Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart

PROJECT REPORT
on
A STUDY ON CONSUMER PREFERENCE IN FAST FOOD RESTAURANT
IN USA MARKET
BY
NANDA GOPAL REDDY P
1NH18MBA57
Submitted to
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES
NEW HORIZON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,
OUTER RING ROAD, MARATHALLI,
BENGALURU
In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
Under the guidance of
Dr. Smita Harwani
Senior Assistant Professor
2018 - 2020
1
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Nanda Gopal Reddy P bearing USN 1NH18MBA57, is a
bonafide student of Master of Business Administration course of the Institute 20182020, autonomous program, affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University,
Belgaum. Project report on “A Study on Consumer Preference in Fast Food
Restaurant in USA Market” is prepared by her under the guidance of Dr. Smita
Harwani, in partial fulfillment of requirements for the award of the degree of Master
of Business Administration of Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum
Karnataka.
Signature of Internal Guide
Signature of HOD
Name of the Examiners with affiliation
Principal
Signature with date
1. External Examiner
2. Internal Examiner
2
DocuSign Envelope ID: E9ABE314-FB34-40F7-A86A-C1B98E25D784
Date: 27th Feb 2020
INTERNSHIP CERTIFICATE OF COMPLETION
This is to certify that Mr. NandaGopal Reddy P has done his internship in InfoVision Social, Bangalore
from Nov 19th 2019 to Feb 14th, 2020.
He has worked on a project titled QSR-2019 Consumer Insights, this project was aimed to analyze
consumer opinions on the QSR industry for USA market, collecting consumer feedbacks from online
forums, understanding the consumer’s unmet needs, feedback, recommendations. As part of the
project, NandaGopal Reddy collected consumer reviews data, by researching & understanding the top
QSR brand reviews online for USA market/ English languages.
During the internship he demonstrated good research skills with a self-motivated attitude to learn new
things. His performance is highly satisfactory and completed the project tasks successfully on time.
We wish him all the best for future endeavors.
For InfoVision Solutions India Pvt Ltd.
Rajesh Rao Kari
Vice President and Business Leader
Dallas | Boston | Tampa | Frisco | Alpharetta | Mountian View | Bridgewater | Bangalore | Pune | Hyderabad
DECLARATION
I, Nanda Gopal Reddy P, hereby declare that the project report on “A Study on Consumer Preference in
Fast Food Restaurant in USA Market” with reference to “Infovision social Pvt Ltd” prepared by me under
the guidance of Dr Smita Harwani, faculty of M.B.A Department, New Horizon College of Engineering.
I also declare that this project report is towards the partial fulfilment of the university regulations for the award
of the degree of Master of Business Administration by Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum.
I have undergone an industry project for a period of Nine weeks. I further declare that this report is based on
the original study undertaken by me and has not been submitted for the award of a degree/diploma from any
other University / Institution.
Signature of Student
Place: Bangalore
Date:
3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The successful completion of the project would not have been possible without the guidance
and support of many people. I express my sincere gratitude to Nataraja Ganpathy, Senior
Manager, Infovision social Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru, for allowing to do my project at Infovision
social Pvt Ltd.
I thank the staff of Infovision social Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru for their support and guidance and
helping me in completion of the report.
I am thankful to my internal guide Dr Smita Harwani, for her constant support and inspiration
throughout the project and invaluable suggestions, guidance and also for providing valuable
information.
Finally, I express my gratitude towards my parents and family for their continuous support
during the study.
NANDA GOPAL REDDY P
1NH18MBA57
4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SL. NUMBER
CONTENTS
PAGE NUMBERS
1
Executive Summary
6-7
2
Theoretical Background Of The Study
8-19
3
Industry Profile &Company Profile
20-35
4
Research Methodology
36-45
5
Data Analysis and interpretation
46-53
5
6
Learning Experience- Findings,
Suggestions And Conclusion
Bibliography
5
54-55
56
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I have done my project in the Infovision Social Pvt Ltd with the title of
“A STUDY OF CONSUMER
PREFERENCE IN FAST FOOD RESTAURENT IN USA MARKET”. The Object behind this project is to
focus on the USA consumers in choosing the Fast food restaurant or QSR which offer certain food items that
require minimal preparation time and are delivered through quick services. Typically, quick service restaurants
cater to fast food items over a limited menu as they can be cooked in lesser time with minimum possible
variation.
Quick service restaurants have much variety when it comes to the type of service they offer. There are also
drive-through restaurants, which do not offer any tables or seats but rather collect the order and deliver it
through a single counter. The orders are generally pre prepared and are highly standardized with no room for
customization. These types of businesses don’t rely on margin over their services rather rely on the frequency
of footfall. A key strategy used by quick service restaurants is the bundle pricing. QSR combine their food
items on the menu into a bundle of complementary meals for example McDonald’s value meal of fries, a soft
drink and a burger. Usually customers prefer these meals over individual food items as the former creates a
sense of value addition and diversity to their expenditure. For the retailers, they give attractive discounts over
bundled meals and set a substantial profit margin to lure from these offerings.
Examples of Fast food restaurant
Some real-life examples of quick service restaurants are Mc Donald’s, Subway, Burger King, KFC etc. Recent
trends have shown a tremendous shift in the operations of local quick service restaurants. With rising number
of food delivery services, these restaurants have started separating a division for food items which are cooked
in bulk and then stored to be supplied to the delivery services. This does not only gives them an opportunity
to earn margins by not investing in the restaurant seating spaces but also provides brand marketing for their
restaurant brands.
SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR

With the onset of fast foods and the quick cook and ready cooked meals available along with the ever
increasing choice of world cuisine, the enjoyment of these different foods have opened new options to
the consumer within the food market.
6

In today's busy world where leisure time has become more and more important, the less time spent
working and preparing to eat allows us more available time for our pursuit of our leisure activities.

People who do not have the ability, time or will to cook at home now only have to pick up the phone
book or click on the Internet in order to find their local restaurant or fast food retailer that will be more
than happy to deliver the freshly prepared hot food ready to eat straight to their door with minimum
fuss

Although the fast food retailers compete with each other fiercely, using their special offers and cheaper
and healthier alternatives to entice us to their premises, the main stay of traditional restaurants still
hold an important part in our lives.

