagram is also contained here which formed the basis of the research instrument. Consideration of the research instrument is then documented. The scales used and pre-testing are both examined in this section. The Sampling analysis addresses the key influencing factors in the selection of the sample. The selection of the population size of 228, above the minimum of 200 required for the research to be valid, is detailed as are the limitations encountered to complete the project. A description of the data obtained is found in the Results and Analysis section. Research findings by the Better Health Channel (cited in Subway research contained in Appendix One) revealed that obesity is now a major societal issue with rates of obesity/overweight people rising from 52% of adult males in 1998 to 68% in 2000. The corresponding figures for females told a similar story with an increase from 36% to 53% for the same time frame. Inferences were made that fatty, unhealthy food was no longer acceptable and that competitors were beginning to move in on Subway’s territory. Traditionally, the fast food industry has been associated with the cause of this health-related issue (Boyle 2004). Major fast food companies have been called to Federal Government summits to improve the quality of junk food (Wright 2007). While most of these major companies have now taken steps to offer an alternative healthier menu, Subway has long been establishing itself as the market leader in this area. Marketing champions, â€Å"eat fresh† and â€Å"Under 6 Subs†, as well as the endorsement by newfound celebrity Jared Fogle, are examples of standing itself out from the rest. Hence it is no surprise to see Subway’s timely response to this global demand for healthy fast food has seen itself soar with success. The consumer’s perception of low-fat, healthy food is related to a perception of a higher quality product (Boyle 2004). Nevertheless, much cynicisms and criticism is raised against the â€Å"healthy fast food† proposition. For example, the alternative low-fat menus or healthy menus offered is simply a marketing exercise to improve the perception of the restaurant food, even though the items offered in the â€Å"healthy menu† are likely to be poor sellers, or even higher quality does not mean healthier and better nutrition. CBS 3 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway The above issues are still current and ongoing debates. Our satisfaction survey focuses on customer satisfaction on service quality. In particular, personal service and service setting (Gilbert et al 2004). A satisfaction survey does not cover the scope of whether the consumption of Subway has resulted in customer weight loss. Secondary Research Findings Customer satisfaction surveys have shown that 50 percent of customers who have a problem with a product or service are not likely to tell the company about it. Nine out of these ten ‘silent’ critics will probably take their future business to a competitor. When a customer does complain, half of them will not be thoroughly satisfied with the company’s efforts to solve the problem. Additionally, dissatisfied customers typically tell as many as 16 other people when they have had an unsatisfactory experience with a company (TARP, cited in Seidman 2001). Paramount to long term business success is service quality, which can be measured by customer satisfaction. Gilbert et al (2004) claim that when customers are highly satisfied, â€Å"they will keep returning and will keep the business growing†. But how do we measure customer satisfaction? Quality is what the customer says it is and when measuring service quality, you must deal with how customers think, feel and behave (Webster Hung 1994). Generally speaking, if performance exceeds expectation, a customer will experience positive confirmation and be satisfied. However, if expectations exceed performance, negative disconfirmation results and a consumer is dissatisfied. Furthermore, if dissatisfaction is attributable to the company, then this dissatisfaction is magnified (Seidman 2001). Parasuraman et al (cited in Saleh Ryan 1991) identified ten factors of expressive service: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, knowledge/understanding and tangibles. They later reduced this to five combining communication, credibility, security, competence and courtesy to become assurance and creating empathy by combining knowledge/understanding with accessibility (Saleh Ryan 1991). The gap between the consumers’ perception of the service quality received and the standard expected is the fifth gap identified by Parasuraman et al (cited in Johns 1993). Johns (1993) also identifies this as the true measure of service quality. CBS 4 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway The result, SERVQUAL, has proved to be a popular research tool and has been applied to a variety of sectors (Thwaites 1999). SERVQUAL is a 22-item questionnaire intended to measure the difference between customers expectations of a service and their perceptions of the service and was designed to measure service quality in a variety of service settings (Webster Hung 1994). Administered in a before and after setting, the SERVQUAL user would ask guests to complete the ‘expectations’ portion of the instrument before and the ‘perception’ element after their exposure to the service – the difference between the scores represents the gap in service quality provision (Webster Hung 1994). Although SERVQUAL is considered a useful research tool, Seidman’s research (2001) questioned the validity of the instrument when applied to the fast food industry. The paper by Gilbert et al (2004) identified a variety of methods and approaches that can be used as a tool to measure customer satisfaction: