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MKTG 382: Consumer Behavior: In Depth Research Report: Secondary Marketing Research

Research resources for MKTG 382:

Food Truck and Restaurant Research

For your assignment, you need to research, Sweet as WafflesSweet as Waffles is opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant after starting as a food truck.

When researching restaurants, it's important to be aware of both the type of restaurant and the type of customer. When looking for industry and competitor information, it is often broken down the type of service is offered: counter service, grad-and-go, sit-down, fast-food, delivery, etc. as well as the type of food offered. Food trucks don't always fit into the more traditional restaurant industry definitions of traditional restaurants, but they are still competitors. 

NAICS (North American Industrial Classification System) codes can be a good way to wort out the type of restaurant, as they are separate classifications for different types of restaurants. 

The image below give you a sampling of restaurant types defined by NAICS. Notice there are two different numbers: 722511 (Full Service Restaurants) and 722513 (Limited Service Restaurants). This means there are two different definitions. 

Image of lists of NAICS industry classifications for restaurants from the Census.

Finding Articles
Use Business Source Complete and Academic Search Complete to find articles--including trade journal and academic articles--about food trucks and restaurants.

  • A search for "Food Trucks" OR "Mobile Food Services" produces more than 38,000 results.
  • A search "Food Trucks" AND "Restaurant" includes articles looking at similarities and differences between the two as well as how some restaurants start as food trucks. 
Database search for food trucks and mobile food services Database search for food trucks and restaurants

Industry Information
IBISWorld has industry reports on thousands of industries, including different types of restaurants, organized by NAICS code. They also create reports for specialized industries, like Food Trucks. You can also search by (major) company names or by the type of business. 

  • Tip: IBISWorld reports include Major Companies in an industry along with their market share. Many companies include a link to a company profile created by IBISWorld that includes an overview, competitive analysis, and company benchmarks. 
IBISWorld (database) search results for restaurants IBISWorld (database) search results for food truck

 

Current Trends and Background

Competitors

Tip: Mergent provides info on larger private US and international companies, both active and inactive, including general company info in addition to SEC filings, reports, insider trading details, current and historical financial info going back 15 years, and more. This database is useful for locating competitors by industry and creating custom company reports. Info can be downloaded into Excel and other formats.

Tip: Use Dossier to find information on local small businesses. 

You can access Dossier using WWU's VPN or you can access it through Nexus UNI buy selecting it from the Menu dropdown. 

NexisUNI (Database) dropdown menu, highlighting Company Dossier database

Consumer Behavior

Local Business and Local Market

Technology Use