MARKET RESEARCH

The new marketing plan is informed by an excellent and detailed research study carried out in early 2007 by an independent market research company, and by the Council's own surveys.

A series of 7 focus groups group discussions were held with primary and secondary school children and parents.

The objective was to explore views of school meals and in particular barriers to increasing uptake and how these could be overcome.

The conclusions were as follows:

Now our target market of children are positively choosing alternatives to school meals
Influences on the children strong - TV, celebrities and competition all pushing them away from school meals
Parents and healthy eating are not influencing them to eat school meals
In addition the barriers to eating school meals are high

There is therefore a tactical job to be done that comes under 5 main headings:

Menu
Queues
Ambience
Liberty and Peers
Economics

For further information on the methodology and findings for the original market research project, please contact andrew.kennedy@east-ayrshire.gov.uk