A Meal Service Design and Marketing Strategy Based on Cooperation And

Home , Cook (profession), Cook it, Plated (meal kits)

A Meal Service Design and Marketing Strategy Based on

Cooperation and Persuasion Theories

A thesis submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Design

in the School of Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning by

Zhenhua Yang

M.F.A. Hunan University of Technology B.E. University of South China March 2017

Committee Chair: Peter Chamberlain, M.F.A. Committee Member: Gerald Michaud, M.A. Dianne Hardin, M.S., M. Des. Tony Kawanari, M.A., I.D.

ABSTRACT

This thesis is proposing a new meal service for college students. The service combines the methods of the cooking co-op model and meal kit services. The thesis was developed in two steps: first is theoretical research and the second is service design and marketing planning.

Theoretical research includes primary research and secondary research. The primary research of the thesis focuses on students’ meal experience and discovering their needs in meals, preparing for the development of the service design. The secondary research aims at the social psychologist

Carl Hovland’s theories of persuasion and communication, discussing three components of persuasion: 1) source, 2) message and 3) audience, and establishing the guidelines for marketing development.

The second step is service design and business planning. According to the data collected previously, a CoCook proposal was established. The business plan starts with the creation of personas. Then, a customer journey map was developed to stimulate the purchasing process.

Finally, the theory of persuasion, which is discussed in secondary research, was applied on the lead nurturing process.

Keywords: cooperation, business planning, marketing strategy, meal kit, social psychology, persuasion

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To my loving wife Zhuodan and my always devoted parents, whose unconditional love and support made this journey possible.

I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis committee for their continued support and encouragement: Thanks to Professor Gerald Michaud, who kindly supported my research in every step and encouraged me a lot on the thesis development and entrepreneurism thinking. Thanks to Professor Dianne Hardin for introducing me to the methods of marketing development. Without her help, this thesis would not be completed so quickly. Thanks to Professor Peter Chamberlain and Professor Tony Kawanari, whose guidance not only inspired my research but also helped with my life.

I would like to thank my dear friends who devoted their time and effort to help me finish the test of the design and give me helpful suggestions. Also, thanks to the participants in my survey and interviews, who have willingly shared their precious time and thoughts.

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Table of Contents

ABSTRACT ...... i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1 1.1 Cooperation ...... 1 1.2 Dining Co-op ...... 1 1.2.1 Student Dining Co-op ...... 1 1.2.2 Dining Co-op Among Neighborhoods ...... 2 1.2.3 The social attributes of cooking co-op ...... 3 1.3 Why College Students? ...... 3 CHAPTER 2: PRIMARY RESEARCH ...... 4 2.1 Students’ Meal Experience ...... 4 2.1.1 Cost ...... 4 2.1.2 Effort ...... 5 2.1.3 Health ...... 5 2.2 The Ability and Motivation in Purchasing, Cooking, and Food Sharing ...... 6 2.2.1 Purchasing ...... 6 2.2.2 Cooking ...... 6 2.2.3 Food Sharing ...... 7 2.3 Conclusion ...... 8 CHAPTER 3. SECONDARY RESEARCH ...... 9 3.1 B. J. Fogg Behavior Model ...... 9 3.2 Persuasion ...... 10 3.2.1 Source ...... 10 3.2.2 Message...... 11 3.2.3 Audience ...... 11 CHAPTER 4. DESIGN PROPOSAL ...... 14 4.1 Existing Meal Services ...... 14 4.2 Case Study ...... 15 4.3 Marketing Positioning ...... 17

iv 4.4 Service Design of CoCook...... 19 4.4.1 Service Design Proposal ...... 19 4.4.2 Order System ...... 20 4.4.3 The Test of CoCook ...... 20 4.4.4 Findings...... 23 CHAPTER 5. BUSINESS PLAN OF COCOOK ...... 25 5.1 Quick Profile of the Subjects ...... 25 5.1.1 Potential User Interview ...... 25 5.1.2 Creating Profiles ...... 26 5.2 Customer Journey Map ...... 28 5.3 Marketing Funnel ...... 30 5.4 Lead Nurturing Plan ...... 31 5.4.1 Awareness ...... 34 5.4.2 Consideration ...... 36 5.4.3 Service...... 37 5.4.4 Evaluation ...... 38 5.4.5 Retention ...... 39 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION ...... 41 6.1 Summarized Findings and Implications...... 41 6.2 Future Works ...... 41 BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 43 APPENDIX ...... 46

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This proposal is going to design a cooking co-op service for college students. In the following contents, let’s call this service “CoCook”. Users can use this service to make a group to cooperate with each other to plan and make meals. The platform of the service would be an app and a website, which include the following functions: socialization, schedules, online shopping, and cooking instruction.

The study will focus on service design and the business plan of CoCook.

1.1 Cooperation

Cooperation is an important form of prosocial behavior (doing something that is good for other people or for society as a whole). Cooperation is based on reciprocity. Every group member does his or her part, and together they work toward a common goal (Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J.

Bushman, 2014). Needless to say, cooperation is a vital form of social behavior. In far ancient times, people cooperate to survive under extremely severe conditions. During our civilization, cooperation brings human beings high efficiency of development and a higher standard of living.

1.2 Dining Co-op

1.2.1 Student Dining Co-op

At some universities, student-housing co-ops are a way to offer low-cost meal plans or housing.

To make it work, participants are assigned to different houses or apartments that have shared kitchens. Each house or apartment makes a community. Participating students can enjoy affordable meals. In exchange, they work for their community for two to five hours per week.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 1 The job might be management, cooking, kitchen cleaning, etc. One of the most successful student cooperatives is the Berkeley Student Cooperative (BSC). The mission of it is to “provide affordable housing and board students at UC Berkeley and other Bay Area colleges and universities.” (BSC official) Since founded in 1933, it has grown into one of the largest student- housing providers, which has 2000 members and provides 20 houses and apartments. Instead of paying someone else to keep the house clean, they ask its residents to do the work. At the location like the Bay Area, where the cost of rent is so high, BSC offers a good solution for the students who find it difficult to afford the housing.

Another good example of student dining co-op is Two Dickinson Street Co-op, also known as

2D or Twod, which is a student-dining co-op at Princeton University. It is an alternative to the eating clubs and was founded in 1977. Members of 2D are mainly students living in #2

Dickinson St. Princeton, and some of the other students from Princeton University. The co-op is collectively self-governed; members of the team alternate cooking dinner each night, and often prepare and eat informal lunches and breakfasts at the co-op. Each member pays 600 dollars per semester, cooks once a week and participates in some chore, which ranges from bread, baking to treasurer, to dishrag washer. Then they will have seven dinners, two brunches and leftovers each week.(By Brett Tomlinson, 2004)

1.2.2 Dining Co-op Among Neighborhoods

Off campus, people also participate in dining co-ops within their neighborhoods. This is often called a cooking co-op, or dinner swap. The groups are usually self-organized. Several individuals or households usually make an agreement to provide prepared meals for each other according to a schedule. ( Laurie Woolever, June, 2010) It works like this: once a week, you cook a dish, making enough to provide at least one serving for each adult member of the co-op.

Around the same time, your fellow co-op members are cooking large batches of their chosen dishes.

1.2.3 The social attributes of cooking co-op

We can say that cooking co-op is a social behavior based on reciprocation. It starts with one of the members cooking first for the whole group. Other members would have an obligation to return what the previous member had done for them (Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman,

2014). As a result, once a cooking co-op is started, everyone has motivation to continue it.

1.3 Why College Students?

The selection of objectives is based on the following two considerations. 1) College students are far from their families. They live in the communities with the same generation of people who are easier to cooperate with for a better life. 2) Based on personal experience and observation, many students are busy and have low or no incomes. But recently, the food services have become expensive, unhealthy or time consuming. So, an easier and more affordable meal solution would be helpful to their life.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 3 CHAPTER 2: PRIMARY RESEARCH

Any form of a cooking co-op needs participants to cook for each other. So, in order to get insights about students’ meal experience, a survey was conducted (please check Appendix 1 for more details). The questions are focused on understanding the student’s experience and attitudes toward their meals, grocery and relationship with people. The survey was distributed to 50 students at the University of Cincinnati through email, and 17 responses were received.

2.1 Students’ Meal Experience

According to the results of the survey (Please see the Appendix 1 for more details), there are three main factors that would influence students’ decision of whether cook or not: 1) cost, 2) effort, 3) health.

