In May 2004, Sodexho USA, the foodservice provider at Northwestern University, kicked off its second annual Global Chef program, a month-long international culinary residency that brings Sodexho chefs from around the world to the United States. During the event, Northwestern students were able to sample Indian dishes such as kabob, jinka tikka (grill prawn with Indian spices), chicken tikka makhani, and kashmiri pulav rice (steamed rice with mixed dried fruits). Chef Placid Gomes, Sodexho's top chef in Oman, worked with local chefs and prepared the authentic Indian cuisine for students, faculty, and staff so that Sodexho could offer them a taste of authentic international cuisine.

Company Background

Sodexho USA, part of the Sodexho Alliance, is the leading provider of food and facilities management in the United States. With $5.8 billion in annual revenues and 110,000 employees, the company provides more than 1,800 organizations nationwide with food service. It offers customers a wide variety of products and services that range from large corporations to educational facilities to zoos and aquariums to the U.S. Marine Corp. The company prides itself on mass customization of its menus, which enables clients to design dining experiences that meet their needs. In particular, it has determined it can segment its college market to achieve happier customers.

Serving the College Market

Sodexho USA's Campus Services Division operates three distinct programs: one for college students using residential dining facilities, another for on-campus restaurants, and a third for its catering services. Through these programs, the company offers a broad range of service styles, price points, and menu selections, with customizable options to suit the needs of different groups. Its food offerings are more than your standard college fare. Students on campuses served by Sodexho USA might enjoy roast beef with caramelized onions on a baguette or shrimp jambalaya with jalapeno cornbread rather than pita pockets and turkey sandwiches. The company's campus programs deliver international menus through a variety of ethnic food stations, bistro cuisine, and the Global Chef program.

These innovative food programs are the result of extensive research into student dining trends and preferences and are designed to better serve the company's foodservice markets. Realizing that customer segmentation would be an invaluable tool in this endeavor, Sodexho embarked on a strategy to isolate and understand different market segments.

As a foundation for its research efforts, Sodexho started with secondary research from syndicated sources. It accessed the Student Monitor's Lifestyle and Media Survey, which identifies student trends and lifestyles, and partnered with Claritas. After gaining important insights from this research, marketers at Sodexho developed and administered questionnaires to thousands of students to learn more about their specific preferences, such as portion sizes, tastes, brands, price, and dining atmosphere.

These research efforts yielded some very useful results. One proprietary tool from these efforts, LifeSTYLING, allows the company to segment its markets using student zip codes. LifeSTYLING has identified six unique segments: Metro Fusion, Main Streamers, Fun Express, Time Liners, Dream Catchers, and Trend Setters. Each segment has its own lifestyle characteristics that influence the consumers' preferences for menu items, specific brands, times they want to eat, and marketing materials.

Sodexho relies on this market information to customize the products and dining venues it offers to suit the specific tastes of different segments. The company has found this segmentation approach useful in a variety of college settings. As Glenn Kvidahl, director of Indiana State University's dining services, describes.

Through that research, they found that about 24 percent of the population at Indiana State are trend setters. They're a little more adventuresome in their tastes. They may like bagels but not plain bagels. They would rather have jalapeo bagels or blueberry scones. They like food with a twistauthentic pastas and sauces, vegetarian dishes. In the Commons, we didn't have a lot to attract that group. What we're trying to do with the Global Market Caf is appeal to the trend setters. At Sodexho, understanding the needs of different customer segments is part of everyday business. And that everyday business has proved a successful venture for both the company and the college students it serves.

Q1. Describe the type of segmentation strategy Sodexho uses to serve the college foodservice market. Provide support for your answer. (1')

Q2. Why would a company like Sodexho go to the trouble of using these techniques to serve a captive market like college students? Can Sodexho be successful in using this mass customization approach? (1')

Q3. Describe some of your experiences as a student with foodservice providers on college campuses. If your campus uses Sodexho, evaluate its performance relative to the description provided in the case. If your university does not use Sodexho, do you think that Sodexho would provide better value than the foodservice providers you have encountered?