Marshall Signature Dessert

Marco’s Cake Pop – Group 6

Olivia Fogo, Iselin Noevik, Brenden Wintz and Adam Lubell

MKT 442-201

Spring 2022
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Table of Contents

List of Illustrations…………………………………………………………………………….….2

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………….3

Objectives…………………………………………………………………………………………4

Background Information…………………………………………………………………….…….5

Methods……………………………………………………………………………………………9

Results……………………………………………………………………………………………11

Survey Results…………………………………………………………………………...11

Hypothesis Analysis……………………………………………………………………..17

Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………19

Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………….21

Works Cited……………………………………………………………………………………...31
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List of Illustrations

Figure 1…………………………………………………………………………………………12

Figure 2…………………………………………………………………………………………12

Figure 3………………………………………………………………………………………….13

Figure 4………………………………………………………………………………………….14

Figure 5………………………………………………………………………………………….15

Figure 6………………………………………………………………………………………….16

Figure 7………………………………………………………………………………………….18

Figure 8………………………………………………………………………………………….19

Survey Attachement……………………………………………………………………………..21

Figure 9………………………………………………………………………………………….29

Figure 10…………………………………………………………………………………………30

Figure 11…………………………………………………………………………………………30
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Executive Summary

To conduct the Marshall Signature Dessert research project, Marshall Communications

dispersed an emailed survey to faculty, staff, and students at Marshall University. The

questionnaire, formatted through Survey Monkey, consisted of 28 questions divided into three

categories assessing three different desserts options. The data was analyzed in the IBM SPSS

Statistical Data Editor software. Over a two-week period, 636 people answered the survey,

allowing for a wide variety of answers and opinions. Respondents seem optimistic about a

Marshall Dessert, especially the Marco Brookie. From the survey, the results demonstrated that

respondents preferred the brookie dessert option to the cookie or the cake pop and, in addition,

were willing to pay more for the brookie dessert option. The survey results found that, on

average, respondents believed the three most key factors in deciding to purchase the dessert were

flavor, price, and portion size. Moreover, the survey found that a majority of respondents would

make the dessert at home if the signature dessert recipe became public. Lastly, the survey results

found that over half of respondents at desserts every day or nearly every day a week, but nearly

half of respondents almost never purchase desserts from campus. The open-ended comments at

the end expressed a desire for a non-chocolate dessert.

From the survey results, advice can be given to the organization. First, Marshall

University should increase the awareness of desserts on campus and increase efforts to get

students to purchase available desserts on campus. In addition, the preferred dessert appears to be

the Marco Brookie, which will allow for the highest respondent satisfaction and profit from

dessert prices.
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Objectives

The following research aimed to discover the desires, preferences, and perceptions of

respondents to a Marshall Signature Dessert; the research conducted intended to allow for a

better understanding of what Marshall consumers are willing to buy, how much they are willing

to spend, and what they would want in a Marshall Signature Dessert. The numbers collected

from this survey can help make the Marshall Signature Dessert become a reality.

Two hypotheses were formed going into the research project. The first hypothesis states

that of the three options presents, Marco’s Cake Pop will be the most desired by Marshall

University consumers. As the cake pop continues to rise in popularity, it will present an easy

dessert to eat on the go which can be customized in flavor and design to appeal to the Marshall

consumer and, thus, exist as the most popular choice. The second hypothesis states that of the

here dessert option presented to Marshall consumers, respondents will be willing to pay a higher

price for the Marco Brookie dessert. The Brookie is a combination dessert; therefore, dessert is

bigger and more filling than a cookie and a cake pop, which will result in customers being

willing to pay more for the option. Through the collection and analysis of the Marshal Signature

Dessert Survey results, the aforementioned hypotheses will be tested.

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Background Information

This research project aimed to discover respondent preferences for a Marshall University

dessert. This dessert could be served on campus as well as at Marshall University events such as

sporting events, luncheons, Green & White Day, etc. Moreover, the dessert could become an at-

home or personal activity for families and friends to make for tailgating. Lastly, the dessert

would represent a unique way to represent Marshall University. For example, the Marshall

Signature Dessert will represent Marshall and their students and fans, it will adorn the Marshall

colors of green and white, and it could depict the Marshall mascot, Marco the Buffalo.

Moreover, to further specialize the dessert, decoration for various sports could be added.

Group 6 chose cake pops as the dessert option. Cake pops are composed of cake batter,

formed into a desired shape, encased in icing or chocolate, and placed on popsicle stick. The

cake batter can vary in flavors and colors to cater to preferences. Furthermore, the icing and

decoration can be made to represent Marshall University. Cake pops can be a simple dessert to

make and, therefore, allow for mass production, customization, and distribution at a lower price.

However, in order to make the most informed and effective decisions in regard to the Marshall

Dessert, research and background information about consumer preferences and perceptions was

conducted.