2.1.1 Cost

Based on the responses, about 64% of students spend more than $11 per meal when eating in restaurants or cafes. Compared to this, home-cooking is much more affordable – only about $2 to

$5 dollars per meal. Take the meal with rice, salmon and broccoli as an example. At Whole

Foods Super Market, the price of such meal is $10.98 dollars. But, if people cook it at home with the same ingredients, the cost is only $4. Of course, meal service providers have much higher costs on the same meals. They have to pay for the rent, utilities and tax, hire employees, and consider the waste of materials. Most importantly, merchants must carefully control the cost to assure their profits.

Table 1. The price range of per meal in restaurants or cafe

Cost Percentage Less than $4.99 0.00% $5-$7.99 13.33% $8-$10.99 20.00% $11-$13.99 33.33% $14-$16.99 20.00% $17-$19.99 6.67% More than $20 6.67%

2.1.2 Effort

The research shows that about 36% of the students who responded need 1 - 1.5 hours to prepare a single meal, while 40% need 0.5 – 1 hour. To make sure they can have fresh food, most students only cook one or two meals at a time, which means about six hours per week if they cook six times. In addition, since many students lack life experience, cooking requires more effort from them. So, from this aspect, they are not willing to cook very often. In addition to cooking, they also need to go grocery shopping, which is additional effort for the students.

2.1.3 Health

Among the responses of the open-ended questions on dissatisfactions about meals, 46.7% students mentioned words about health, such as “Not enough nutrition,” “not fresh,” “too oily,”

“over eat,” etc. So, health would be another important criteria for people to select their meals from different meal providers or cook by themselves.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 5 2.2 The Ability and Motivation in Purchasing, Cooking, and Food Sharing

To cook by themselves, people not only need to work in the kitchen, but also need to purchase the materials they need. In cooking co-op, meals would also be shared. So, the questions about the ability and motivation about purchasing, cooking, and sharing were also asked in the survey.

2.2.1 Purchasing

For purchasing, the variables explored in the research included 1) access to grocery, 2) time available for shopping and 3) available budget. The research showed that most students have access to a car or can get a ride from their friends. Students can also take the school’s shuttle bus to the grocery store. They usually spend one to three hours a week on grocery shopping. It is time-consuming and needs some effort, but their motivation is high, because people like shopping. And instead of eating out, buying ingredients and cooking themselves is much cheaper.

The trigger here can be weekly routine (weekend is usually the “grocery day” for the students) or running out of supplies.

2.2.2 Cooking

Table 2 shows the students’ attitudes toward cooking. Participants were asked to rate their feelings on cooking in six criteria: 1) difficulty, 2) time benefit, 3) tastes, 4) enjoyment, and 5) healthiness. The difficulty, time cost, and tastes reflect their ability for this activity, while tastes and healthiness reflect their motivation. According to the questionnaire, “1” means the most negative, while “5” means most positive. The average score of each section was calculated. If

M<3, participants’ ability in that section is low. If M>3, participants’ ability in that section is high.

Table 2. Students’ attitudes to cooking (1=bad, 5=good)

Difficulty Time Cost Tastes Enjoyment Healthiness

Response 1 5 3 5 5 5 Response 2 3 2 4 3 4 Response 3 5 2 4 4 4 Response 4 3 3 5 3 4 Response 5 4 3 4 3 5 Response 6 3 1 3 4 4 Response 7 3 3 4 4 4 Response 8 4 4 5 5 4 Response 9 5 3 5 5 5 Response 10 3 2 4 4 4 Response 11 4 2 4 4 5 Response 12 1 1 2 5 5 Response 13 1 2 5 3 4 Response 14 5 5 5 5 5 MEAN (1:5) 3.5 2.57142857 4.21428571 4.07142857 4.42857143

For the “difficulty” criteria we can see that the score is 3.5, a little higher than 3, which means cooking to them is not difficult, but not too easy. The score of “time cost” is 2.57. So, we may conclude that participants’ available time is relatively low. But the “tastes” criteria got a higher score, which indicates a higher confidence in cooking. The mean score for the “enjoyment” (4.07) and “healthiness” (4.42) criteria are close to 5, indicating a very high motivation.

2.2.3 Food Sharing

The attitude towards food sharing is positive. According to the responses, more than 73% of participants would like to share their food with friends, and 86.7% of participants would like to try food cooked by their friends. 73.33% of students are willing to try meals from another country. What’s more, 60% of responses show that they are confident about the food they cook.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 7 2.3 Conclusion

Based on the research findings outlined in this discussion, here is a summary of the insights. 1)

Even though self-cooking is much more affordable than buying meals, it takes much more time and effort, which is a big disadvantage. 2) Healthiness is a big consideration of meals. Students believe that self-cooked meals are a healthier alternative than eating out. 3) Meal sharing is quite acceptable for students.

Now, we know these student’s preferences, how do we persuade them to try the new way? This question will be discussed in next chapter.

CHAPTER 3. SECONDARY RESEARCH

3.1 B. J. Fogg Behavior Model

The Fogg Behavior Model, which was developed by B. J. Fogg of Stanford

University, presents three elements that help to change people’s behavior. The three elements are ability, motivation, and triggers. When people have enough ability and motivation, they will do some behavior with the certain trigger. Fig 1. B.J. Fogg Behavior Model (B.J. Fogg, 2009)

The ability can be people’s economic capacity, skills, or enough time; motivation could be the benefits people can get from the behavior, interests or curiosity; the trigger could be a notification, an opportunity, or someone’s request.

If something is very easy to do, which means the people who are doing the actions has a high ability for it, it would not need much motivation to be conducted. On the other hand, if the people’s motivation is low for the certain thing, this behavior must be very easy to do. Otherwise, even if there was a perfect trigger, people would not do it.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 9 3.2 Persuasion

A successful business plan should be persuasive. It should make people trust and try it. So an effective persuasion technique is essential for the marking strategy.

Persuasion is “an attempt to change a person’s attitude.” ( Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman,

2014) Carl Hovland, a social psychologist at Yale University, did a lot of researches on persuasion since the 1940s. According to Hovland’s study, persuasion includes three components:

1) source, 2) message, and 3) audience (Hovland, C. I., Janis, I. L., & Kelley, H. H. 1953). Table

1 shows the outline of this theory.

Table 3 the components of persuasion. (Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman, 2014).

SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE ▪Credibility ▪ Reason/Emotion ▪ Intelligence -Expertise ▪ Stealing Thunder ▪ Need for Cognition -Trustworthiness ▪ One/Two-Sided Messages ▪ Public Image ▪ Likability ▪ Repetition ▪ Age ▪ Cultural Difference ▪ Overheard Messages ▪ Distraction

3.2.1 Source

Source is the “individual who delivers the message.” (Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman, 2014)

Credibility and Likability are two important characteristics. Enhancing expertise and trustworthiness are two ways to increase credibility of a source. People are easy to be persuaded by the things they like.

In this thesis, the meal service CoCook is the object of persuasion. It will be developed as an image of expertise in the healthy food industry and time management. The food that students like or the visual enjoyment of the platform could increase the likability of customers.

3.2.2 Message

Message is what people see, hear or feel. During a marketing process, it means the advertisements, the marketing emails, the contents of the website, etc.

The persuasiveness of the message depends on many dimensions. 1) Emotion is an important factor, which could be a very effective tool. Emotional factors, especially humor, are frequently used in advertisements. Research shows that people pay more attention to humorous messages than to serious messages (Duncan, C. P., & Nelson, J. E., 1985). 2) Stealing Thunder is the

“practice of revealing potentially incriminating evidence (thunder) first, so as to negate its impact.” (Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman, 2014) Advertisers also do the similar things. They would mention some minor flaw of their products before they introduce the positive features

(Roy F. Baumeister, Brad J. Bushman, 2014). In this way, customers would have deeper impression of their products. 3) One/Two-Sided Messages is about how a message is conveyed. A one- sided message is a message only about our own side, while two-sided message is the message that not only mention the advantage of our own products, but also compares them to the competitors’. 4) Repetition is most frequently used in advertising. When those images and videos are shown again and again to the audiences, they will be very likely to be remembered.

3.2.3 Audience

The Audience of CoCook is college students (perhaps office employees, in the future). They interact with the service and receive messages from it. There are a lot of factors that can be

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 11 mentioned about an audience. But here, let’s talk about the ones that would play important roles in CoCook’s marketing strategy.