Even though these places are vastly outnumbered by the fast food industry, we still enjoy sitting down
in the nice comfortable and pleasant surroundings of a restaurant and dining on good quality food at a
leisurely pace, leaving behind the hustle and bustle of daily life and the fast food rush.
METHODOLOGY ADOPTED:
Sources of data:
a. Primary data
b. Secondary data
Primary Data
Primary data is that which is collected fresh and thus happen to be Original in character. The primary data is
collected in the process of questionnaire and interviews of the outlets. The primary data were derived from
the answers respondents gave in the structured questionnaire prepared by the researcher. A personal interview
was conducted with the help of a Questionnaire. The respondents were asked to give their frank opinion
regarding the concerned matter and respondents have given valuable information.
The various methods of primary data collection which is used in this study are:
•
Personal or Face to Face method
•
Questionnaire Method
Secondary Data
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Secondary data is any data, which have been gathered earlier for some other purpose. Data that have been
previously collected for some project other than the one at hand.Among the above mentioned types of data
was used for the study and analysis of the objective of this project, also the secondary to data proved to be
helping hand in framing up the industry scenario and also the relevant topics in the entire project report.
For collecting secondary data researcher used internet, newspapers and Handouts.
CHAPTER-1
THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
INTRODUCTION:
A Fast food restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is a specific type of restaurant characterized both by
its fast food cuisine and by minimal table service. Food served in fast food restaurants typically caters to a
"meat-sweet diet" and is offered from a limited menu; is cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot; is finished
and packaged to order; and is usually available ready to take away, though seating may be provided. Fast food
restaurants are usually part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation, which provisions standardized
ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels.
The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951Human Resource
management Refers to the Policies, practices and systems that influence employees behavior, attitude and
performance, it plays an active role in attracting, Motivating, Rewarding and retaining Employees. Training
plays a Very strategic role in supporting a business
HISTORY OF QUICK SERVICE RESTAURANTS:
Fast food restaurant is a restaurant that serves fast food cuisine and has minimal to no service. Food served
there is cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot, sold and can be eaten there or taken away. Although there
were some types of fast food before that, fast food restaurants are the phenomenon of the 20th century.
The first successful fast food restaurant in United States was opened on July 7, 1912 and was of Automat type
- a restaurant served by vending machines operated with coins. It created a sensation and sparked building of
other Automats around the country.
A&W, founded by Roy W. Allen and Frank Wright, opened in 1919 and started selling root beer. They opened
their first drive-in restaurant in Sacramento, California in 1923 and started selling their franchise. They sold
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hamburgers, french fries, and hot dogs and had 2,000 places by 1960. Today they have more than 1,200
restaurants.
White Castle opened the second fast-food outlet in Wichita, Kansas in 1921. They sold hamburgers and were
the first to standardize production of food. They created the first fast food supply chain that supplied
ingredients to all outlets. Its founder, cook Walt A. Anderson, is credited with invention of the hamburger bun
as we know it today. His partner was Edgar Waldo "Billy" A. Ingram who in time bought out Anderson. White
Castle changed the public's perception towards the ground beef and made hamburgers popular. Today they
have more than 420 outlets.
Brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a barbecue drive-in in 1940, called McDonald’s, in the city
of San Bernardino, California. In time they found out that the most of their profits came from hamburgers so
they streamlined their production (called it "Speedee Service System") and started selling hamburgers, french
fries, shakes, coffee, and Coca-Cola in paper containers. This allowed them to make hamburgers and fries
without pause and waiting for orders from customers. Ray Kroc, salesman of the firm which sold equipment
to McDonald’s, signed a franchise agreement with the brothers in 1954 and started the expansion of
McDonald’s. Today, McDonald’s has more than 35,000 outlets in 119 countries and serves more than 68
million customers every day.
In 1953, two Miami, Florida businessmen, Keith J. Kramer and his wife's uncle Matthew Burns, opened an
Insta-Burger King - a fast food restaurant that used cooking devices called Insta-Broilers. They made
hamburgers and were so successful that they started franchising. They faltered in 1959 and were bought by
their Miami, Florida franchisees, James McLamore and David R. Edgerton and renamed Burger King. In
1967, when they had over 250 outlets in United States, they were sold to the Pillsbury Company. It is today
the second largest chain of hamburger fast food restaurants.
Frederick "Fred" DeLuca, opened "Pete's Super Submarines", a sandwich shop, in Bridgeport, Connecticut
and started franchising the next year. They changed the name of the sandwich shop to “Subway” in 1968.
Today they have more than 34,000 outlets all over the world.
Some trace the modern history of fast food in the United States to 7 July 1912, with the opening of a fast food
restaurant called the Automat in New York. The Automat was a cafeteria with its prepared foods behind small
glass windows and coin-operated slots. Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart had already opened the first Horn &
Hardart Automat in Philadelphia in 1902, but their "Automat" at Broadway and 13th Street, in New York City,
created a sensation. Numerous Automat restaurants were built around the country to deal with the
demand. Automats remained extremely popular throughout the 1920s and 1930s. The company also
popularized the notion of "take-out" food, with their slogan "Less work for Mother".
The hamburger restaurant most associated by the public with the term "fast food" was created by two brothers
originally from Nashua, New Hampshire. Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a barbecue drive-in in 1940
9
in the city of San Bernardino, California. After discovering that most of their profits came from hamburgers,
the brothers closed their restaurant for three months and reopened it in 1948 as a walk-up stand offering a
simple menu of hamburgers, french fries, shakes, coffee, and Coca-Cola, served in disposable paper wrapping.
As a result, they could produce hamburgers and fries constantly, without waiting for customer orders, and
could serve them immediately; hamburgers cost 15 cents, about half the price at a typical diner. Their
streamlined production method, which they named the "Speedee Service System" was influenced by
the production line innovations of Henry Ford.
By 1954, The McDonald brothers' stand was restaurant equipment manufacturer Prince Castle's biggest
purchaser of milkshake blending machines. Prince Castle salesman Ray Kroc traveled to California to discover
why the company had purchased almost a dozen of the units as opposed to the normal one or two found in
most restaurants of the time. Enticed by the success of the McDonald's concept, Kroc signed a franchise
agreement with the brothers and began opening McDonald's restaurants in Illinois. [7] By 1961, Kroc had
bought out the brothers and created what is now the modern McDonald's Corporation. One of the major parts
of his business plan was to promote cleanliness of his restaurants to growing groups of Americans that had
become aware of food safety issues. As part of his commitment to cleanliness, Kroc often took part in cleaning
his own Des Plaines, Illinois outlet by hosing down the garbage cans and scraping gum off the cement. Another
concept Kroc added was great swaths of glass which enabled the customer to view the food preparation, a
practice still found in chains such as Krispy Kreme. A clean atmosphere was only part of Kroc's grander plan
which separated McDonald's from the rest of the competition and attributes to their great success. Kroc
envisioned making his restaurants appeal to suburban families.
10
DEFINITION OF QSRs
A fast food restaurant, also known as a Fast food restaurant(QSR) within the industry, is a specific type of
restaurant that serves fast food cuisine and has minimal table service. The food served in fast food restaurants
is typically part of a "meat-sweet diet", offered from a limited menu, cooked in bulk in advance and kept hot,
finished and packaged to order, and usually available for take away, though seating may be provided. Fast
food restaurants are typically part of a restaurant chain or franchise operation that provides standardized
ingredients and/or partially prepared foods and supplies to each restaurant through controlled supply channels.
The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951.
Arguably, the first fast food restaurants originated in the United States with White Castle in 1921. Today,
American-founded fast food chains such as McDonald's (est. 1940) and KFC (est. 1952) are multinational
corporations with outlets across the globe.
Variations on the fast food restaurant concept include fast casual restaurants and catering trucks. Fast casual
restaurants have higher sit-in ratios, offering a hybrid between counter-service typical at fast food restaurants
and a traditional table service restaurant. Catering trucks (also called food trucks) often park just outside
worksites and are popular with factory workers
Prepared food from a restaurant that specializes in providing a complete meal—often consisting of a
permutation of a hamburger or chicken, french fries and a soft drink or milkshake—in less than two minutes.
A diet limited to fast foods is high in protein, fat and calories, and low in vitamins, minerals and fibre.
Commercially available, ready-to-eat meals (such as hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, fried chicken, or french
fries) with a high fat content, little fiber, and minimal quantities of vitamins or calcium.
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OBJECTIVES OF QSRs
Serving Quality and Affordable Foods
More and more restaurants are making the switch to eating organic food that is locally grown. The benefits
of buying organic, locally grown food includes offering fresh produce and meats that taste better than food
that previously was frozen, the meals you serve will be healthier for your customers and you will be helping
local, small farmers stay in business.