expectancy-disconfirmation approach, performance-only approach, technical and functional dichotomy approaches, service quality versus service satisfaction approach and attribute importance approach. These methods are said to be excessively complicated and impractical but are used by the American and European Satisfaction Indexes (ACSI and ECSI) in all of their measurements schemes (Gilbert et al 2004). Since our project involves customer satisfaction, we can also use or refer to some of these methods when designing our own research to a much smaller scale. The paper stated that the ‘performance-only approach’ was best used in measuring customer satisfaction in the fast food industry. This approach is considered to be a more satisfactory method because it measures â€Å"service eatures related to transitional-specific service satisfaction – both the technical and functional† (Gilbert et al 2004). It measures satisfaction with personal service (SatPers), and satisfaction within a service setting (SatSett), immediately after the service experience. It is more reliable and valid compared to the other approaches. CBS 5 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway Customer satisfaction survey data can be easily and economically obtained at the outlets immediately after the service experience. It also provides real time and practical measurements that aids manager to assess service quality. Research objectives, methodology, factorial findings and empirical inference have also been outlined in the article to help establish common measures of the SatPers SatSett. This can be deployed by different franchise stores, enabling the individual store managers to gauge service quality on a real-time basis. Nevertheless, there remains a need for periodic reassessment and continuous improvement so as to achieve customer retention as well as attracting new customers. For the data collection of Gilbert et al (2004) study, the Customer Satisfaction Survey fivepoint Likert rating scale was used. They also used a multiple option, polar adjective type tool to increase the power of measurement (Gilbert et al 2004). During data gathering, they used the sampling method in the selection of fast food establishments from within the areas they were conducting the survey. The research paper by Gilbert et al (2004) can guide our group on which methods to use or to avoid when measuring customer satisfaction. It also ays out the important variables that can measure a customers satisfaction, (e. g. provider courtesy, timely service, convenient operating hours) which we can also apply in our concept diagram. The article titled ‘Sandwich’ (Restaurants Institutions 2006) provides a detailed profile of market research conducted in the USA concerning customer satisfaction with various sandwich chains. Although the survey conducted appears to be fairly ba sic, the fact that it specifically deals with sandwich chain outlets renders it particularly pertinent to our own project. Specifically, the section that describes the numerous variables tested by the survey provides us with the opportunity to compare and possibly augment the various factors assessed by our own questionnaire. However, upon critical examination, the survey does not appear to offer any novel ideas with regards to variables, and tests only the obvious attributes of ‘food quality, cleanliness, value, service, menu variety, convenience, reputation and atmosphere’. It may be concluded that the research conducted was not particularly intensive or customised to sandwich chains particularly, and simply fulfilled the basic requirements of a satisfaction poll of fast food sandwich customers. CBS 6 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway The article also presents comments made by the President of the sandwich chain ‘Panera’ that achieved the highest overall score. The President’s remarks may be considered useful in that they provide an interpretation of the survey results from a management perspective. However, they also demonstrate the importance of testing all possible variables in order to be able to draw informed conclusions from the research. The President reveals that ‘Panera’ regularly anticipates consumer needs and seeks to provide extras such as in-house internet services to engender customer satisfaction, and attributes a large measure of the chain’s success to these innovations. These specific factors of technology and innovation appear to be untested by the project makes relying on the President’s comments problematic, and indicates that to make market research successful, care must be taken to include all relevant variables. The survey results offer no indication of whether the availability of the internet is important to customers, and its usefulness to Panera in evaluating the success of their innovations is undermined. However, the President also emphasises the importance of good service and friendly, intelligent staff to the success of a sandwich retailer, a statement confirmed by the survey in which Panera scored highest in the service category. It may be concluded from this article that the importance of testing all significant variables is paramount, in order to ensure that market research may be successfully applied by retailers. Results from extensive research conducted for Australian and New Zealand Subway Restaurants is contained in Appendix One. McDonald’s was by far identified as the market leader with a market share of 37%. Subway came in fourth with 8% behind KFC (17%) and Hungry Jacks (9%) however by 2005 had the highest number of stores registering an increase from just under 200 in 1998 to nearly 850 in 2005 – the most significant increase of all fast food restaurants. Although top-of-mind brand