1) The intelligence of the target audiences would affect the way they accept the information. A research indicates that more intelligent people “are more persuaded by two-sided arguments than by a one-sided argument (Hovland, C., Lumsdaine, A., & Sheffeld, F. 1949).” 2) Cultural differences are another factor that need to be considered for marketing strategy. People who grow up in different cultural backgrounds will be persuaded by different types of massages. For example, Americans were more persuaded by individualistic ads, whereas South Koreans were more persuaded by the collectivist ads (Hang-Pil, S., & Shavitt, S. 1994). 3) Overheard messages are persuasive to audiences. In advertising, overheard messages are information that does not look or sound like ads. Product placement is a good example. It works so well because people do not think it is the advertisement when they are receiving the massage.

Table 4 is the summarized findings of Hovlan and his colleagues in their research on persuasion and communication. It shows what effective persuasion should be. Based on what has been discussed in this chapter, we will figure out the guidelines for the marketing strategy of CoCook.

Table 4 the strategies that make effective persuasion (Carl Hovland, 1963)

The next chapter will discuss the development of CoCook meal service, which focuses on these keywords: affordable, easy, healthy and sharing.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 13 CHAPTER 4. DESIGN PROPOSAL

Before we develop the CoCook service design, it is necessary to compare some existing types of meal services, so that we find design opportunities from the marketing perspective.

4.1 Existing Meal Services

The services in restaurants are the most common one. Customers can select dine-in, carry out, or delivery service. Waiters or waitresses serve you everything. The only thing you need to do is to walk or drive to the restaurant and wait, or, even just make a call. The biggest advantage is convenience. It offers a good environment for a single person or friends to save time. On the other hand, there are also disadvantages, such as high cost, unhealthy ingredients, and long waiting times.

UberEATS is a new food-ordering and delivery service. People can order food from a variety of restaurants on the UberEATS app. It has three groups of stakeholders: customers, restaurants and couriers. Restaurants get more sales and couriers earn money by delivering food for people. To ease customers’ decision-making, “Uber provides an ‘Instant Delivery’ service that narrows users’ options to no more than five menu items.”

Cookisto was an online community marketplace for homemade food in London. People who are good at cooking can join it as cooks, and consumers can buy meals from them on the Cookisto app. This service provides people with homemade meals, which could be healthier and more affordable than the meals in restaurants. However, this service failed only four months later, since it was started in fall of 2013. “Total numbers, users, orders were all growing but retention was low.” (Michalis Gkontas, Sep. 2016) Users had a good experience at a relatively lower price.

But it was not as convenient as other food delivery services because people needed to find the cooks’ home and pick up their meals.

Meal kit service have become popular in recent years. There are more than 100 such companies that came about in past few years (Alison Ashton, 2016). Users select weekly meal plans online where they can select their favorite food among hundreds of dishes. The selected recipes and ingredients would be delivered to their specified location at the scheduled time. All the cook needs to do is to prepare the meals using the ingredients provided. Meal kit services help busy people to skip the grocery store and prepare delicious meals in 30 to 60 minutes. The recipes make the cooking process easier. The cost of some meal kit services is as much as purchasing a meal from a restaurant. But, by following their recipes, people can easily make the delicious food themselves, which could bring them sense of achievement and an enjoyable cooking experience.

But, for people who don’t have time to cook, this may not be a good choice.

Similar to Cookisto, most meal kit services also have problems with retention. According to the data from a market-tracking firm, 1010data, about half of the customers drop out after the free offer ends; and, only ten percent of customers are still subscribing six months later (Tom Philpott

October 25, 2016). So, another critical question is how to retain participants once they try the program.

4.2 Case Study

In order to figure out how the meal kit services within the context of a cooking co-op could work, two participants (A and B) were asked to form a group and use a meal kit service, Home Chef, to try a cooking co-op. Each of them were asked to cook a meal at home and bring it in to their design studio to share. Participant A created an account of Home Chef and ordered a meal plan

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 15 for two people. Four days later, on a Friday, he received the box with all the ingredients and cooking instructions. As soon as he got the box, they made the schedule for cooking. A cooked dinner for the group was scheduled for the next Tuesday; then, B prepared lunch for the group the following day. After cooking, the participants were interviewed about their experience during the cooking and eating. Here is what I learned:

Pros:

The process of cooking is enjoyable. The cooking instructions and the proportioned ingredients make the cooking easier. Without any skills, participants could still make pretty good meals, even though they have never tried to make such meals before. It is achievable to make something new successfully. Also, compared to eating alone at home, eating together was a pleasurable experience. Each participant made an effort for the other person in the group; and, they had more opportunities to communicate.

Cons:

First, is delivery time and packaging. It took four days before participant A received the box. So, to keep everything fresh, the meal kit seemed overly packaged. As shown in Fig. 1, all the ingredients are packed in a cardboard box, with insulation cushioning inside it to keep a lower temperature and protect the items. Meat is on the bottom of the box, covered by several frozen ice bags. Un-cut vegetables and bottled sauce was packed separately in plastic bags by different recipes. In addition, due to the scheduled cooking date, the ingredients were refrigerated or frozen for another four days. So the materials are not as fresh when they began to cook.

Second, as described on the instructions, the total cooking time should have been 40 – 45 minutes. But the actual time used was 1.25 – 1.5 hours. Due to the unfamiliarity to the material and recipes, both of them took much more time on cutting and cooking.

Fig. 1 the Meal Kit User Received from Home Chef

In conclusion, the Home Chef trial was successful in creating a good cooking experience for the users, and saved some grocery time. But, it did not save too much time on cooking and was expensive for the students. Also, the over packaging was annoying. Too much packaging left people with a negative impression and lowered their purchasing motivation.

4.3 Marketing Positioning

Marketing positioning is “the act of designing a company’s brand strategy to occupy a distinctive place in the mind of target consumers to maximize the potential benefit to the firm” (Kotler &

Keller, 2012, p. 276). By doing branding positioning, we can find a marketing gap for CoCook

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 17 and fulfill the unmet needs of the customers. Furthermore, it would be easier to establish the distinctive brand image of CoCook to target customers, and helpful for future advertising and persuasion, which will be discussed in Chapter 4.

Fig.2 Marketing Positioning Map of CoCook

Fig. 2 shows the marketing positioning of CoCook. The horizontal axis reflects the efforts needed to have the meal. Usually, less effort means less time needed and a simple cooking process; more effort means more time needed and a complex cooking process. The vertical axis shows the price rate of different methods. From the image, we can see that the area of

“Restaurant” located on the higher left quadrant of the matrix, is the most expensive of all the methods with limited options. But it does not need too much effort - walking or driving to the restaurant and waiting. “Self-cooking” is on the lower right quadrant. It is the most affordable

way to eat compared to others, and people have more options and they can make less or more effort, depending on what they want to cook. “Meal kit service” is on the top of the matrix, overlapping the left and right quadrants. Usually, such services are less expensive than meals in restaurants, about 2/3 of the price, needs more effort than eating out, but not as much as self- cooking. There is a gap on the bottom of the matrix, between self-cooking and meal kit services.

Some customers want more affordable options with an easier cooking process. The goal of

CoCook is to fulfill their needs.

4.4 Service Design of CoCook

4.4.1 Service Design Proposal

Based on what we have found in previous research, the proposal of the CoCook service is developed. CoCook is going to provide an efficient meal solution to the people who work, study, or live in a certain community, where they can share the typical time of cooking and eating.

Here is how it works: 1) Several people make a group and order meal plans on the

CoCook platform. 2) Then, they receive the pre-portioned materials from a nearby grocery supplier and the recipes from the platform. 3) Each member takes a turn

Fig.3 User Flow of CoCook Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 19 cooking and brings meals for the whole group. The simplified recipe would shorten the cooking time, and people would eat healthier. Fig. 3 shows the user flow of this service.

4.4.2 Order System

The way CoCook groups people decides the way of payment. The basic concept of the payment is to split the order. Fig. 4 shows the simplified paying process. 1)

The initiator selects meals and makes a temporary menu for the group. 2) Once the order is created, each of the other members would receive a payment link. Through this link, members can check or modify the menus and check out. 3) When everyone finishes the payment, the order will be placed successfully and CoCook will withdraw funds based on each of their payment methods.

4.4.3 The Test of CoCook Fig.4 Check out Flow of CoCook

To evaluate the feasibility of the CoCook service, a test was conducted. Three graduate students in the same academic program were recruited. They will go through the service in one week, sharing meals three times.

Preparation for the Test

Three simple meals, which the three participants had never cooked, were selected: 1) Recipe 1.

Rice with salmon, broccoli and mushrooms; 2) Recipe 2. Toast with bacon and Chinese chili sauce salad; 3) Recipe 3. Tacos with fried shrimp, avocado, tomato and onion.