It is true that buying organic food means you will incur additional upfront costs, but more and more
restaurant customers are seeking out healthy dining alternatives. Additionally, buying locally grown organic
foods allows you to offer an evolving menu as what you serve at any given time depends on what's available
and in season at local farms.
Focusing on Atmosphere and Ambience
There is more to running a successful restaurant than just serving great food. Having a good atmosphere
and ambiance is among important restaurant goals since it helps attract customers and leave them a huge
impression on their overall dining experience. The right atmosphere leaves guests feeling relaxed throughout
their meal and lends itself to generating repeat customers.
Remember that not everyone seeks the same type of ambiance when choosing a place to eat. Many people
who work in an office setting all day often prefer a quiet, relaxed atmosphere while telecommuters and
younger customers often prefer busier, even noisy, restaurants.
Knowing the Target Market
Another one of the goals and objectives of food service revolves around knowing your target market.
Choosing the right concept, finding the right location and attracting the appropriate demographic all are
important factors that will determine whether or not your restaurant succeeds or fails.
Are you planning to cater to the lunch crowd or the happy hour crowd? Are you trying to attract customers
looking for a formal dining experience, or do you want to be a neighborhood hangout? Do you expect to
12
serve more senior citizens or music fans? It is critical to determine the parameters of your target market and
to understand what they expect when visiting your restaurant.
Managing Customer Relations
It's impossible to please every customer that ever walks through the front doors of your restaurant, but
knowing how to appease even the most irate diner will help spread positive word-of-mouth about your
business. Make sure to train your wait staff on how to properly engage your customers, which will differ
depending on your target market.
Employees should wear appropriate attire at all times, and if there is a complaint, the wait staff should get
the restaurant manager to step in and help solve the problem. Being courteous, kind and accommodating,
even when faced with an extremely rude patron, will help your restaurant succeed and build a positive
reputation in the community.
SOURCES OF QSRs
Saw a number of product and even technological innovations from different players in the industry, further
tightening the competition between brands. Growth and expansion has also been one of the top priorities of
QSRs .
While we realize that store network size is only one measure of success, we believe it is an important one.
QSR Media decided to highlight the progress of different QSRs into a ranking based on the number of outlets
they have that are currently operational. Our list was made from data provided by these brands all across the
country (and brand websites), with a total of 50 brands making the cut.
The list ranges from fast food and fast casual restaurants to more traditional quick service outlets, and each of
the food chains were categorized by type of food served. For the development of this list, QSR Media uses a
broad concept of store network. Our lists includes a variety of concepts that include traditional store formats,
express formats, mobile vans and bolt-on concepts, from chicken shops, to bakeries, to ice creameries.
Currently, the list boasts three burger chains, eight chicken shops, and 14 coffee shops and cafes. There are
also 11 bakeries, five pizza bars, four Asian restaurants, five Mexican food chains, and three brands serving
Middle Eastern food.
Subway continues to comfortably sit atop our list by a large margin from runners up McDonald's and Kentucky
Fried Chicken (KFC), strong contenders who have held their place for the third year in a row.
13
Pizza Hut edged out Michel’s Patisserie to join the Top 10 brands. Zambrero, among others, soared several
places up the list from last year. Noodle Box, which had just acquired the Wok in a Box business, rose up to
become one of the chains with more than 100 operational locations.
Cuisine
Modern commercial fast food is highly processed and prepared on a large scale from bulk ingredients using
standardized cooking and production methods and equipment. It is usually rapidly served in cartons, bags, or
in a plastic wrapping, in a fashion which reduces operating costs by allowing rapid product identification and
counting, promoting longer holding time, avoiding transfer of bacteria, and facilitating order fulfillment. In
most fast food operations, menu items are generally made from processed ingredients prepared at central
supply facilities and then shipped to individual outlets where they are cooked (usually by grill, microwave, or
deep-frying) or assembled in a short amount of time either in anticipation of upcoming orders (i.e., "to stock")
or in response to actual orders (i.e., "to order"). Following standard operating procedures, pre-cooked products
are monitored for freshness and disposed of if holding times become excessive. This process ensures a
consistent level of product quality, and is key to delivering the order quickly to the customer and avoiding
labor and equipment costs in the individual stores.
Value meals
A value meal is a group of menu items offered together at a lower price than they would cost individually. A
hamburger, side of fries, and drink commonly constitute a value meal—or combo depending on the chain.
Value meals at fast food restaurants are common as a merchandising tactic to facilitate bundling, up-selling,
and price discrimination. Most of the time they can be upgraded to a larger side and drink for a small fee. The
perceived creation of a "discount" on individual menu items in exchange for the purchase of a "meal" is also
consistent with the loyalty marketing school of thought
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ADVANTAGE OF QSRs
1. It is possible to eat healthy at a quick-service restaurant.
There are several fast food menu items that are under 500 calories. You may need to look deeper into the menu
or take some condiments off during your order, but it can happen. The Shake Shack single burger, for example,
is just 360 calories. You can get a cheeseburger at In-N-Out, without spread, for 480 calories. At Wendy’s
you can order a full-size Mediterranean Chicken Salad for 480 calories. Even an Egg McMuffin at
McDonald’s is 300 calories.
2. It saves time when a meal is required.
Even fast home cooking requires 15-30 minutes of time for the average family in preparation and cooking.
Then you have another 15-30 minutes of eating time. Visiting a fast food restaurant can cut those time
requirements in half. With fast food, you can also eat in the vehicle (though some jurisdictions may not allow
drivers to eat) or take the food to your next destination. Fast food makes it possible for people to find time to
eat together, even during busy days.
3. It makes food affordable for some families.
As of September 2017, there are several food items available on fast food menus that make eating at a quickservice restaurant cheaper than buying groceries at a local supermarket. The Whopper Jr. at Burger King, for
example, is just $1.29 and contains 340 calories. At Checkers, you can order two spicy chicken sandwiches
for $3.00. Jack in the Box offers two tacos for $0.99 and a Junior Jack is $1.29. At Taco Bell, a basic taco
runs about $1 per taco. Ask for water instead of a soda and you’ve got a meal.
4. It supports local business owners.
Quick-service restaurants are often independently owned and operated franchises which are run by local
entrepreneurs. There are brand-owned restaurants within most fast food chains, including McDonald’s, which
owns and operates 18% of all their locations. Each location employs an average of 14 people with a pay level
that can range from minimum wage to upwards of $15 for some entry-level management positions. Eating at
these establishments is a way to support local jobs and businesses.
15
5. It lets you know what to expect from the food.
Let’s say you’re on vacation and want something to eat. You spot a Burger King. You know what to expect
from that menu, even if there are some local items that are there as well. You know that you can get a Whopper
and that it will be made in the same way as it is at the Burger King in your hometown. That’s one of the biggest
advantages that fast food restaurants offer. They eliminate the uncertainty of the dining experience when
you’re away from home.
6. It still puts eating choices in the hands of the consumers.
Since 2010, quick-service restaurants in the United States have been required to published nutritional
information about their menu items on the actual menu. When you order an Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s,
then you know for a fact that you’re getting 300 calories. That makes it easier to make informed decisions
about your daily eating habits. You can also do a quick web search on a smartphone to find other nutritional
facts about menu items, like it contains 18g of protein or 55% of your daily sodium intake.
7. It offers choices.
Quick-service restaurants have evolved beyond burgers and fries. At Arby’s, you can order a variety of
traditional sandwiches, such as a Reuben. At Taco Bell, you can order rice bowls. If you visit Chick-Fil-A,
you’re encouraged to have some lemonade with your waffle-cut fries. You’ll still find brands that compete
over the biggest beef patties and the slices of bacon they can put onto a burger. You can also find a lot more
than that too.
8. It can meet current dietary requirements.
There are 8 primary food allergies that are of concern in the human population. Fast food restaurants are like
other establishments and publish allergen charts for their meals. That means people with specific dietary
requirements can still be able to enjoy a quick meal when needed.
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BIGGEST DISADVANTAGES OF FAST FOOD
1. It isn’t easy to find healthy items that are fresh at fast food restaurants.
Fresh food items are increasing in popularity at quick-service restaurants. They are not, however, always easy
to find. You may need to ask for a custom order to be able to lower your calorie count as well, which is not
always successful. Healthy items are typically older as well, since they are not ordered as often. It takes more
effort to order healthy items than it does to order high-calorie, high fat content food items in the fast food
industry.
2. It offers a lower average quality of food than other eating establishments.
Many quick-service restaurants use frozen foods that are prepared off-site to increase the speed of order
delivery. Fruits and vegetables undergo long-term storage practices, which reduces the likelihood of having
locally-sourced items included with menu items. Most brands that feature QSR service use bulk food
production methods, so the quality of food is reduced to improve its storage capabilities
3. It can be unhealthy to eat the healthy food options at some fast food restaurants.
