Chick-Fil-A Experiment

Experimental Design Hypothetically, if an experiment were to be designed, the manipulated variable would be the advertising signage in fast food restaurants and everything else would stay exactly the same. This would allow for the demonstration of a causal relationship to discern whether signage in fast food restaurants would affect what people order. The participants would have to be randomly selected from the sample population, as well as randomly assigned to a restaurant at which to order food from. In order to measure the dependent variable, the change in orders caused by the manipulation of the signage must be significant. This means that there needs to be a measurable decrease in number of fried foods and soft drinks ordered, or increase

The observation and focus group studies of the experiment yielded mostly qualitative data. During the observational study, it became obvious that there was not a plethora of advertising for healthy options in the fast food restaurants visited. Chick-Fil-A had only one display of advertising for healthier food in their restaurant. Healthy menu items such as salads, grilled chicken, and fruit cups advertised on table markers, however they could only be seen when they were handed to the customer after they had ordered. This promotion seemed to be ineffective, as orders for fried nuggets and sandwiches were significantly more popular. Zaxby’s had similar results. Healthy advertising made up only one section of the five on the menu, and none in the restaurant itself. Subsequently, of the 25 customers observed only 2 opted to choose from the healthy section. These observations highlighted the hypothesized ineffectiveness of healthy advertising in restaurant

During the discussions both groups seemed to unanimously agree that they ate out “too many times” per week, with about 2-4 times being at fast food restaurants. Most also admitted that their eating habits were routinely unhealthy, and that when they did order at a fast food restaurant, they thought first about what they want to avoid rather than what they want, namely salads. they agreed that upon deciding to dine in a fast food restaurant, they have usually already accepted that they will not be eating healthy, and that signage has little opportunity to change that. When looking at the menus of each restaurant, participants also agreed that the more pictures featured on a menu indicated to them that it was a less healthy restaurant overall, but it was still the first thing they noticed. They also noted that overall they did not tend to notice calorie count or fat free options very often. This supports part of the original hypothesis that pictures and highlighted promotional items, particularly of unhealthy food, are predicted to be the most effective form of