In this test, each of them was asked to cook one of the meals once for three people at a scheduled time. The cooking instructions are also designed (Fig. 6). To show a clear process, the instructions are based on the time line of cooking, simplifying the information. Less information means that we can use much bigger fonts, so that it is much easier to read. All the ingredients were bought at the same local grocery store and packaged separately based on each recipe. The total cost for all of the ingredients was about $28.

Fig. 5 the recipe of Home Chef Fig. 6 the cooking instruction of CoCook

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 21 Test Process and Findings

The test follows the process shown in Fig. 7. Member A was the initiator of the CoCook group.

After ordering the meal online, he picked up the meal kit in a nearby grocery store. Then, the cooking and sharing date was scheduled by three of them. Since the members work together during lunchtime on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, we worked out the following schedule:

1) Member A: March 7th (Tuesday);

2) Member B: March 9th (Thursday);

3) Member C: March 10th (Friday).

Each of them will cook and bring a lunch for the group.

Each of the participants cooked the meal based on the schedule and brought them into the group. Then, they ate together. Fig. 8 shows the meals prepared by each of them.

They were asked to document the cooking process and record their cooking times.

Member A started cooking at 11:30am and finished it within 23 minutes. Member B began to cook at 7:08am and spent 26 Fig. 7 the process of the test minutes. Member C cooked in the morning, starting at 8:20am and finishing in 30 minutes.

Fig. 8 the meals cooked by three participants

4.4.4 Findings

After the test, a follow-up survey was conducted. The participants’ answers were used to evaluate their experience of CoCook. The following are the findings.

First, joining a cooking co-op group with the CoCook recipes is a way to make the purchasing and cooking easier than doing so alone. The cooking part does not need too much cutting or washing, which helped people to save a lot of time. By following the instructions, users are able to make food they never had before, which makes the cooking easier and reduces the risk of failing.

Second, the way they tried in the test helped them save plenty of time on cooking. From Table 5, we can see how much time each person took to prepare three meals in two ways. According to the data from the survey in Chapter 1, we can estimate the average time a student spent on one meal as 0.9 hours. So, for three fresh meals, participants needed a total of 2.7 hours to prepare them. Differently, each member in the CoCook test spent less than half an hour on cooking, but enjoyed all three lunches.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 23 Table 5. comparison the time cost for three meals between cooking alone and the CoCook way in a three-person group.

Cooking Alone CoCook Test Grocery 1 hours in store 0 to 10 minutes online Transportation 40 minutes 40 or 0 minutes Preparing + Cooking 0.9 hour 30 minutes Cooking times 3 times once Total 4.5 hours 0.5 to 1.33 hour

Lastly, some problems were exposed in the test. For example, each person has a different demand for quantity, but during the test, everyone received the same quantity of meals. So it was enough for Member A and B, but not enough for Member C. Also, all the participants took more time than expected on the cooking instructions. One of the reasons is that preparation needs more time. When Member C was preparing the meal, all the bacon became fragmented and stuck together. It took her additional time to get everything ready. Those problems will be solved in future development of the CoCook platform.

The next chapter will discuss the marketing strategy and business plan of CoCook.

CHAPTER 5. BUSINESS PLAN OF COCOOK

5.1 Quick Profile of the Subjects

Persona is an archetype of the real people who might use or buy the products you sell. To adopt new buyer-centric approaches, first managers should develop comprehensive buyer personas that represent who their customers are. This will further help managers to create customer journey maps that will illuminate how their contacts are engaging with them along the path to purchase.

(Arundhuti Roy, February 1, 2016)

5.1.1 Potential User Interview

In an effort to understand the potential user for the CoCook service, four interviews were conducted with students from the college of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning at the

University of Cincinnati. They have the background of design, electrical engineering and mechanical engineering.

Each participant was asked fourteen open questions, which focus on these aspects: the current life pattern, the goals about life and meals, the enjoyable moment, the satisfaction and frustration on meals and cooking. The interview was recorded and translated using a “voice type” tool in

Google document, then transcribed with YouTube transcription tool. According to the interviewees’ responses, we can use following key words to describe their personalities (Table 6).

Table 6 the summarized personalities of each interviewee

Interviewee 1 Introvert, less confident, kind, thoughtful, love cooking Interviewee 2 Satisfied, mild, kind, love sharing Interviewee 3 Technical, casual, love travelling Interviewee 4 Extrovert, confident, smart, fashion, love drinking

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 25 A consolidated insight sheet was used to abstract the core insights of the interviews (Please see the appendix for more details). They are organized into seven factors: interrelationship, health, flavor, cost, time, abilities and spirituality. The purpose of the consolidated insight sheet is to discover the personalities, goals and pain points of the interviews, clarity the motivations for their goals.

5.1.2 Creating Profiles

The profile of the subjects is based on the responses of the interviews. They can come from a single individual as well as be combined form several real persons. A series of spectra are used to create three personas from three or more interview responses (Fig. 9). Here, four interviewees are placed in each spectrum based on their insights. Since Interviewee 1 and Interviewee 3 are close to each other on the spectra and on the same scale twice, they can be considered as similar persons and represented by one persona. Interviewee 2 and Interviewee 4 have no overlay; they are represented by two different profiles.

Quiet

Fig. 9 Spectra of four Interviewees’ Behaviors and Backgrounds

Therefore, three profiles are created for this project (Fig. 10). They are Quiet Tom, Satisfied

Amy and Confident Lucas. Following is the prepared bio of the profile of each subject.

Tom is a 29 year old graduate student at a design school. He loves design and has high enthusiasm for his projects. After work and study, he likes to cook for himself. This helps him save a lot of money. He is good at cooking and has high taste expectations. It is not easy to find food that is delicious enough for him. He frequents several Chinese restaurants but finds that they are very expensive. Tom doesn’t have a car, so he must rely on others to take him to the grocery store. He is an introvert and not good at talking, but he likes to hang out with his close circle of friends.

Amy is a 25 year old graduate student in design who lives near her school. She does a great job on her studies. Graphic design is a part of her life. She often designs greeting cards for her friends. Amy also likes making cookies and different teas. During holidays, she prepares some to share with her family and neighbors.

Lucas is a 27 year old graduate student of an engineering school. He does not sleep much, but he always looks energetic. He loves to have a beer with friends when he has time. He enjoys life the most when he is drinking with his friends in his backyard. For cooking, Lucas enjoys the spiritual aspects of cooking and believes a good meal should be pre-pared with love.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 27 Ambitious Quiet Fucosed Grateful Peaceful Brelliant Practical

PERSONALITIES PERSONALITIES PERSONALITIES

Low High Low High Low High

Resourcefulness Resourcefulness Resourcefulness Low High Low High Low High

Extraversion Extraversion Extraversion Low High Low High Low High

Activity Activity Activity Low High Low High Low High

Fig.10 the personalities of three personas. (Please see the appendix for more details)

5.2 Customer Journey Map

The three personas are introduced to customer journey map to simulate the users’ behaviors and

thoughts when they are experiencing the service. As outlined below, five stages are included in

this journey map (Fig. 11).

Awareness: This is the first time that a customer knows the product. They are not the user yet in

this stage. But they are aware of it through advertisements on the Internet and recommendations

from friends.

Consideration: In this stage, the customer shows interests for the product and does deeper

research on it. For the service, he or she may create a free account to obtain more information.

Engagement: This is when customers become interested and believe the service would help with their goals, so they try it for the first time. At this stage, they become users.

Evaluation: During or after the first trial, the users would evaluate the service by comparing the difference of their actual experience with their expectations.

Retention: The user uses the service again. After the evaluation, if the service fulfilled their needs and expectations, the users would use it again and again. This stage is the moment that customer loyalty is enriched and the service provider starts to make a profit.

Fig. 11 Customer Journey Map of CoCook (Please check appendix for more details.)

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 29 5.3 Marketing Funnel

Fig. 12 Marketing funnel of CoCook

Throughout the whole process from awareness to retention, the number of leads becomes smaller.

After the service provider posting their advertisements, there would be a lot of people that take the first step. Then, some people drop out in every step. So, the population becomes smaller and smaller. The people at the bottom of the funnel become long-time users.

Top of funnel (TOFU) is the stage that the service providers advertise their business to increase the awareness of users. The channels selected is internet spread like social network ads and

marketing emails, platform exposure, like cooking forum or article report, and physical methods, such as sending greeting cards or posters to apartments.