There are some very unhealthy items that can be found on today’s fast food menus, even though they sound
like they are a healthy alternative. The Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad at Wendy’s, for example, offers 720
calories, 43 grams of fat, and 1,760mg of sodium. The Bacon Cheddar Ranch Chicken Salad at Burger King
has 720 calories, 50g of fat, and 1,960mg of sodium. Even the Fuji Apple Salad with chicken, found at Panera
Bread, has 570 calories and 34g of fat.
4. It isn’t always cheaper to eat fast food.
The average price of a fast food meal is around $7 per person, assuming a side and a drink is ordered for each
person. For a family of 4, that means, with tax, they’ll be spending $30 for that meal. Eating just one fast food
meal per day, over the course of a week, means $210 will be spent on that meal. Smart shopping at a grocery
store can be 75% less than the costs of an average fast food meal. Add in the potential medical costs of
constantly eating fast food and it may not always be cheaper, even if it is easier, to use this option for when
you’re on the go.
5. It offers menu items which contain unhealthy levels of fat, sugar, and salt.
17
If you visit Quiznos and order their meatball sub, then you’ll receive 3,580mg of sodium with your sandwich.
That’s 150% of your recommended daily intake. You’ll also consume 1,530 calories, 81g of fat, and 28g of
saturated fat with your sandwich. If you’re focused on healthy eating habits, this one sandwich would be the
only thing you could eat that day.
6. It offers food products that offer addictive qualities.
Fast foods are created in a way that addictive attributes are part of the experience. People feel good when they
eat fast food items, which makes them want to eat more of them. If eaten for a long enough time period, fast
foods can even encourage dependence with some people. The dependence factor is increased with the added
sugars that come when a fast food meal is paired with a sweetened drink, like a soda. This results in a cycle
of need that creates higher risks of obesity and associated health conditions which come from being
overweight.
7. It is not always easy to know what is actually in the foods you eat.
QSR locations may be required to publish data on the calories that are in the food items, but they are not
always required to publish their ingredient list. You can ask for the ingredient list at the counter if you wish,
or look them up online, which is not as convenient as seeing the ingredient list with the menu item.
For Chicken McNuggets, did you know that there are 13 ingredients in just the chicken? And that there are 20
additional ingredients in the batter and breading of the nuggets? Even their marketing materials say that their
Chicken McNuggets are “made with,” not “made of,” 100% USDA Grade A chicken meat.
8. It encourages the busy lifestyle.
If you look closely at the signs posted at many quick-service restaurants, you’ll notice that most of them forbid
lingering. Some may even require you to finish your meal in 30 minutes or less. They do this to encourage
more customer turnover, which increases their profit margins. It also means that they are helping to propagate
the busy lifestyles that encourage fast food consumption in the first place.
When you eat food quickly, it also encourages you to eat more than you should. It takes about 20 minutes to
complete the dining process in the first place, allowing the brain to register that you are actually full. Eating
too fast can lead to obesity. WebMD reports that eating more slowly results in feeling fuller sooner, resulting
in fewer calories being consumed, even for people who are overweight or obese.
18
9. It can increase a family’s medical costs.
In 2004, a study conducted by Kenneth Thorpe examined health care spending attributed to obesity in the
United States. Starting from 1987, Thorpe found that obesity prevalence, on its own, accounts for a 12%
increase in health spending per person. In a 15-year study of 3,000 adults, people who visit a fast food
establishment just twice per week gained about 10 pounds more than people who visited them fewer than one
time per week.
The biggest advantages and disadvantages of fast food involve cost, convenience, and a person’s future health.
Like anything, fast food should be enjoyed in moderation only. It may be necessary on a busy day, though it
shouldn’t become the normal go-to requirement for a meal. Eat slower, plan some meals in advance, and look
for ways to incorporate home meals into your busy routine. In doing so, it could become easier to eat healthier
on a regular basis.
REQUIREMENTS OF QSRs
In the hyper-competitive quick-service restaurant space, fueled by hyper-convenience-seeking consumers, it
is now incumbent upon brands to offer an abundance of accessibility – drive-thru, pickup, catering, delivery,
e-commerce, retail, whatever.
One glance at Panera’s success in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space, and it’s easy to understand why
more limited-service restaurants are extending their brands into the retail category.
Follow the below-mentioned steps that will help you open a fast-food restaurant in India.
Choose the location of the quick-service restaurant
Get all the licenses required to make your QSR legal
Get on board the required number of staff
Arrange for the kitchen equipment and the raw materials needed
Market your QSR well
Install a POS or a billing software To smoothen your operations
Decide on the staff uniform
Get all the other miscellaneous works done
19
CHAPTER 2
INDUSTRY PROFILE AND COMPANY PROFILE
QSR PROFILE IN USA
Eating out is fun, and an increasingly higher number of people believe that. A higher number of Americans
are eating out, and they are eating out more often. The restaurant industry’s share of the food dollar has risen
from 25% in 1955 to 51% in 2019.
According to the National Restaurant Association, industry sales are projected to reach $863 billion in 2019.
That figure is 4% of the US GDP. The industry is projected to employ 15.3 million people in 2019, which is
roughly 10% of the working population.
Several factors have contributed to the growth of the restaurant industry, including rising income levels, better
hospitality, and a variety of cuisines. Restaurants have become an essential part of people’s lifestyles. The
National Restaurant Association noted, “According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, households
with annual income of at least $70,000 were responsible for 63 percent of total restaurant spending in 2018.”
About 40% of households had an annual income of more than $70,000. So, 40% of households accounted for
63% of total restaurant spending. Higher-income households have risen steadily over the years, partially
contributing to the growth of the restaurant industry’s sales.
Types of restaurants
The types of restaurants offering options for people to eat out are numerous. Let’s take a look.
Quick Service Restaurants (or QSR) or fast-food restaurants generally offer limited menus with items that
can be prepared quickly. Customers either eat on the restaurant’s premises or opt for takeout. Examples include
McDonald’s (MCD) and Kentucky Fried Chicken (or KFC).
In contrast, full-service restaurants offer table service and often have more menu choices. The items offered
typically require more steps and time to prepare. A wider variety of cuisines is generally available, and the
cost of the meal is usually higher than a QSR. Examples include Ruth’s Chris Steak House or Texas
Roadhouse (TXRH).
Home delivery and takeout services have seen rapid growth in recent years. According to the National
Restaurant Association, delivery sales for the majority of restaurant operators across segments have risen
compared to just two years ago.
20
In addition to the above factors, consumers have the option of eating in cafés, grills, and bars, which primarily
focus on drinks, as well as street shops, food trucks, and kiosks, which offer limited items, often at low prices.
Operating metrics
While there are many ways to measure a restaurant’s performance, there are certain key metrics that are
commonly used to assess its performance. These include:
Comparable-store sales: Same-store or comparable-store sales refer to the sales of a restaurant chain’s
existing outlets (typically including outlets in operation for more than a year) in a period relative to the sales
in the same period in the prior year. Investors usually measure the change in percentage terms.
Comparable guest counts: Comparable guest counts refer to the transactions of a restaurant chain’s existing
outlets in a period relative to the transactions in the same period in the prior year. Investors usually measure
the change in percentage terms.
Average check: This is the average amount billed per customer.
21
PERFORMANCE OF QSRs IN USA
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
TOP 15 QSR REVENUES OF US
Chain
2018 U.S. Sales ($000,000) 2018 U.S. Units
MC Donald's
$38,524
13,914
Starbucks
$19,660
14,606
subway
$10,410
24,798
Taco Bell
$10,360
6,588
chick-fil-A
$10,180
2,370
Burger King
$9,939
7,330
Wendy's
$9,405
5,810
Dunkin
$8,786
9,419
Domino's
$6,591
5,876
Panera Bread
$5,760
2,074
Pizza hut
$5,526
7,482
Chiptole Mexican Grill
$4,805
2,452
DENNY'S RESTAURANT
$2,661
1,578
KFC
$4,433
4,074
Applebees
$4,211
1,693
PAPA JOHN'S
$2,712
3,199
JACK IN THE BOX
$3,466
2,237
LITTLE CAESARS
$3,820
4,350
RED LOBSTER
$2,405
678
INTERNATIONAL HOUSE
$3,233
1,705
Segment
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Fast Casual
Quick Service
Fast Casual
Midscale
Quick Service
Casual Dining
Quick Service
Quick Service
Quick Service
Casual Dining
Midscale
Menu Category
Burger
Coffee Cafe
Sandwich
Mexican
Chicken
Chicken
Burger
Coffee Cafe
Pizza
Bakery Cafe
Pizza
Mexican
Family Style
Chicken
Varied Menu
Pizza
Burger
Pizza
Seafood
Family Style
Yum! Brands owns Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and WingStreet brands. Darden owns Olive Garden,
LongHorn Steakhouse, and Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen brands. It also owns Yard House, The Capital Grille,
Bahama Breeze, Seasons 52, and Eddie V’s. Unlike McDonald’s, Starbucks, and Yum! Brands, Darden
Restaurants is a full-service dining company.
Chipotle Mexican Grill identifies itself as fast-casual, which generally means a restaurant with more service
and menu options than its fast-food counterparts. However, they offer fewer options and services than a fullservice restaurant. For investors looking for restaurant stocks, there are many interesting options. Let’s take a
look at some more below.
U.S. fast food landscape has been inundated by new concepts over the past decade, well-established U.S.based QSR brands are continuing to grow. Although the U.S. market may be becoming saturated, household
brands such as McDonalds show no signs of slowing their growth - expanding their reach to international
locations. With a brand value of over 126 billion U.S. dollars, McDonald’s was by far the most valuable fast
food brand in the world in 2018, surpassing its closest competitor Starbucks by almost triple. In 2018,
22
McDonald’s was also the largest fast food company in terms of systemwide sales, followed by brands such as