awareness remained low at eight percent, an increase of only one percent from the previous year, unaided awareness was still strong at 61%, only behind KFC with 67%. Unaided awareness was also higher for Subway in Australia than in New Zealand – 71% opposed to 62%. Television advertisement awareness increased from 48% to 51% in Australia to now be on a par with New Zealand. Only McDonald’s registered higher awareness in Australia with 66% – eight percent down on the previous year. Consumers liked the Subway advertisements mainly because they like their products and sandwiches however only thirteen percent found CBS 7 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway it relevant to them. Most 35-54 year-olds did not dislike Subway advertisements however nearly six in ten of the total sample did dislike their advertisements. An anomaly appears though in visitation in the past four weeks from those that have frequented Subway restaurants in the last three months where it is significantly higher with 18-24 year-olds (67%) than it is with 35-54 year-olds (55%). Maybe more interesting is that the 35-54 year-old figure is down nine percent on the previous year. The figures relating to those aware of the brand and visitation in the past three months was comparable. McDonald’s market position was further exemplified in that 57% of respondents that had visited a fast food restaurant in the past three months had been to McDonald’s. KFC ranked second with 43% and were the only corporation in the top five to experience growth from the previous year. Subway were next with just over one-third. Whilst both the 25-34 and 35-54 age groups decreased, the 18-24 year-olds experienced a seven percent growth – the most of any age range in the top three. McDonald’s dropped eleven percent in the same age bracket. The frequency of visits to Subway Restaurants remained stable over the twelve month period at 2. 65 times in the past month – an increase of 0. 3. McDonald’s again was the highest with 3. 64 visits in the last month with KFC ranked third behind Subway at 2. 55. The main reason for Australians not visiting a Subway Restaurant in the past four weeks was because it had not entered their minds (34%). 26% of respondents indicated that Subway was too expensive or the restaurant locations were not convenient to them. When asked about to think about their impressions of fast food restaurants, whether theyve eaten at them or not, the categories of customised, food made fresh, low fat, nutritious food and tastes good all declined for Subway and increased for McDonald’s. McDonald’s also came across as stronger on ease of locations and child friendly. The data obtained through Subway allowed the researcher’s to gain an insight into the type of research already undertaken and was a useful reference tool when ascertaining target markets especially in terms of age. It also identified areas that we did not need to examine given that this research had been undertaken comprehensively by a reputable market research company. CBS 8 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway Research Objectives OBJECTIVE 1: OBJECTIVE 2: To determine the expectations of a healthy product range. To compare the means of the importance of attributes when visiting fast food restaurants. OBJECTIVE 3: To determine whether a relationship exists between a customer’s household size and the importance placed on dine-in and drive-thru facilities of a fast food restaurant. OBJECTIVE 4: To determine whether exercising habits influence a person’s behaviour towards frequenting fast food restaurants. OBJECTIVE 5: To determine whether age affects who people visit fast food restaurant with. OBJECTIVE 6: OBJECTIVE 7: To determine whether age has an impact on expectations. To determine whether promotions and discounts has an impact on the visiting frequency to a fast food restaurant. OBJECTIVE 8: To ascertain if a relationship exists between household size and fast food visiting frequency. OBJECTIVE 9: To determine if customer spending is influenced by the type of companionship. OBJECTIVE 10: To determine categories of expectations when visiting fast food restaurants. OBJECTIVE 11: OBJECTIVE 12: To identify a target segment based on fast food preference. To compare the performance of McDonald’s against the expectations of customers. OBJECTIVE 13: To compare the performance of Subway against the expectations of customers. OBJECTIVE 14: To compare the performance of Subway against the performance of McDonald’s. CBS 9 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway Usefulness of Research Findings The market research that we propose to undertake is anticipated to be useful primarily to Subway Restaurants. Our objectives have been specifically customised to evaluate Subway’s performance in relation to customer expectations, and thus gauge customer satisfaction. Based on the results of our survey, Subway will be able to make informed decisions regarding the development of their restaurants, and be confident that they are catering successfully to customer needs. We also propose to test Subway’s performance with McDonald’s, in order to provide management with an indication of their relative market position. However, because the variables tested by our project are common to most fast food outlets, our research findings will also be applicable to other chains. The results of the questionnaire will reveal the relative importance of various factors such as friendly service and a ‘healthy choice menu’ to customers, and although the particular performance of retailers besides Subway and McDonald’s in these areas will not be tested, they may still decide to develop certain aspects of their outlets with reference to the project’s findings. CBS 