In the middle of funnel (MOFU), users begin to try the service for the first time and evaluate their experience. This is the core part of the service. We build a platform for the users to find partners, order recipes, pick up the ingredients and share the moments. Discount is not the only trigger to motivate a consumer to become a user. The most important thing is the feature that reaches the users’ needs and provides the good experience. The cooking time of CoCook is designed to be less than 20 minutes. The price range is around $6 to $10 dollars. With a simpler cooking process, it does not need users to have too many abilities with respect to time, money and cooking skills. The way it brings people together creates a fun experience, which is an improvement over the current situation and a strong motivator.

After trying the service for the first time, the users who have not dropped out are on the bottom of funnel (BOFU). It is a chance to have them subscribe to the monthly plan or annually plan.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is important in this phase. To provide good experience and keep customers motivated to continue using the platform, the service provider must be close to the users and make the timely refinements. Only in this way can CoCook have a sustainable development.

5.4 Lead Nurturing Plan

Based on the marketing funnel, we work out a lead nurturing plan. Fig. 13 shows a strategic overview of the nurturing plan. There are five phases: 1) awareness, 2) consideration, 3) service,

4) evaluation and 5) retention. Every phase corresponds to each stage of marketing funnel.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 31

Fig. 13 Leads Nurturing Plan of CoCook

Based on the findings of Chapter 3, a marketing guideline for CoCook is developed (Table 7).

This guideline listed shows what should be done in each stage of the plan. The details of the guidelines will be discussed in the following sections.

Table 7. Persuasion guideline for CoCook SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE

 Online meal communities  Attractive images of food  Students in higher -Expert introduces the co-  Highlighted fonts: “Time education op life style saving!” -Interested in meal kit Awareness -Eat healthier with light  Close to students’ life -Is searching recipes “Look at here!” cooking  CoCook is everywhere, -Is sharing the photo of  Pintrest, YouTube… but not in ads. their meals  Search engine ads Humorous ads

 Landing page  How it works  Students in higher Consideration -Professional chef is the  How could it save time education “This is good. hero and money? -Just curious

Try it!” -Every recipe has been  Funny moments -Interested in CoCook tested  Interesting stories about -Used to think about the -A platform to share your meals idea life  Distinguish features to -Beautiful designs competitors “Save time for more important things!”  CoCook platform  Simplified cooking College students who  CoCook APP instruction joined the CoCook group -Recipes designed by chef  Interaction with CoCook Service -order system chef “Do it like this.” -Knowledge about food Interaction with group and health members -Other users’ sharing  Weekly report to user  Time and money  Initiator of CoCook Evaluation comparison: group “You see, it CoCook vs. cook Other members of doesn’t alone/eat in CoCook group disappoint you!” restaurants/other meal kit service  CoCook community  Beautiful food  College students just  Old member award Competitions tried CoCook program  Promotion code, gift card  The students who just Retention Email updates  What’s happening during want try once “Don’t give up! the week The students who Your life is  Practical suggestions on continue the service changing!” life and cooking The stories that how cooking co-op has changed someone’s life

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 33 5.4.1 Awareness

In this stage, we mainly use advertisement to enhance the awareness of CoCook to users. Based on the marketing positioning in Chapter 4, the branding image of CoCook is considered as healthy, light cooking, younger generation and affordable.

Table 8 Persuasion guideline for “Awareness” stage SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE

Health is the most basic requirement of food industry and every user is concerned about it. Light cooking is defined as cooking with fewer ingredients and processing, without the sacrificing nutrition and taste of the food. This way of cooking means using fresh food, less oil and shorter cooking times. It fits the healthy dietary concept of modern people. In addition, another advantage of light cooking is time savings, which is a feature that distinguishes CoCook from it’s competitors. So, in our advertising we would emphasize this. The younger generation is the main marketing segment of CoCook. So, the design of the scripts and visual communications should reflect their life and attitudes. Last, but not least, affordable priceing is another advantage of

CoCook than any other meal services. For most students and new employees, lower cost is always attractive. Fig. 14 and Fig. 15 shows the advertising designed for Google AdWords and web page.

Fig. 14 Listed Advertisement on Google AdWords

Fig. 15 Examples of Page Ads

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 35 5.4.2 Consideration

When the target audience of the advertisements are interested in the CoCook service, they are very likely to click the link and check out the website. At this stage, strong persuasion would push customers to consider about the service and have a try. Table 9 shows the guideline for this stage.

Table 9 Persuasion Guideline for “Consideration” Stage SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE

 Landing page  How it works  Students in higher -Professional chef is the hero  How could it save time education -Every recipe has been tested and money? -Just curious -A platform to share your life -Interested in CoCook Consideration  Funny moments -Beautiful designs  Interesting stories about -Used to think about “This is good. meals the idea Try it!”  Distinguish features to competitors  “Save time for more important things!”

The landing page, which is the first web page customers see when they click the advertisements, is an important part on this phase (Fig. 16). For the same service, landing page can have different versions to emphasize different advantage according to the topics of the linked advertisement. To strengthen the persuasion, the landing pages of CoCook should contain these contents: 1) the expertise on food, health and time management. Examples include publishing the insights of chef or recipe designers, the test report of the recipes. The recommendations from the experts or authoritative data would create high credible resource, which is more persuasive. 2) The reasonable explanations of the cooking process, which is easier to be accepted by well educated

people. 3) The distinguish features that is different from other meal services. 4) Interesting stories behind the meals. In a nutshell, the strategy of this phase is to establish an image of professionalism, logicality, difference, and fun, to make users believe that CoCook would ease their life and bring them a different experience from other meal services.

Fig. 16 Landing Page from Web Advertisements

5.4.3 Service

A good service is the direct goal of a good design and the center point of a business. Without service, any marketing efforts would be useless. In this stage, users are engaging in the service.

Their experience greatly influences their decision to make future purchases. The details of the

CoCook service design have been discussed in Chapter 4.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 37 Table 10 Persuasion Guideline for “Service”Stage SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE

 CoCook platform  Simplified cooking  College students who  CoCook APP instruction joined the CoCook -Recipes designed by chef  Interaction with CoCook group Service -order system chef “Follow me!” -Knowledge about food  Interaction with group and health members -Other users’ sharing

5.4.4 Evaluation

Evaluations from the users started when they began to order online. When they order meals online, they evaluate the usability of the system. When they are cooking, they evaluate the experience of the cooking process. When they are eating within the group, they evaluate their quality of food and the experience of eating with others.

After that, users might recall their experience and evaluate the service again. At that moment, repetition could be used as a persuasion tool to affect their evaluation. The benefits brought by

CoCook can be sent to every member in the form of weekly report (Table 11). The experience shared by other groups in the community could also be included in the report. Such repeated messages would be the strong persuasion and affect their decision on retention, which will be talked about in next section.

Table 11 Persuasion Guideline for “Evaluation” Stage SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE

Evaluation  Weekly report to user  Time and money comparison:  Initiator of CoCook CoCook vs. cook alone/eat in group “You see, restaurants/other meal kit  Other members of helps!” service CoCook group

5.4.5 Retention

Retention is the core part of the “moment that matters.” It is the stage within which a business makes profits. As mentioned in Chapter 4, almost all meal kit services have the problem of retention. They acquire large number of customers by advertising and new member discounts.

But later, they lost most of them. This is also a challenge for CoCook. Here are some strategies that can be applied.

1) Create the product (service) that solves users’ problems. Product is the touch point

between customers and a business. A good product that meets users’ needs is the most

important reason for people to use it without dropping out.

2) Build community-centric marketing (Lara Lee, 2009). Community can play an important

role in customer retention. It costs less, but benefits a lot on loyalty growth, authenticity

maintenance and innovation driving. It is easy to persuade customers to join a community.

And once they have joined, there are a lot of chances for them to continue using the

service.

3) Establish a member rewards program. Recently, new member discounts are used by most

meal kit service. It has been shown that the impact of this strategy is limited on customer

retention. Compared to this, a member rewards programs affirms the contributions made

by users. It would be easier to generate loyalty and a positive attitude to the service.

Table 12 Persuasion Guideline for “Retention” Stage SOURCE MESSAGE AUDIENCE

Retention  CoCook community  Beautiful food Competitions  College students that  Old member award  Promotion code, gift card just tried CoCook “Don’t give up! program  What’s happening during the  The students who just Your life will be  Email updates week want try once

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 39 changed!”  Practical suggestions on life  The students who and cooking continue the service  The stories that how cooking co-op has changed someone’s life

Therefore, the marketing strategy of CoCook is not just the development of a meal kit service. It is also the advocate of the system on healthy cooperative life style. By using the effective persuasive methodologies, this chapter proposed a marketing strategy for CoCook to attract customers and maintain a sustainable development.

CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION

6.1 Summarized Findings and Implications

The main goal of this thesis is to create a new meal service for college students, by which they can do cooking co-op easily, faster and more affordable, using healthy recipes provided by the service. The service combined a cooking co-op concept, which used to be popular among neighbors, and the meal kit services model.

The project is a user experience-oriented business study. The paper developed the food service,

CoCook in two stages. The first stage was focused on understanding user behavior and discussed the methodology for this study. The theory of cooperation and persuasion in social psychology was used as the guideline to explore a better way of cooking and effective marketing strategy.

The second stage is the business plan development. Using the data collected in the first stage, a

CoCook proposal was established. Then, three personas were created and a simulated purchasing process from awareness to retention on a customer journey map was created. After that, we developed marketing funnel and leads nurturing plan and discussed the marketing strategy.

After testing with several graduate students, it turns out that CoCook concept did indeed help users to save time and money, and provided them with a healthier life style.

6.2 Future Works

The end of the thesis does not mean the end of the project. The purpose of this thesis is to transform a concept to the feasible business plan and make profits. To move forward towards this goal, the following questions need to be answered.

How much money would be invested before CoCook makes profit?

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 41 Who are the key partners we can work with?

What are the potential revenue streams of CoCook?

How to build an entrepreneur team to support the development of CoCook?

Of course, there would be more questions during the operation of the business. The service should always follow users’ needs, and provide them with way that can make their life better.

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Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 45 APPENDIX

Appendices 1. report: Survey on Meal Experience November 9th 2016, 1:35 pm MST

Q1 - Which country do you come from?

Which country do you come from?

China china China America China China Usa China USA China China China US hong kong Taiwan China United States

Q2 - What is your age?

# Answer % Count

1 Under 18 0.00% 0 2 18 to 24 23.53% 4 3 25 to 34 52.94% 9 4 35 to 44 11.76% 2 5 45 or older 11.76% 2 Total 100% 17

Q3 - What is the highest level of school you have completed or the highest degree you have received?

# Answer % Count

1 Bachelor degree 35.29% 6 2 Graduate degree (Master and Phd) 64.71% 11 3 Other 0.00% 0 Total 100% 17

Q4 - Which of following places are you living in?

# Answer % Count

1 A house 23.53% 4 2 An apartment 70.59% 12 3 Other(please specify) 5.88% 1 Total 100% 17

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 47 Q5 - How many times do you cook per week? Answer Percentage < 3 41.18% 4-6 29.41% 7-9 11.76% 10-12 5.88% > 12 11.76% Total 100%

Q6 - How long do you usually take to prepare lunch or dinner? Answer % less than 0.5 hour 23.53% 0.5 hour - 1 hour 41.18% 1 hour - 1.5 hours 29.41% 1.5 hours - 2 hours 0.00% 2 hours - 2.5 hours 5.88% more than 2.5 hours 0.00% Total 100%

Q7 - How many meals do your usually cook in one time?

# Answer % Count 1 1 58.82% 10 2 2 29.41% 5 3 3 5.88% 1 4 4 5.88% 1 5 5 0.00% 0 6 6 or more 0.00% 0 Total 100% 17 Q8 - Where do you usually eat your lunch?

Where do you usually eat your lunch?

My home bread;juice school At work Restaurants Home Skip it work place or subway Work Home and school cafe My apartment Office Home office Home Work at my apartment

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 49 Q9 - Where do you usually eat your dinner?

dining room cafeteria at home At work At home Home Home at home Home Home and school cafe My aprtment or on campus. Home Home home Home Home at my apartment

Q10 - Which grocery store or supermarket do you usually go?

# Answer % Count 1 Kroger 62.50% 10 2 Trader Joe's 0.00% 0 3 Whole Foods 0.00% 0 4 Cincinnati CAM Asia Supermarket 6.25% 1 5 Walmart 0.00% 0 6 Target 0.00% 0 7 Costco 12.50% 2 8 Other (please specify) 18.75% 3 Total 100% 16

Other (please specify) carrfour Meijer Local Pop and Mom Q11 - How much do you spend for groceries per week? # Answer % Count 1 < $20 12.50% 2 2 $20-$29.99 0.00% 0 3 $30-$39.99 25.00% 4 4 $40-$49.99 12.50% 2 5 $50-$59.99 25.00% 4 6 $60-$69.99 6.25% 1 7 $70-$79.99 0.00% 0 8 $80-$89.99 12.50% 2 9 $90-$99.99 0.00% 0 10 > $100 6.25% 1 Total 100% 16

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 51 Q12 - How much do you usually spend per meal when you eat outside?

# Answer % Count 1 Less than $4.99 0.00% 0 2 $5-$7.99 13.33% 2 3 $8-$10.99 20.00% 3 4 $11-$13.99 33.33% 5 5 $14-$16.99 20.00% 3 6 $17-$19.99 6.67% 1 7 More than $20 6.67% 1 Total 100% 15

Q13 - Which of the following option best fit to your current situation? Answer % Count I usually have meals alone. But I hope to eat with my friends. 40.00% 6 I usually have meals alone. This is what I want. 26.67% 4 I usually have meals with my friends. But I prefer eating alone. 0.00% 0 I usually have meals with my friends. This is what I want. 33.33% 5 Total 100% 15 14 - How likely would you be to share your meals with others?

# Answer % Count

1 Not at all likely 0.00% 0 2 6.67% 1 3 20.00% 3 4 20.00% 3 5 Very likely 53.33% 8 Total 100% 15

Q15 - How confident do you feel that people would like the food you made?

# Answer % Count

1 Not at all confident 6.67% 1 2 13.33% 2 3 20.00% 3 4 20.00% 3 5 Very confident 40.00% 6 Total 100% 15 Q16 - How likely would you be to try the meals cooked by your friends？

# Answer % Count

1 Not at all likely 0.00% 0 2 6.67% 1 3 6.67% 1 4 40.00% 6 5 Very likely 46.67% 7 Total 100% 15 Q17 - How likely would you be to try the meals of another country？

# Answer % Count

1 Not at all likely 0.00% 0 2 6.67% 1 3 20.00% 3 4 40.00% 6 5 Very likely 33.33% 5 Total 100% 15

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 53 Q18 - What dissatisfaction do you have about your meals?

Not enough nutrition The price to be honest. Generally I feel like a pay a lot and don't get the same quality level Washing dishes not fresh I have a food allergy so it is really restrictive taste is not usually good. I tend to cook too much and over eat. Sometimes I just prepared the next day's meals on the previous day, and it is not fresh when I eat it. I cannot buy all kinds of spicies and seasoning which I usually use in my country Not delicious... No sometime it will be too oily None Time to prep. Not creative. Mostly the same things repreated.

Q19 - What expectations do you have about your meals?

More varieties, more nutrition I want them to be either something new or something I know is always amazing Healthyer more efficient, fresher That they are nutritious and are free from allergens I hope I can cook better Just cook the right portions. More fresh and healthy I want to learn different meals of diffrent countries.

Native as my hometown I expect it looks as good as it taste more options for cheap dishes. usually it costs more to buy good food. Very good That it's good Healthy and quick and affordable.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 55 Appendices 2. report: Survey on Cooking Experience and Neighbor Relationship November 9th 2016, 1:44 pm MST

i - Which country do you come from?

Usa US United States America USA United States of America United States North America United States United States China Mali United states US United States ii - What is your age?

# Answer % Count

11 Under 18 0.00% 0 12 18 - 24 86.67% 13 13 25 - 34 13.33% 2 14 35 - 44 0.00% 0 15 45 or older 0.00% 0

Total 100% 15 iii - What academic program are you in now?

# Answer % Count

1 Undergraduate program 86.67% 13 2 Master's program 6.67% 1 4 Phd 6.67% 1 3 I am not a student now. 0.00% 0 Total 100% 15

2 - How do you feel about cooking?

Difficulty Time Cost Tastes Enjoyment Healthiness 1 5 3 5 5 5 2 3 2 4 3 4 3 5 2 4 4 4 4 3 3 5 3 4 5 4 3 4 3 5 6 3 1 3 4 4 7 3 3 4 4 4 8 4 4 5 5 4 9 5 3 5 5 5 10 3 2 4 4 4 11 4 2 4 4 5 12 1 1 2 5 5 13 1 2 5 3 4 14 5 5 5 5 5 MEAN (1:5) 3.5 2.57142857 4.21428571 4.07142857 4.42857143

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 57 3 - What food do you usually make? (Please enter the names of food or dishes.)