Starbucks, Subway and Yum! Brands - parent company of Taco Bell, KFC & Pizza Hut.
Although burger restaurants, like McDonald’s, are the most typically associated with the U.S. Fast food
restaurant market, the most common type of QSRs that can be found in the United States are sandwich/deli
restaurants, which make up 17.6 percent of the market’s total units. Therefore, it may come as no surprise that
Subway led the U.S. market in terms of total units with over 24 and a half thousand establishments in the U.S.
alone. Chasing Subway’s heels was Starbucks with almost half the number of units than that of the sandwich
chain. Additionally, McDonald’s may have the top spot when it comes to sales, but it came in third place in
terms of U.S. units, focusing less on its home nation and instead on expansion abroad.
23
COMPANY PROFILE
INFOVISION SOCIAL
IN THE BUSINESS OF PROVIDING ACTIONABLE BUSINESS INSIGHTS TO
IMPACT DECISION MAKING AND SOCIAL STRATEGY
InfoVision can assist in bringing Technology Transformation and Modernization across business functions
and Enterprise, Improving existing technology process and platforms, Enterprise Digital Integration and
Enablement, User Engagement through better Visualization and User Interface, Enterprise Mobility, and
bringing skills in fast changing technology areas such as Big Data, BI, Cloud, and IoT. We serve various
industries working with leading Fortune 500 customers and our strength is creating and delivering Technology
Led Solutions. We are agile, flexible, fast and capable of delivering value irrespective of the size of projects.
24
With our 20+ years of industry experience, long term customer relationships, and deep IT expertise, we are
positioned to execute large scale and long term projects, as well as offer focused and personalized attention to
each of our customers and their needs.
InfoVision supports a diverse mix of Clients, from Startups to Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 Companies.
We work with our customers in Time and Material Engagements, Staff Augmentation, as well as SoW led
Managed Services Models.
With rapidly growing Offshore Delivery Centers in India (Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad), Offsite Capacity
available in Texas and Onsite delivery at client facilities, we provide very cost competitive & scalable end to
end IT Services from Staffing to Solutions (Application Development, Mobility, BI & Big Data Analytics,
IoT, DevOps, Cloud Enablement, Enterprise Applications).
A BIT ABOUT INFOVISION
Service Highlights
We are the research and social media analytics arm of InfoVision providing strategy and insights to Marketing,
PR, Brand, Customer Service, Research, Sales, Product Innovation, and Digital leaders. We specialize in
customized solutions that transform digital journeys.
As a partner to Fortune 500 brands, we have delivered on their expectations using our proprietary frameworks
and methodologies. We work with structured and unstructured data to provide in-depth analysis and actionable
insights that realign existing strategies for better outcomes and ROI on investments. We help you understand
your customers, markets, category, and competition better.
25
Infovison Vision & Mission
Infovision believe that the information available in the social media space is under-utilized and analyzed today.
If processed and analyzed properly, social media information can hold relevant solutions to current business
problems. So, it is our mission to help our clients with customized solutions across various digital channels.
Infovision help them combine social research with primary and secondary research to create a holistic view
of their brand’s performance and identify answers to existing challenges. We enable them to leverage social
media data and improve the quality of strategic decisions that impact ROI and bottom-line.
26
WHAT MAKES INFOVISION DIFFERENT
Service Highlights
Media Monitoring Services
Comprehensive media intelligence from print, digital, and social media
We offer comprehensive multilingual analysis of how your media communications are influencing your
business bottom-line. Get a holistic view of the impact of your PR efforts on your brand reputation across
different channels. We help you cut through the noise and focus only on relevant stories and their impact to
make better communication strategies.
Media Measurement Services
Quantify your PR efforts and justify the media spends
We provide qualitative and quantitative measurements on your PR efforts are media strategies. We give you
insights on awareness, channel, highlights, influence, emotions, virality, and engagement when it comes to
your media presence. We use custom metrics to track the efficacy of your messages through different stages
of their journey across different channels and measure unified PR impact.
27
Social Media Listening Service
Transform unsolicited customer opinions into actionable insights that create an impact
Social media is a treasure trove of information that can be leveraged to address business problems. We help
you identify relevant conversations from the complex web of social media chatter and analyze them for
actionable insights. We combine tool-based workflows with our proprietary data and human intelligence for
holistic and accurate analysis of social media conversations.
Research & Social Media Analytics
Actionable insights from social media data to solve business problems and improve strategic decision-making.
Social media data is the most honest and unsolicited feedback that your business can get. We help you leverage
this data to produce actionable insights that can impact your bottom-line, brand health, and customer
experience. Our insights can uncover new potential markets, product ideas, and patterns of conversations
across the purchase journey of customers.
Social Media Audit
We evaluate your existing social media efforts and compare it against the KPIs (goals) to paint a real picture
of the performance. We help you understand what is working for you, what needs attention, and what needs
overhaul. Our goal is to help you determine the action plan that can deliver the results you expect.
Social Media Channel & Content Strategy
We analyze the content from various social platforms and give you insights around what type of content would
help you meet your objective on each channel.
We make data backed recommendations around:
What channels you should focus on
28
what type of content you should create and post on each channel
What should you be your posting frequency for each channel
what would be an ideal day and time for you to post on each channel
What type of themes you should use for content
Digital Customer Experience Management
Your customers are interacting with your brand through your digital assets. The quality of their digital
experience they get through these digital channels determines how long they will continue to engage with your
business.
We work with digital teams to enhance digital customer journeys by:
Simplifying
User journey
maps
Designing
Conversion
paths
Identifying
Digital User
intent
Facilitating
Decision-making
Connecting the Digital Dots
We connect the digital footprints of your users across platforms to develop a clear picture of their journey. We
help you understand how their behavior is impacting your bottom-line as well as identify gaps in their journey
that need immediate attention.
29
Our design strategies will simplify what your customers expect from you and how you can meet these
expectations. You can also get detailed conversion maps of your customers’ buying journeys along with
content designed to be implemented at each stage to accelerate conversion process.
We help you record each digital customer touchpoint and generate insights that can add value to their
engagement lifecycle with your brand.
Personalized Customer Experience
We provide you insights that shed light on the constantly evolving customer preferences and how you can
connect with them on a meaningful and personal level. You can better understand what they are looking for
and how to meet their needs in an engaging manner.
We work with you to design and implement strategies that would personalize your business for your customers
in real-time across different channels. You can engage your customers with immersive role based personalized
experience. We also share recommendations on data driven design that leads to user centric experience.
Digital Analysis Process
We assess the KPIs that you measure and compare them against the online and social search patterns to identify
the blind spots. Based on this assessment, we recommend the right metrics and design a tracking process in
your tool to align to the digital trends as well as your strategic goals.
Stage 1: Audit
Stage 2: Engage
Stage 3: Evaluate
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sean Yalamachi (vice chairman)
Co-founder of Info Vision, Inc. and Visual Collaboration Technologies, Inc. and ClearRES, Mr. Yalamanchi
holds a Master’s of Science in Computational Mechanics from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
and a Masters of Engineering with Computer Applications from Bharathiar University, India. Mr. Yalamanchi
currently serves as President of Info Vision, where he is responsible for business development, marketing and
strategic alliances. Additionally, Mr. Yalamanchi focuses on respecting and leveraging human capital,
execution and leadership. With 30 years of experience, InfoVision has benefitted from Mr. Yalamanchi’s
corporate vision to evolve with the IT industry.
30
Mr Kovelamudi (vice president)
Co-founder of InfoVision, Inc. and Visual Collaboration Technologies, Inc. Mr. Kovelamudi holds a Masters
in Computer Science Engineering from University of Texas at Arlington, and Masters in Structural
Engineering with Computer Applications from Bharathiar University, India. Mr. Kovelamudi is currently
serving as Vice President of InfoVision, where he is currently responsible for operations.
Prior to forming the company in 1995, he worked as Software Engineer for Super Conducting Super Collider
and DSC Communications Corporation. Mr. Kovelamudi also worked as Structural Engineer for Pithavadian
and Partners where he designed a number of commercial and industrial structures. Mr. Kovelamudi also cofounded IIET in India, and provided engineering design consulting services.
Chowdary Yalamanchili
Chowdary Yalamanchili has a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Cincinnati.
He worked in quality control engineering with two of the well-known corporates viz., William Powell
Company and Camco Inc., USA for over 5 years. Mr. Yalamanchili is presently the President and CEO of
CNC Investments, Inc., a highly successful multi-billion dollar business venture, specializing in multi-family
property acquisition, management and land development.
Chowdary Yalamanchili also founded Cybersoft Technologies, Indus Trading, DuncanMacy and Mantra in
USA. Mr. Yalamanchili serves on the board of directors of InfoVision and he is also a cofounder of Visual
Collaboration Technolgies, Inc. Mr. Yalamanchili also launched a billion dollar real estate investment fund to
expand into Asian markets.