10 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A project brief was carried out prior to the commencement of this project. A number of elements were contained in this project brief including exploratory research, secondary research, case studies and focus groups. The project brief was designed to assess the researchers understanding of the material covered early in the course and to oversee the formulation of a conceptual diagram which would form the basis of the questionnaire. Exploratory research was conducted in order to diagnose and define the issues to be investigated by future research. The exploratory research was intended to be qualitative rather than quantitative in nature, and was necessary to provide insight into what particular themes our questionnaire should ultimately focus on in order to be effective and constructive in a marketing context. A variety of methods were utilized during the exploratory research process. Experience surveys were performed by asking Subway managers about their perceptions regarding the issues facing their franchises in particular and the industry generally. The results indicated that competitors were beginning to follow the lead and provide healthy eating options and influenced the eventual design of our questionnaire. Additionally, secondary data was sourced and analysed in order to provide an indication of the nature and content of existing research in the area, and the methodologies they employed. Examination of the data collated, which included thirteen articles from a variety of respected academic journals, provided guidance on which methods to use or to avoid when measuring customer satisfaction in certain situations. It also outlined the important variables that can measure a customer’s satisfaction, such as provider courtesy, timely service and convenient operating hours, which were useful in the construction of our conceptual diagram and ultimately our research instrument. A case study method was also employed during the process of qualitative research. Specifically, reverse engineering of a McDonalds outlet was conducted in order to provide insight into which factors may contribute to its success, and should be tested by further research. The factors revealed as possible variables that should be addressed by our research instrument included the impact of having ‘family-friendly’ menus and interiors, and the level of importance of a ‘healthy choice’ menu. CBS 11 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway A focus group was also conducted in order to augment the amount and relevance of qualitative information already obtained. The focus group was formulated and administered based on the stipulations of Burns Bush (2006). Analysis of the data acquired during the performance of the focus group provided the researchers with a number of additional variables that should be assessed for their relative significance by our questionnaire. Exploratory Research Findings Focus Group The selection of members for the focus group was conducted with reference to their demographic homogeneity and other shared characteristics such as a similarity in lifestyle. Being a fairly regular consumer of fast food was also necessary to qualify for inclusion in the group. Specifically, the focus group consisted of five men and three women, ranging in age from 24 to 30. All participants were employed in skilled professions, including Urban Planning and Public Relations, and all were currently undertaking further full or part time study at a post-graduate level. The group was evenly split between members who were unattached and those who were in relationships, but no members had children. Most described their financial situation as comfortable but not affluent. As previously stated, all participants were regular consumers of fast food, and had purchased Subway products within the last 6 months. The moderator prepared a list of discussion topics in order to provide direction to the focus group’s conversation. The list was composed with the objective of eliciting new ideas and variables from the members of the focus group, and was also designed to test the relevance of variables already referred to in the conceptual diagram. Particular care was taken when composing the questions to avoid influencing the participants’ responses, to ensure that the material gleaned from the group would be of a high standard. The issues that the moderator’s guide was designed to address included the participants’ expectations of a fast food experience, their perceptions of Subway as a brand, and what was important to them as consumers of fast food. The questions asked of the participants included: 1. Why would you choose a certain fast food outlet over another? 2. Think of a positive experience you have had with fast food. Describe what made it good. Repeat for a negative experience. 3. What do you think differentiates Subway from McDonalds or Hungry Jacks? CBS 12 Geraldine Goopio, Malcolm Lau, Vanessa Macknay and Damien Todorovic Research Report – Taking the Subway 4. Why would you choose to eat at Subway instead of McDonalds, and vice-versa? 5. What do you think a typical Subway customer would be like, as opposed to one from McDonalds? How old would they be, what would they wear, what time of day would they visit? The participants advised that a combination of good menu variety, food quality, friendly and efficient service persuaded them to choose one fast food outlet over another. They were unanimous that price and good value were particularly significant influences in their decision to choose a specific retailer. It was also agreed that advertising, and especially the promotion of value meals and similar deals, was an important factor in their choice.