Chicken dishes Chipotle The easy stuff like, grilled cheese, sandwiches etc. Spaghetti, alfredo Spaghetti, Steak, Chicken, Rice, Tacos, Vegetables Baked goods; pasta; vegetarian Breakfast afood I like to experiment with different chicken recipes and desserts Chicken Chinese food N/A Hamburger helper, potatoes, sausage, biscuits Mac and cheese, soup, grilled cheese Stir fry, pasta, etc

4 - Do you usually follow a recipe when you are cooking?

# Answer % Count

1 Yes 40.00% 6 2 No 60.00% 9 Total 100% 15

6 - Are you living in a house or an apartment?

# Answer % Count

1 House 20.00% 3 2 Apartment 80.00% 12

Total 100% 15

9 - How do you share your kitchen?

# Answer % Count

1 I have a kitchen for myself 33.33% 5 4 We share a kitchen in our unit/house 66.67% 10 2 We share a kitchen in our floor 0.00% 0 3 We share a kitchen in our building 0.00% 0 Total 100% 15 7 - Can you guess approximately how many people living in your building?

# Answer % Count

1 Less than 10 8.33% 1 2 11-20 0.00% 0 3 21-30 16.67% 2 4 31-40 0.00% 0 5 41-50 0.00% 0 6 51-60 8.33% 1 7 61-70 8.33% 1 8 71-80 8.33% 1 10 81-90 0.00% 0 9 More than 90 50.00% 6 Total 100% 12

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 59 8 - How is the relationship between you and your neighbors?

# Answer % Count

1 I don't like them 0.00% 0 2 No interaction 26.67% 4 3 Have little interaction 26.67% 4 4 Have some interaction 20.00% 3 5 We are good friends 26.67% 4 Total 100% 15

10 - Do you usually eat lunch or dinner with your neighbor(s)?

# Answer % Count

1 Never 66.67% 10 2 Occasionally 20.00% 3 3 Often 13.33% 2 Total 100% 15

11 - What do you think are the obstacles to interact with your neighbors?

They are never outside their houses Never see them None We have different schedules Too busy We're not always there at the same time; I live with my fiance and the others are single women. NA Our schedules Schedules I don't know them.

N/A We have different schedules Different interests

5 - How do you think of eating outside?

# Answer % Count

1 Expensive 80.00% 12 2 Acceptable 20.00% 3 Total 100% 15

12 - Do you want to have some opportunities to know your neighbor(s)?

# Answer % Count

1 Yes, I do. 53.33% 8 2 Not interested 46.67% 7 Total 100% 15 13 - How likely would you be to cook and share your food with your neighbors? (1=not at all, 5=very likely)

Question 1 2 3 4 5 Total If we are from the 13.33% 2 6.67% 1 20.00% 3 40.00% 6 20.00% 3 15 same country If we are from the 13.33% 2 13.33% 2 26.67% 4 20.00% 3 26.67% 4 15 different country

14 - What expectations do you have for the relationship between you and your neighbors?

What expectations do you have about your meals?

N/a

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 61 None To get along Being kind to one another Most of my neighbors are very busy, as am I, and we operate on different schedules so interaction is very difficult. Friendly and welcoming They won't make a lot of loud noises. They won't steal my packages. NA I expect a respectful relationship Openness have some interaction N/A None Let us do our own thing and don't be too loud at night None

Appendices 3. report: Case Study: HomeChef

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 63 Appendices 4. report: Transcripts of the Interview from Four Students. February 9th 2017, 1:44 pm 1. Tell me a bit about your daily routine.

Davy: I don't really have a routine. Get up around 7:15; 10 o'clock breakfast, or no breakfast sometimes. I have lunch around 3pm. Dinner 7-8pm. Go to bed: 1:00. I don't really study, I am more like work. Work all day. 12 13 14 15... may like 15 hours. Stressfulness about life: 5.

Olivia: around a quick breakfast. You want me to tell you like in more detail or… I usually have like some yogurt. I mean is Greek yogurt so it's filling and I have water and that's it. start over finish getting ready and then I go and I work from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. And I drink just water while I am there. Then I get back to my apartment. you really make a quick lunch. I usually have celery soup or fruit...whatever I have. Turn that I even come to DAAP or the library or just stay in my apartment trying to get work done sometimes I have meetings professors or class in the afternoon. And then I come back if I went out around 6:30 to 7 to get dinner. End and I make pasta or soup the same thing I mean nothing complicated, something fast. I try to go to bed at 10:30 or 11:00. Trying go better at that time. That's how my weekdays go. Stressfulness: 6-7. Depending on what I have going on. I try not to make the days to too full. cause I have to leave some time to work on my thesis writing.

Taihong: get up at 7:20, Breakfast: 8: 15, lunch: 1:00, dinner: 8:00, not stable, go to bed at midnight. Work for 5-8 hs, concentrate on 5hs. Score:6-7

Aaron: If there are classes or work, I need to get up at 7:30. I usually cook some oatmeal and milk with microwave. While the breakfast is in microwave, I brush tooth, wash face. When washings are done, the meal is ready. After breakfast, I would leave home for work. The whole process usually takes 20 minutes. My TA is from 8 am to 11 am, Tuesday and Thursday. I must be on time. When I finish my TA in morning, I go home to prepare lunch, and then leave for Livewell at 1:30 pm, and go back at 5. Then I do dinner.

2. What kind of life do you think you should have? Davy: Sitting on the beach… actually in the yard, with some drinking. With friends, that’s my dream life. I am close.

Olivia: Oh I enjoy this life. I enjoy being a student. I think this is an opportunity that… I should really grace. I don’t so much enjoy this stress of thesis, but I do think that we're fortunate to be able to research. It’s kind of this time to do basically what really inspired us… passion. So I enjoy that and I'm not sure what I gonna do yet when I graduate. So, yeah I really enjoy like that academic setting. So for me right now yeah.

Taihong: kind of like...I don’t know. I like to travel. I don’t at one place.

Aaron: Knowing exactly what I want. Rarely waste time. Do some real projects and help customers to solve their problems. Keep balance among study, work and life. Keep healthy.

3. Do you like outdoors or stay indoors? Davy: Outdoors.

Olivia: I really love the outdoors, just because of the weather the right now. Actually I mean it's been really mild outside a lot lately yeah I love being outside. But I do find it distracting like I mean ideally I would do everything outside but I do get distracted outdoors so I can't work very well outside.

Taihong: depends. If it is raining or too cold, I prefer indoors. But I need to get out my house every day.

Aaron: I usually stay indoors, but I wish I can be outdoor more.

4. How do you like to spend your free time?

Davy: hanging out with friends, that’s the best. Having a little bit of drink hell yeah.

Olivia: I like to see friends or classmates. Because I find that I have to like isolate myself to actually get work done. So yeah I like visiting with friends and family or being outside also, or reading for fun, or cooking. Anything that's not disease. I like pasta or I make like that sometimes I make baked things like... not usually for me, but I like to think things for other people. So like over the holidays I really liked making like cookies or different type of tea or to give as gifts for family. So that was fun. Yeah that was fun. If I'm at home home like in Kentucky I would like to share what I did with my family like my mom or my neighbors or my grandparents yeah.

Taihong: I don’t have free time now. But I would like to watch some video, or movies. But really wanna go to hiking, or whatever outside activity.

Aaron: Watch some videos, take some photos,

5. What do you usually eat for your meals?

Davy: Anything, except for like cheap food I don't like McDonald's and Burger. I like to eat healthy things.

Olivia: I really like sea food. But here you know it's it can be expensive and difficult to make some time. So yeah it's kind of like a specialty, for like a treat to have that. But I also like fruit and vegetable, just like any kind of row fruit or vegetable yeah. I mean I don't have to do much to them like Justified

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 65

Taihong: It would have protein carbohydrate… and fruit, probably, that’s it. I prefer… anything.

Aaron: Rice, noodle, beef, pork. Usually two dishes, on is meat, the other is vegetable. I cook about five to seven times per week, eat leftovers for several times, and frozen food (pasta, pizza…) for several times.

6. What kind of meal do you like most? Davy: The one that my mother cooks. Mexican food is what I like most. Chinese is great, too. But I don’t often eat that. Olivia:

Taihong: I don't really know... I don't like fast food. And other thing would be great if it is fresh.

Aaron: Chinese food. And some lightly cooked food. Recently, I found a kind of frozen pizza. It is so convenient to cook and tastes not bad.

7. How do you have your meal when you are very busy?

Davy: I have to buy them, or to order them delivery. Well I cook almost everything but it's not that economical for me to cook.

