Team Food Compass
Final Report for OAP
Team Food Compass
The Food Compass allows users to find restaurants or specific menu items based on personal food preferences (i.e. low-sugar options) and share those food preferences
(via their profile) with meal planners and reservation makers.
Elevator Pitch
Team Food Compass
USE CASES
Team Food Compass
Julie Smith is always looking for healthy foods. She registers a profile on The Food Compass, indicating her food preferences, allergies, and dietetic needs in
order to find nearby restaurants that match her profile. She agrees to receive (free) text alerts asking for her feedback after dining (in exchange for a 10% off coupon on next visit) where she’ll rate her overall food experience. If she
signed up for the premium “Burn It” Index, she’ll also have the option of entering meal details (ie. lasagna, chocolate cake) in exchange for preferred
activity recommendations.
Use Case #1
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John Smith, an overweight sales manager in a big corporation, registers a profile on The Food Compass, indicating his food allergies and preferences
(dietary needs). He attends a vendor luncheon where the lunch organizer requested access to his food profile to learn his preferences (ie. allergic to shellfish); he accepted her share request. He also recently shared his food
profile with the airline and travel agent (in-flight meal preference) as well as his hotel concierge so recommended restaurants will meet his dietary needs
(low sugar) while traveling. Finally, his personal trainer was granted access to his food profile in order to analyze his eating and/or dining habits.
Use Case #2
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FEATURES / HYPOTHESES
Team Food Compass
Configure your profile based on food preferences, allergies and dietetic needs and enjoy the search results which are
automatically tailored to your personal, pre-set preferences. For example, the Food Compass filters out high-calorie, high-sugar
entrées if you're watching your diet or leaves out expensive meals when watching your wallet.
Feature Description #1
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User want a service that helps them find foods nearby based on personal preferences (ie. food allergies, price, healthy
options, ratings, deals, etc.).
Hypothesis #1
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Results #1
Although 57.8% (11/19) respondents indicated they would find searching for foods based on dietary restrictions to be useful, dietary restrictions and concerns are not a significant primary factor. Other important considerations are taste, price, location, etc. The survey results indicate that (when combined with social sharing options)
respondents are more likely to submit their dietary preferences in exchange for faster response times, restaurant incentives or special accommodations. Therefore, dietary restrictions form a valid secondary factor for biasing search results (based on custom
user profiles, but not necessarily as a primary search criterion).
Team Food Compass
Once you have created a Food Compass profile unique to your preferences, easily share it with meal planners (party hosts / caterers) and reservation makers (concierges, travel agents, office assistants, airlines, event planners, healthcare aides,
personal trainers, friends and family) so they can easily plan meals that match your profile.
Feature Description #2
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Users will want to fill out / share a personal food profile with meal planners and reservation makers (concierges,
travel agents, office assistants, event planners, healthcare aides, caterers, friends and family) so they can easily plan
meals that consider their food preferences, allergies or dietetic needs.
Hypothesis #2
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We posed this hypothesis to 31 respondents via one (1) online survey and several face-to-face
interviews.
Experiment #2
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Results #2
Although the survey questions centered on using the Food Compass “while traveling,” the hypothesis has been validated via face-to-face interviews as well as survey results.
Team Food Compass
Users will be incented to rate and recommend meals and restaurants in exchange for coupons / deals and vice versa.
Feature Description #3
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Deals and coupons are an essential part of the Food Compass solution.
Hypothesis #3
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We posed this hypothesis to multiple respondents via two (2) online surveys and via a few face-to-face
interviews.
Experiment #3
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Results #3
As of now following points came out after the survey1. Offering coupons is good for attracting users; given deals must be good (obviously) and UI must be neat n clean. 2. Coupons will also help restaurants with lower ratings to improve their quality or to survive.3. Users need an incentive to interact with the Food Compass while dining.
Team Food Compass
Restaurants require customer profile information and statistical data to participate/share menu data.
Hypothesis #4
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We posed this hypothesis to 19 respondents via one online survey.
Experiment #4
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Results #4
The majority of respondents (15/19) are willing to share their profile data with restaurants / businesses, based on certain limitations or pre-conditions (ie. speeding up
orders, to receive incentives, to have their dietary needs met, etc.)
The survey results validate the hypothesis that customer profile data will be available as an incentive for restaurants to participate and share menu data.
Team Food Compass
After consumption, users can burn off excess calories with our Burn It index. When users activate this Burn It premium feature,
they’ll receive a text alert offering user-preferred activities to help you burn the calories consumed. Example alert: It’s time to burn it. You consumed chocolate cake for dessert two hours ago! Walk
two miles, do the laundry and dance with your partner for 30 minutes.
Feature Description #5
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Users are interested in having an activity ("Burn It Off“ feature) recommendation integrated into the Food Compass.
Hypothesis #5
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We posed this hypothesis to several respondents via one online survey and several face-to-face
interviews.
Experiment #5
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Results #5
Respondents were more interested in calorie spend than calorie intake.
