Developing brand extensions

“There's a natural tendency to feel that an employee is associated with a single unit. But no team should feel it is a one-store shop,” he adds. “Just as you have to tap different people for a big catered event, people need to see that it is sometimes necessary to shift labor from one part of the campus foodservice to another on a daily basis in order to make the entire operation run more effectively.”

As retail offerings have continued to become a bigger part of the foodservice mix on campus, it has become more difficult for the department to support operations that might be termed “loss leaders,” Weaver says.

Retail style service is more satisfying for employees and customers, “but it means we have to manage the margins and goals more carefully, and adjust when we don't meet those goals. That will become critical as we continue to offer more retail style food in our all-you-care-to-eat operations.”

Looking to the future, Weaver wants to first finish fine tuning of station brands in Couch, with menu, signage and other enhancements that create more “depth” to the story each brand brings to the customer base.

“We see the Smokehouse and some of the other concepts offering customized meals comparable to those you'd find at a commercially-themed casual restaurant. Our catering, which right now is fairly traditional, will offer menu options keyed to those enhanced concepts, so that if a department meeting of 20 heads wants to order five pounds of Sooner Smokehouse brisket, with sides to match, they can.”

Weaver also plans to create lines of grab and go sandwiches and salads based on other station brands, perhaps making some of them available in campus vending machines. He also is planning to expand OU's convenience retailing options from the one c-store that operates in Cate to other locations over the next few years. The product mix will use a hybrid model, he says, including both retail pack product and grab-and-go items produced elsewhere on the campus, in some cases based on brand extensions from concepts like the Laughing Tomato.

A gradual transition to retail

Kevin Barker, director of retail operations, has been instrumental in overseeing the operational side of OU's retail activities and has been involved in them since the department first opened The Baker's Dozen, its first foray into retail, back in 1986.

The transition to retail was gradual at OU, but it accelerated in 1994, when former Oklahoma Governor and Senator David Boren became the university's president. Among many other objectives, Boren wanted to re-invigorate the school's Student Union, which at the time offered foodservice independently operated by a few local entrepreneurs. By and large, those operations did not contribute financially to the Union and weren't attracting much in the way of campus traffic.

In contrast, Boren wanted the union to become a robust hub for campus activity, and saw foodservice as an important catalyst in making that happen. He charged dining services with overseeing the union's foodservices and developing them for the longer term.

One of the department's first decisions was to migrate its Chick-fil-A franchise to the Union, a move that was initially unpopular with the local operators, but which soon began to significantly increase traffic to the facility. It added other retail operations as attrition of the local operators made that possible.

At left, OU’s new director of foodservices, Chuck Weaver. At right: a menu from The Laughing Tomato, a retail concept located at Cate Center.

In 1999, when President Boren expressed his desire to see 24-hour foodservice in the Union, so that it could serve as a gathering place for late-night student activity, the department acquired some space in the Union's lower level and developed Crossroads Restaurant.

“We were pretty concerned that a 24-hour operation would operate at a loss, but from the beginning we were able to make it work financially,” Barker recalls. “David really got behind the idea and we just kept massaging the menu and the service model until it proved itself.” The operation, which rang up about $350 a day in sales in the beginning, regularly posts $6000 a day now.

Besides Crossroads Restaurant, The Oklahoma Memorial Union's retail mix also includes both self-developed and department-operated franchise concepts. Its self-branded retail concepts include The Laughing Tomato (an all natural/produce-oriented concept) and Wong Key (an Asian Concept). Franchises includee Freshens, Wendy's, Quizno's, Sbarro, Starbucks and Chick-fil-A.

Across campus in the student residential area is Cate Center, an older cafeteria that has been converted to a food court/emporium type operation. In Cate Center students can find Oliver's (all day breakfast and hot bar) Roscoe's Coffee Shop, O'Henry's Soups & Sandwiches, Cinnabon, and Taco Mayo.

The Xcetera c-store in Walker Center; Couch Express in Couch Center, and Burger King in Adam's Center round out the food service options in the residence hall.

Spread across campus are other individualized cafes such as “Bedrock Café at Sarkey's Energy Center, Bookmark Café in the Bizzell Memorial Libarary, Amicus Café in the OU College of Law, Redbud Café in the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, and the Flying Cow Café in the National Weather Center.

Looking forward, “We know we can self-brand and do it well,” Barker says. “The emphasis will be on achieving a balance between doing that, and leveraging the commercial brands where they make the most sense.”

Barker also expects that in the longer term, even Couch will probably operate largely as a retail operation. “Ultimately, students shouldn't see a difference between a board plan operation and a retail one. For now, because of the financial model and the way meal plans work, there still is a distinction, but it is blurring. Eventually, students will just pick the place where they feel like eating based on the concept, the convenience, the perceived value, the menu.

“If Crossroads has shown us anything, it is that students want service 24 hours a day. We just have to find a way to make it work, even if that means operating mobile food trucks to take the service where the students are.”