Olivia: I'm really busy again like just things I make things that are quick, like a salad or soup or just things that I have... like I hardly ever go out to eat unless I'm with other people.

Taihong: eat fast food, but I would choose subway or sth. or healthier food. But I would eat breaking or chicken plate.

Aaron: Eat some fast food, microwave food, or grub a sandwich in café.

8. Cooking VS buying meals: which do you prefer? Why?

Davy: I prefer cooking. It’s good for the soul. Because you're using all of your senses, your mind. Nutrition that go into your body helps you leave on. So you are creating life with other life.

Olivia: I’d rather cook I think just because I mean it's more efficient and a lot of times he's made a lot of times I think it tastes better. A lot of restaurants that I've been to lately… I don’t know... it just the food hasn't been as good so, yeah. there's some things I think so.

Taihong: cooking… you can adjust flavor you want; you can use fresh ingredients.

Aaron: Cooking. It is healthier, more affordable, more delicious

9. What do you value most about meal? Davy: The love that goes into preparing it.

Olivia: I think the freshness, and also like the quality of the ingredients. I tried to buy things that are like organic or things that are not genetically modified, like natural things and... so even though they're more expensive. I yeah I thought you the daycare that one into light producing it and just knowing that it's healthier option.

Taihong: I think it is nutrition, it should be fresh.

Aaron: It should be clean and makes people enjoyable.

10. Do you have any picture of your meals? Davy: I have some... sometime I take pictures. It's like you know me or that I spend a lot of time on.

Olivia: Late night will definitely not with me I like I never take pictures of my figured. I know a lot of people do, but I've only done that once or twice. I don't know if I've ever done that at a restaurant either, but no I don't I don't yeah but I don't mean lately I haven't had people over to post it's only me it's oh

Taihong: Yeah, but they are not in my phone.

Aaron:

11. Do you have any frustrations when you are cooking or your meals? Please specify. Davy: No, not my cooking.

Olivia: Sometimes I think I have. I had like I usually I don't think I'm a good as good of a cook yet to not use a recipe so I'm not brave enough. I get to light just make things up and so like once or twice before like... I put in the wrong amount of something and then I can run them out of ingredients, and it just kind of like ruins the whole so it's really whatever you're making so that's frustrating. that's it. Yeah I do (use recipe) I do until I get comfortable. If I make something enough times, then I remember I gotta make it and then I don't. So usually I make the same thing like over and over, until I know it and then I get tired of it and I'm trying something else.

Taihong: No. But, the only one is that I don’t have enough tools. But we can always figure it out. End of another is sometimes we cannot buy the materials we want to buy.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 67 Aaron: I don’t know…If I want to make meals from another country, it would be hard to find all the materials in grocery store. Sometimes I take too much time in kitchen. The prepare space is not big enough for me, and facilities in my apartment are too old. I burned my food several times. Sometimes, I would stew some meat after dinner, for future meals. Then I forgot it. When I smell smoke from kitchen or remember it after several hours… I don’t have a car. So I have to rely on my friends who have one, or take a school shuttle. when my friends cannot take me to the grocery store and I missed the shuttle, there would be a frustration. I try to figure out how to feed myself for the whole week with very limited materials. It is challenging, but fun. My meals are usually monotonous. For meat, only beef, chicken, sometimes pork, for vegetables, mainly cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, carrot…

12. Can you talk about your experience when you have meals with your friends? Davy: If you were leave them in time to get together to talk. It’s about life, and share what's going on with their life and my life and, talk about problems and good things and bad things. so it's the time to conversation and the social activity.

Olivia: I think I mean it's one of the things that I really love doing I'm free time and I know I just love being like a host the people. And I am I love cooking for other people so I guess one thing that I haven't tried that I mean I think I should at some point is just cooking feel like a lot of people. I've never I've only ever cook for like 2 or 3 people. So yeah if I ever had like a big party or something I think that would take a lot more like preparation. But my apartment right now would it really work for them so maybe when I get older. (How many people do you think you can feed?) probably about like 6. Even more than that or first of all I don't have enough utensils for more than that probably so they would get a little tight.

Taihong: yes sometimes we do potluck. And I'd like to eat with my friend but sometimes it cost more time, because you need to cook it you need to clean it. If you are the host you probably need to do most of the things. But if it is very relaxed situation, it would be very nice. I would like to do everything. But if everybody is very busy, then you will little bit Stressful.

Aaron:

13. Do you use any app/recipes when you are preparing meals? Davy: Sometimes

Olivia:

Taihong: Yeah, I oh yeah Google a recipe or something if I got something I want to eat but I don't know how to how to cook that have a Google a recipe

Aaron: Occasionally, when I want to explore some new dishes or food.

14. What is the most enjoyable parts of your life? Davy: All of it, the good and the bad.

Olivia: I think that I guess being in this program right now I'm being in school and being so close to being finished with of degree like I mean degree a second degree. And yeah I mean just being healthy. I know like I could always use some more sleep or rest or something, but like to be able man or just very privileged I think have good health and yeah the ability to go to school like this.

Taihong: I think it’s traveling. We went to Dallas, to Houston Louisiana last year also Miami Key West and went to China Shanghai. yep that's like in 2 years this to the place I being to oh yeah… and San Francisco That's it.

Aaron: Taking and edit beautiful photos, make a delicate dinner…do something that is relax but rewarding.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 69 Appendices 5. report: Work flow of CoCook

Appendices 6. report: Payment Flow of CoCook

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 71 Appendices 7. report: Test Process

Appendices 8. report: CoCook Follow-up Survey

1. From 1 to 7, how do you rate your CoCook experience (1 = bad, 7 = good)?

Difficulty Time Cost Tastes Quantity Quality Enjoyment Healthiness Score 6 6 5 7 6 7 5

2. How many times do usually you cook per week? During school, I cook several meals on Sunday's for the rest of the week.

3. How long do you usually take to prepare lunch or dinner? During school, I cook several meals on Sunday's for the rest of the week.

4. Did CoCook bring any changes to your life this week? CoCook was nice, but it was kind of brought to me at inconvenient times. It was a bit difficult at times mainly because I had to either eat food immediately or find some way to keep it refrigerated. Ultimately it was nice to have meals taken care of though, it was just a bit stressful to try and juggle the times that the food was delivered vs the times that I was ready to eat.

5. When you are trying CoCook, is there any differences from what you expected previously? Just that it was really nice to not have to worry about meals as much, but I had the different difficulty of managing my time a bit differently. I needed to figure out how to cook for other people on a specific day, where as by myself, if my time changed it would not be a big deal for me to skip cooking one night if things came up. Where as this time I knew people were counting on me bringing their lunch and I had to figure out times to make it work.

6. How likely would you be to use such service in future? (Please enter a number from 1 to 7; 1 = never, 7 = very likely) I would actually really like using the service in the future if I could pick and choose the times I wanted to get the food and wanted to cook it with more choices. Like I wouldn't mind cooking dinners for people rather than lunches, or even breakfasts... With more people in the mix I am sure things would become easier logistically for stuff like that.

Zhenhua Yang, March, 2017 73

1. From 1 to 7, how do you rate your CoCook experience (1 = bad, 7 = good)?

Difficulty Time Cost Tastes Quantity Quality Enjoyment Healthiness Score 6 7 6 6 6 7 6

2. How many times do usually you cook per week? 7 to 10 times

3. How long do you usually take to prepare lunch or dinner? Depends, 20 minutes to 2 hours

4. Did CoCook bring any changes to your life this week? 1. Don’t have to cook very time after morning class at Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. It was a release. 2. I tried food I never cooked before.

5. When you are trying CoCook, is there any differences from what you expected previously? It is enough for me, but not enough for the other friend.

6. How likely would you be to use such service in future? (Please enter a number from 1 to 7; 1 = never, 7 = very likely) 6, if my friends asked me to join, I will!

1. From 1 to 7, how do you rate your CoCook experience (1 = bad, 7 = good)?

Difficulty Time Cost Tastes Quantity Quality Enjoyment Healthiness Score 6 5 5 4 5 6 6

2. How many times do usually you cook per week? 10

3. How long do you usually take to prepare lunch or dinner? 20 min

4. Did CoCook bring any changes to your life this week?

It was saving time a lot.

5. When you are trying CoCook, is there any differences from what you expected previously? Packaging might be an issue, how to make them clean and who is about to clean them.

6. How likely would you be to use such service in future? (Please enter a number from 1 to 7; 1 = never, 7 = very likely) 6

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