Headquartered at Dallas(TX) with 1200+ Employees, 6 offices in the US and 4 offices in India

Ongoing projects with 22 Fortune 500 Companies and takes care of IT Resource and Project
Requirements for Companies – From Startups to Fortune 100 Companies

Strong Clients, Testimonials and Referrals on quality of service and repeat business from 90%+ of our
clients
31

Team that works for world renowned companies to fulfill their Strategic Resourcing, Enterprise
Applications, Application Development and Support, Mobility – UI/UX Consulting Services,
Responsive Web Solutions, Testing Services – Manual & Automation, EDW, BI & Big Data
Analytics, IoT, Cloud Enablement (AWS, Microsoft Azure, etc.), DevOps, Software Product
Engineering / Outsourced Product Development needs

220+ Consultants have worked till date, for a Fortune 200 Company on 30+ projects from their
Mobile Banking Application to Credit Card Application to Cloud Application to QA Automation to
Enterprise Applications to POCs to the Mobile Version of their Website

A Mobile Application that our team helped developing (iOS and Android – Fortune 200 Company) –
is the winner of 23 Awards including AppStore’s Best and the Mobile Payment Solution of the year

400+ Consultants converted to fulltime employees, that speaks about the quality of talent we
provide

Resource Development Manager Team with 150+ years of combined experience, with strategically
placed Technology and Domain Experts

Engaged in setting up several Onshore Centers of Excellence for Fortune 500 Companies in the US;
including a BOT Model setting up a 200+ seater Mobile/Digital and Analytics Centre of Excellence
for a Fortune 200 Company

Successfully scaled several Enterprise Projects of Team Size 100+ within 6-8 weeks for Fortune
500 Companies

Worked with most of the popular MSPs / VMSs and have consistently met compliance, quality and
performance requirements

Partnering with top Telco in their strategic solutions areas such as IoT, Big Data and Analytics, Product
and Applications Development for solutions such as Smart Cities, Fraud Analytics, Remote Vehicle
Diagnostics and Connected Cards, Smart Buildings
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Keys' Differentiate infovision from the competitions
INTEGRATED VALUE DELIVERY:
The world class IT organizations we serve demonstrate time and time again, that their competitive edge
derives from their ability to deliver more compelling value to customers, and adapt to opportunities and
challenges quickly and efficiently. As a result, they achieve a differentiating capability for their business by
identifying and articulating their unique differentiators.
33
At InfoVision we have emulated this approach and have institutionalized a vision and a set of guiding
principles we call Integrated Value Delivery.
Intergrated Value Delivery dictates that we offer exceptional and differentiating competencies for our
clients, using the right combination of InfoVision strengths
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Proven technical talent is the basis for our Strategic Resources offering. Our technical expertise and delivery
discipline extends our proven talent to create the differentiating competency our clients need in complex
Enterprise Applications projects. We provide customers with the foundation to drive process innovation, while
enhancing competitive differentiators.
Our domain expertise further extends our differentiating competency and assembles for our clients highly
Technology Solutions, in areas such as Mobility Solutions, Business Intelligence and Advanced Analytics,
Visualization and Collaboration and Wireless and IP and Communications.
Our Integrated Value Delivery System provides a flexible and scalable plan that offers options and choices
for our clients to undertake development work at the place of their choosing – on client premises, in one of
our several US facilities or at our offshore facility in Bangalore, India.
Our approach is straightforward and proven successful. By embracing and practicing Integrated Value
Delivery System, we are able to assess and serve our clients’ IT development needs at any level, every stage
and across the world. The process is measured, monitored and structured based on customer objectives.
Integrated Value Delivery Infographic
35
CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH:
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH
Social media research refers to a set of tools and techniques of extracting and analysing data from social media
channels and the Internet. These include, among other things, aggregating social data related to specific events
or issues and supporting analysis along spatial, temporal, thematic, and sentiment/psychosocial dimensions.
Given its nature, social media research represents a useful research resource to understand what social media
channels are being used, in what way, by whom and what is being said. Thus, social media research relates
more to a method of monitoring and (naturally) observing the content and information produced in the Internet
and popular social media channels, instead of a method for doing systematic reseach in the traditional way.
When to use it
Social media research seems particularly suited to:

Learn how social information flows in different channels, target groups of individuals and/or
geographical areas.

Identify new topics and trends in people’s interactions.
36

Gain insight of consumers' sentiments, attitudes, opinions, and thoughts about one or more specific
issues. Possible examples are: products/brands; health threats; natural or non-natural disasters;
politicians and political issues.

Gain insight into organization’s communication strategies, actions and other aspects with regard to
one or more specific issues.

Have a real-time overview of people’s reactions during an episodic event(s) (e.g., a food crisis), that
can occur for a few hours to various weeks.

Monitor consumers' reactions to a recurrent or chronic event(s) during an extended period in time (e.g.,
discourse with regard to salt intake, cholesterol, diabetes, etc.).