Because activity tracking is a related, but not vital, part of the Food Compass, we feel the activity feature should be a premium one. We plan to offer users access to the "Burn It" Index where they can find fitness activities that will compensate for the calories expended.
Team Food Compass
Total Addressable Market (TAM):The typical American aged 8+ consumes an avg. of 4.2 commercially prepared meals per week, according to Meal Consumption Behavior — 2000 [5]. That figure translates to more than 1 billion commercially prepared meals consumed per week and 53.5 billion per year (Year 2000 numbers)
The typical person consumes an average of 2.1 commercially prepared lunches per week, resulting in total annual consumption of 26.7 billion commercially prepared lunches
The US has an adult population (age 15-65) of 206.8 million. 69.5 million people in the U.S. owned smart phones during the 3 months ending in February 2011 .
Projecting from 2000-2001 numbers, estimated TAM for the Food Compass app is 207 million users, with estimated total usage of 1.1 billion searches per week (combined smartphone and web application usage).
Market Analysis
Team Food Compass
Market Statistics [1]:
Number of fast food restaurants: 72,221Number of bars/clubs/drinking establishments: 72,241Number of full-service restaurant businesses: 214,147
Full-service Restaurants Revenue (2010): $178.1 billionFull-service Restaurants Profit (2010): $10.7 billion
Market Analysis
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Barrier to entry for a technology change is low.Households (HH) with a pre-tax income of $70,000+ spent a total of 50.5% of total food expenditure away from home, even though they comprised 17.0% of all HH [3]
20.0% of industry revenue is estimated to be derived from business and business travelers, as well as from tourists, including international visitors.
HH with income of more than $50,000 account for about 70.0% of the total personal expenditure on food eaten away from the home. Of this group, those HH in the highest income quintile provide about 30.0% of the total away from home food expenditure [4].
There have been market changes and some demand for healthy foods and choices, away from high fat, high salt and super-sizes meals, as the obesity epidemic continues to be raised and recognized.
There is currently still a growing number of households with high disposable income of $50,000 or above in the key groups 35- to 55-year-olds and baby boomers. Many have only limited time to cook and so are searching for good value and quality meals, and convenience and service in a hospitable and friendly environment.
Market Analysis
Team Food Compass
Findings [2]:Mature (age 61+) diners are more likely than others to try a new restaurant or dish for a weekday meal. The restaurant experience is also seen more as a social and family occasion, and like to share with family and friends, or coworkers28.4% of Generation Y diners prefer to use technology to place orders and pay for meals without interacting with counter staff (18.1% for Generation X, 12.1% for baby boomers, 7.5% for matures) 29% of Generation Y consumers indicated that they like to go to restaurants where the chef interacts with guests (compared with 17.8% of baby boomers) Most Generation X’s and Y’s like to check a restaurants menu prior to making a reservation25% of Generation X's and Y's said they like to make changes to the menu items (compared to 14.5% of mature diners)
[2] 2008 Market Research Study by Restaurants and Institutions Magazine
Market Analysis
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ONLINE RESTAURANT SERVICES [6]
Zagat.com: 333,962 / rank is 5,994Dine.com: 8,738 / rank is 90,031Opentable.com: 499,809 / rank is 4,029Menupages.com: 499,810 Fodors.com: 633,170 / rank is 3,149
TOTAL 1,975,489
(x 10% capture of online restaurant locator industry = 197,448 prospective users)
(Source: Compete.com)
Market Analysis
Team Food Compass
DIET INDUSTRY [6]
Weight Watchers: 4,715,662 unique visitors per month / rank is 337JennyCraig.com: 210,800 / rank is 9,565Nutrisystem.com: 810,334 / rank is 2,470 TOTAL: 5,736,796
(x 10% of dieting industry = 573,679)
(Source: Compete.com)
Market Analysis
Team Food Compass
Sources:
[1] http://www.katzvaluation.com/documents/Full-Service-Restaurant.pdf
[2] 2008 Market Research Study by Restaurants and Institutions Magazine
[3] US Census Bureau Data [4] US Census Household Expenditure Data [5] http://www.restaurant.org/tools/magazines/rusa/magarchive/year/article/?articleid=138
[6] Compete.com
Market Analysis
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Market Analysis
Team Food Compass
• Subscription Fees (individuals)
• Licensing Fees (hotels, travel agents, event planners, corporations)
• Corporate Sales / Membership Fees: HR departments for consistent company-wide F&B guidelines & reducing costs (employees use Food Compass to find pre-approved restaurants that meet their preferences).
• Advertising Sales (restaurants, travel agencies, health care providers, dieticians, health clubs, personal trainers)
• Sponsorships (National Restaurant Chains, Weight Watchers, evite, etc.)
• Deals / Coupons percentage
Revenue Streams
Team Food Compass
We plan to continue forward with the Food Compass for the next phase of our class; more research is needed regarding:
• The viability of the different revenue streams.
• More in-field testing / face-to-face interviews, specifically targeting end users (corporate travel agents, hotel concierges, personal trainers, health clubs, etc.)
• Après-meal alerts / feedback feature. We think there’s more to this feature than meets the eye.
Final Thoughts