Identify potential influencers and opinion makers across the main social media platforms.
Many market researchers have held back from fully embracing a social research methodology or
incorporating social into their research mix in a fully integrated way. In my opinion, this is not due to a lack
of understanding of the potential opportunity for finding valuable insight, but to the perceived issues and
limitations of this type of data.
The rise of insight-driven business has positioned the market researcher at the center of some of the most
important strategic decisions that are made in many of the world’s largest companies. To better understand
the potential challenges and barriers with adopting social research methodology, I conducted interviews with
a number of highly experienced and talented CMI (consumer market insights) professionals. There were two
recurring themes within these interviews:
Representation is a concern. Social media data is created by a self-selecting group, which differs from channel
to channel and doesn’t necessarily reflect the broader online and offline population. This poses the question:
can I use this data to help understand a whole consumer group, or only those I’m hoping to reach via social
channels?
Social data is often “sold” as being less biased than other research methods, although in reality, it’s not. Unlike
tried-and-tested methodologies, we don’t understand how to reduce the biases within this dataset.
Both are completely valid concerns that resonate strongly with me as a researcher. However, neither should
prevent you from using social as a research methodology. Let’s address each issue.
Overcoming Representation Issues
It’s true that social data as a whole is unlikely to fully represent the offline world in the way that a weighted
panel can because a selection bias exists within social data. That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to
understand aspects of offline consumers, but it does need to be considered in the methodology.
37
Just as you wouldn’t serve a survey to everyone in a panel (you select your target audience), you don’t have
to listen to everyone on social media all at once. You can select an audience based on many different
characteristics, demographics, life stages, and interests. You can then benchmark those audiences to
understand how they think differently about different subjects or weight the data from different groups to
better model it against the offline population.
Overcoming the Biases in Social
The first stage in mitigating any bias is to acknowledge and understand the problem. Social, like all other
forms of research, is vulnerable to bias. We discussed selection bias above, but here are three more stages in
your analysis where you should be careful to avoid biases creeping in:
1) Data collection: Boolean search strings are incredibly flexible and allow you to gather and segment
data in almost any way, but they are open to bias if proper care and attention are not paid. If you don’t fully
research the key terms and phrases for a given topic, all social handles for a brand, relevant hashtags, common
misspellings and typos or slang terms that could possibly exist, you could be biasing your data toward people
who think and speak like you. Even if you know a topic well, it’s still important to do some desk research to
make sure you’re challenging your assumptions to reduce bias in your data collection.
2) Data segmentation: You can segment your data using Boolean by categorizing and benchmarking
within your dataset. As with the query, it’s important to invest time into researching topics within your data
to avoid skewing it toward trends that you already know about. For a truly data-lead segmentation, the best
approach is to take a representative random sample of conversation and code it manually for themes as they
emerge. This allows you to discover new topics, reduce the bias inherent in searching for topics you already
know about, and get more granular in your themes. A human can detect far more subtleties in tone, emotion,
and context, which is where the data is at its most rich and insightful.
3) Interpretation biases: All research, particularly qualitative research, involves interpretation of themes
by a human analyst, and so is open to researcher or interpretation bias. Being cognizant of this is the most
important factor for reducing its impact. A representative coded sample is also helpful in challenging your
assumptions as a researcher. It’s important to remember that you are telling the consumer’s story, not your
own.
There is another factor, which I believe is the greatest challenge not only for social data but all forms of
business intelligence. The rise of self-serve digital research platforms means that non-CMI professionals can
now create and analyze surveys and track web metrics and social data themselves. This presents huge
38
opportunities to truly distribute insights throughout the business and allow us to actually realize the lofty aim
of being an insight-driven business.
It also presents a significant challenge. The word “insight” is prone to overuse and as a result, is frequently
misunderstood. An insight is not a chart or a number, but rather an idea communicated from one human to
another to convey a way you could do something differently, better, or new.
The journey from data to insight, and from insight to action, contains two bridges that are reliant on human
interpretation, communication, and understanding. Opening this process up to more humans increases the risk
for human error, and for muddying the water of research with opinion.
One approach to combat this is a central CMI team that produces and distributes insight throughout the
business, and this can work really well. However, it’s my view that in the long-term the role of the CMI
professional isn’t going to be fighting against distributed power to find insight, but will set the guardrails that
enable different teams to explore data safely, and generate robust, impactful insights themselves.
Advantages
The use of social media research provides a number of advantages relative to other research methods, namely:
Opportunity to collect and analyse data in real-time.
Opportunity to collect a wide diversity of messages/information (e.g., from more spontaneous to more
thoughtful reactions) produced by a heterogeneous group of people.
Opportunity to collect data corresponding to different moments in time, very quickly (either longitudinally or
by selecting different collection points in time).
Online data/conversations seem to yield a higher level of honesty and transparency.
Allows access to a large sample of people, from different geographical areas, with relatively little practical
restraints.
No need for data transcription.
Disadvantages and limitations
Social media research has some disadvantages and limitations relative to other types of research, namely:

Repeated messages (same message posted more than once by the same person or other people, such as
retweets and shares, for example) can over represent the sample of messages and lead to biased
interpretations, depending on the research goal.
39

Social media quantitative analysis does not completely draw on the richness of consumers' responses and,
thus, they provide only a superficial analysis.

Deeper and richer qualitative analysis can represent a very time consuming task, given the size and the
unstructured nature of the data.

Deeper and richer qualitative analysis may require investing in specific software programs.

Loss of paralinguistic phenomena. Non-verbal communication plays a significant role in conveying
meaning and emotion and its loss can affect the interpretation of messages. In accordance, although the
analysis of some forms of written expression of emotions (e.g., emoticons) can give some insight in this
regard, they still provide an incomplete view of the phenomena.

Generalization to the broader population is constrained, unless complemented with additional
methods/data analysis procedures (e.g., Epidemiological studies).

Samples might be biased by excluding people that do not use social media or internet regularly and/or that
are illiterate.

Samples might be biased by including the people that are more interested in the event or issue studied (selfselection).

The access to data is only possible for information that the user shares as public or provided an informed
consent is given.
Market research in social media is the process of gathering quantitative and/or qualitative data from social
media platforms to understand social, consumer, or market trends.
There are a variety of different methods, tools, and tips you can use to uncover market insights on social
media, which we’ll cover in this post.
When Dove launched its #SpeakBeautiful campaign in 2016, it relied heavily on social media market
research to compile the data it needed for its social media strategy.
They analyzed over 5 million social media mentions on Twitter and found that approximately 80% of
female users online had experienced negative body shaming comments.
Social media market research is the process of gathering quantitative and/or qualitative data from social
media platforms to understand social, consumer, or market trends.
40

Quantitative or Qualitative Data or Both
Quantitative data will come in the form of concrete numbers you can use to evaluate or measure your research.
This can come in the form of:

Likes

Shares

Comments

Mention volume

Share of voice

Reach

Followers

Subscribers
Depending on the social media platform, there are numerous metrics you can use to compile quantitative data.
This can come in the form of:

Sentiment analysis

Word contextualization

Theme categorization

Industry trends
Qualitative research is usually a precursor to quantitative social media research – it looks to uncover a certain
feeling in relation to a topic.
Qualitative data will represent more of the “sentiment” and interpretation of certain topics in regard to your
research.
Commonly, this kind of data and research is performed daily by social media managers in regard to customer
service and identifying feelings about the brand or products.
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Think of qualitative research as social media monitoring to uncover specific mentions and feelings about a
topic.
Then by applying social media listening to understand the more widespread sentiment, trends, and context in
aggregate, you can get more quantitative data to draw conclusions from.
For example, a business discovers that they have 1,000 mentions about their product (quantitative) of which
84% of the mentions have a positive sentiment (quantitative).
HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH;
1. Define Your Target Goal
Researching consumer insights on brands and/or products has long been a staple of social market research.
To define a target goal, you must first definitively state what your business wants information for:
Product research
Product launches
Behavioral insights on target consumers
Customer service
Defining buyer personas
In social media monitoring, this takes place on a more granular level; you can parse through each mention and
gather feedback as you would an open-ended survey.
1. Identify a target demographic (adult women) and their pain points (beauty / body image).
2. Recognize the places (social media platforms) where their target demographic is most confronted with
these pain points (body shaming).
3. Undergo intensive research on how target consumers are affected in these places (social media market
research).
4. Create a campaign that gets to the heart of the issue by having the target demographic assess the
problem organically (women choosing which door to walk through).
5. Publish the data (research findings) in tandem with the campaign (visual content) via the medium or
place where the target demographics experience the pain point the most (Twitter).
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2. Choose Quantitative or Qualitative Data or Both
Quantitative data will come in the form of concrete numbers you can use to evaluate or measure your research.
3. Choose Social Media Channels
Deciding which social media channels to mine data from is the next most important step in establishing how
you want to acquire your data.
Different social channels have different demographics depending on region and behavioral norms for the
channel.
Conducting social media market research on modeling careers on Twitter, for example, will yield much
different results than on LinkedIn.
If we look at the demographic data for each social channel in 2016, we’ll notice a few trends and data groups
that can help us choose which channels to pick.
Again, how you choose channels for your social media market research will depend entirely on your goals
and strategy, but choosing the right channels is a vital step.
How to Get Social Media Market Research Data
There are numerous social media analytics platforms out there that can help you acquire the data required for
actionable insights.
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4. Choose The Right Tool
Choosing the right tool is as paramount as defining a goal – businesses need a tool that allows them to:
Mine a high volume of mentions from the necessary channels
Clean the data when necessary with features that can fine-tune results
Provide actionable and conclusive data with advanced metrics.
For our examples we’ve been using Unamo Social Media Monitoring, but there are also a variety of other
tools that can help mine the necessary data.
Some tools specifically monitor one channel, while some do a multitude of social media channels, blogs, and
news publications.
Choose what’s going to give you the most relevant data for your target goals and demographics.
5. Choosing the Right Keywords
Your keywords are essentially the questions that will shape the results you get.
When coordinating your social media market research, it’s vital to understand which combination of keywords
will help you attain the data you want and exclude the data you don’t.
Try to be generic with your search terms to cast a wide net; however, you need to ensure the data you’re
getting is as detailed as possible.
6. Data Cleaning
Now that we’ve identified a trend within our social media topic, we can further parse the data to
uncover more tailored market research data.
Data cleaning is the process of recognizing irrelevant, misleading, or incomplete parts of your data set
and modifying your parameters to reflect more accurate data.
This can be one of the most time consuming aspects of social media market research as it requires a lot of time
and patience to uncover significant trends that are bringing in unwanted data.
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For example, companies like Kleenex, Sharpie, or Google may have an extremely hard time data cleaning for
mentions about their brand because their brand names have become nouns or verbs.
Similarly, a brand like Target faces difficulties because the word is both the brand name and a commonly used
noun and verb.
Thus, these brands have to be extremely meticulous about how they use additional keywords in conjunction
with their brand for social media market research.
This enables us to gain quantitative social media data on our topic to measure the volume of mentions,
potential reach, shares, and more.
We can also clean the data by excluding more words, segmenting by male, female, or unknown gender (usually
publications or businesses), or filtering by sentiment alone.
On traditional social media platforms, there aren’t a lot of options to filter the data (like boolean search
operators) for conclusive market research results, which is why more advanced toolsets are necessary.
7. Turn Conclusions In to Strategy
The end goal is of course how businesses turn social media market research into strategy.
Staying within the example above, we can conclude from our social market research that the social reach of
the issue decreased significantly over the past few weeks while the amount of mentions stayed fairly
consistent.
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CHAPTER – 4
DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Figure (4.1)
Interpretation: In the above figure 4.1 is representing the Names of the customers who given response for
to the Fast food restaurants.
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Figure (4.2)
Interpretation: The figure 4.2 is representing the age of the customers who are visiting to the fast food
restaurant. Where it is categorized according to the different age groups, percentages are shown in the above
figure
Figure (4.3)
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Interpretation: The above figure 4.3 is showing the gender of the customer as who are preferring for the
Fast food restaurant.
Figure (4.4)
Interpretation: In the above figure 4.4 is representing income of the customers in four different categories
that customers can choose restaurant or item
Figure (4.5)
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Interpretation: The above figure 4.5 is shown in the histogram as that the percentage of brand name plays
a important role.
Figure (4.6)
Interpretation: The above figure 4.6 is showing that the income influencing the taking of the fast food
restaurant.
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Figure (4.7)
Interpretation: The above figure 4.7 is representing that customer’s favorite brand in the fast food.
Figure (4.8)
Interpretation: The above figure showing that customers usually chooses the type of food in the restaurant.
among different types of food items.
Figure (4.9)
Interpretation: The above figure 4.9 is representing that how much a customer can ready to pay for the
item or others.
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Figure (4.10)
Interpretation: The above figure 4.10 is showing that how customer is preferring to have a fast food
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Figure (4.11)
Interpretation: The above figure is representing that at what time does the customer is chosen to have a
fast food item.
Figure (4.12)
Interpretation: The above figure is showing does the taking of the fast food depends on the emotional
factors as happy, angry, sad and stress.
Figure (4.13)
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Interpretation: The above figure is showing that how many customers like the vegetarian and how many
like Non vegetarian.
Figure (4.14)
Interpretation: The above figure is representing the rating of the overall fast food restaurants. where it is
shown in the histogram.
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CHAPTER 5
FINDINGS, SUGGESTIONS AND CONCLUSIONS
FINDINGS:
1. From above analysis it is proved that Fast food items has bright future
Because it is more demanded by younger generation.
2. Pizza, burger and Fried chicken are most preferred Fast Food items by younger generation which proves
that consumers are more conscious about their food.
3. Younger generation prefer Snacks period to eat Fast Food and they visit more than 3 times in month to eat
Fast Food as snacks.
4. It is also found that younger generation prefers Fast Food items for change only not as their daily meal.
5. It is proved that income of the customer is also influencing the choosing the fast food restaurant.
6. It is proved from the analysis that younger generation preferred Fast Food items because of its taste, variety
and quality which tells about their consciousness towards food.
7. It is proved that customers are more preferred to Non vegetarian.
8. It is proved that younger generation are preferred to have a fast food as weekly basis.
9. It is proved that the customers are preferring the fast food restaurant depending on the moods of customers
as happy, sad, stress, and angry.
10. It is proved that brand name also plays an important place in market while choosing the item.
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SUGGESTIONS:
1. It is more important to create awareness about nutritional values of Fast Food because most of younger
generation is unaware about it.
2. Promotional strategies should be framed in such way that not only younger generation but family members
and relatives also should get attracted towards it. So, that number of target audience will increase otherwise
Fast Food will be preferred only by younger generation.
3. Promotional strategies like free home delivery, picnic and family packs of Fast Food, free gifts and coupons
will help in creating demand among all consumers which will not be restricted to only younger generation.
4. New Fast Food items should be introduced in such a way that it can be consumed during breakfast, lunch
and dinner so that timings of visit will increase.
5. More variety in the vegetarians items should be made Fast Food should be introduced so that it will help in
attracting consumers and creating demand among all consumers.
6. Consumers are health and food conscious, they do not want obesity and other health problems due to Fast
Food, so it suggests for nutritious and qualitative Fast Food.
7. Consumers should get reason for eating Fast Food which can be introduced with the help of new schemes
like Celebration of Birthdays, festivals, functions and Marriage or any other Anniversary so that consumers
will get reason for eating out and in future it help in increasing demand among consumers.
8. Media plays a very important role for influencing kids and vice versa family members for Fast Food. Fast
Food outlets can take help of the media for influencing consumers and introducing new Fast food.
Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that Fast Food outlets has vast scope to grow as the requirement of Fast Food items
is increasing day by day and it is more preferred by younger generation. Dominating factors for eating Fast
Food are food non vegetarian and snack time which can be exploited by fast food outlets for creating demand
of Fast Food items. Younger generation is more health and hygiene conscious that also can be considered by
Fast Food outlets.
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BIBILOGRAPHY
1. Agnes K.Y. Law, Y.V. Hui, Xiande Zhao, (2004) "Modeling repurchase frequency and customer satisfaction for fast
food outlets", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 21 Issue: 5, pp.545-563, doi:
10.1108/02656710410536563
2. Goyal Anita and Singh Netra Pal (2007). Consumer perception about fast food in India: An exploratory study British
Food Journal · February 2007
3. Ruth Cynthia Klerk (2008).
4. Hong Qin, Victor R. Prybutok, Qilan Zhao, (2010) "Perceived service quality in fast‐food restaurants: empirical
evidence from China", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 27 Issue: 4. pp.424-437, doi:
10.1108/02656711011035129
5. Ernest; Kelloff, Ashley (2013), ―Fast Food Leadership: Valuing What Is Easy over What Is Best
6. Asha kiran & Deepthi R (2012).” Fast Food and their impact on health “
7. kaushik, Marish narang and ankit parakh(2011) .”Fast Food consumption in children “
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