         Aesthetics and form play a key role in how Marshall Signature Dessert tastes and is

perceived; the more aesthetically pleasing a dessert, the more it will appeal to consumers and

positively influence the consumer perceptions and reactions. The following quote supports the

theory that aesthetically pleasing dishes are perceived as being tastier and more appetizing: “A

new study by the Crossmodal Research Library at the University of Oxford found that the

prettier a dish looks, the better it seems to taste” (Harris). Therefore, presentation and decoration
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for the Marshall dessert becomes a crucial factor. In addition, color plays a key role in how a

food’s flavor is perceived. The following quote demonstrates how the color of food plays a role

in how the flavor of a food is perceived: “So, for example, the addition of green coloring to a

sweet solution significantly increased taste sensitivity, while yellow color decreased taste

sensitivity” (Spence). As stated by the aforementioned quote, green coloring increases taste

sensitivity. Therefore, as the Marshall Signature Dessert will adorn the color green, the food’s

coloring will make the dessert seem to have a richer flavor.

         The overall flavor will represent a significant factor in Marshall Signature Dessert.

Chocolate represents the most popular flavor of dessert. Many different forms and variants of

chocolate that can be used in desserts; each one of these variants of chocolate can be said to pair

well with certain other flavors. One of the most popular variants of chocolate is milk chocolate.

Milk chocolate pairs well with walnuts, hazelnuts, pecans, Gruyere cheese, Asiago cheese,

coconut, orange, apples, cherries, peanut butter, honey, and caramel (Tasting and Pairing). In

regard to the Marshall Signature Dessert, the aforementioned research should be utilized to

create and combine pairings which consumers will favor. Furthermore, combining flavors that

complement each other will allow for the creation of a dessert which tastes as good as possible

and which Marshall students, faculty, staff, and fans will prefer.

Another factor which will influence the popularity and consumer perception of the

Marshall Signature Dessert is convenience. The dessert must be easily portable. A cake pop

allows for a small, single-portion, portable dessert option. Moreover, the dessert needs to be able

for students just pick up and go to class or walk around campus and not make a mess. A

traditional cake or ice cream would be inconvenient and messy. The following quote supports the

significance of making information readily available and convenient for customers: “The easier it
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is for them to get needed information and complete a purchase with you, the happier they’ll be”

(Burns). In addition, the dessert option health and ingredient information should be simple and

readily available in order for consumers to be aware of ingredients and to avoid allergies.

Information such as ingredients and price represent two of the most crucial factors for this

dessert item. If price and ingredients are inconvenient to find, then most people will not purchase

the dessert. This quote supports customers’ need for the convenience of information: “Because

where friction exists, frustration exists — and frustrated buyers and customers will seek out the

path of least resistance” (Burns). Therefore, customers will take the most convenient and easy

route, making it crucial for the information of the Marshall Signature Dessert to be easy to get

ahold of for customers. If the information is not easy for the customers to get a hold of then they

will take the easy route and not purchase the dessert.

         In addition to research from outside sources, Marshall students conducted a survey for

Marshall’s Signature dessert during the Fall 2021. From the survey, respondents believed that the

most important part of the dessert was portability and ease of consumption; 91.29% of responses

said this. Furthermore, 70.46% said it needs to be individually wrapped. Therefore, in order to

appeal to consumer preferences and priorities, the dessert needs to be portable and individually

wrapped. In addition, the dessert needs to be allergy sensitive, which mean avoiding the

inclusion of nuts in the dessert would be ideal. Lastly, most responders claimed to eat sweets and

desserts more than once a week, demonstrating the presence of a market of consumers on

campus. In conclusion, from the survey conducted in Fall 2021, the researched allowed for the

determination that the dessert needs to be individually wrapped, portable, and allergy sensitive.

In this way, background information gathered from outside sources or past researchers of

Marshall University can allow for the determination of consumer perceptions and decisions
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factors, which then allows for informed and effective decision-making in regard to the Marshall

Signature Dessert.
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Methods

This section discusses the different methods used to survey and gather the information

within this project. Surveying represented the primary tool of information gathering; Marshall

students composed the aforementioned survey in order to assess respondent preferences and

perceptions regarding the Marshall Signature Dessert. Every individual possessing a Marshall

University email address received the survey link. The Marshall Signature Dessert Survey

contained twenty-eight questions in total. Of these, three asked demographic questions, one

question allowed for respondents’ open comments, and three questions assessed respondents’

general tendencies or perceptions towards desserts. The remaining twenty-one questions

consisted of seven repeating questions, divided into three categories assessing three different

desserts options. The seven repeating questions follow: how likely are you to purchase this

dessert if it were available on campus; thinking about your friends/co-workers on campus, how

likely is it that they would purchase this dessert if it were available on campus; at what price

would this dessert begin to be too expensive for you to purchase; which factors below would be

most important to you when you are deciding to purchase this product; based on the description

of Marcos Brookie how likely are you to recommend this dessert to others; if the

recipe/instructions were made public, how likely would you be to make this dessert at home; if

the recipe/instructions were made public, how likely would you be to serve this dessert at a

social gathering, e.g. tailgate or gathering.  For data collection, the composed survey was

converted to Survey Monkey and an email blast was sent out to all Marshall students and faculty.

The chosen method of surveying allowed for the largest population reach, the most efficient and

quickest information collection, and allowed for the easiest conversions for result analysis.

Marshall Communication released the email on the 11 of April. Students received the final
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survey results on the 18 of April. Over the week of collection, 636 responses were recorded. The

data gathered through the Survey Monkey survey was exported into SPSS; the data was

converted into an SPSS spreadsheet which allowed for the analysis of survey results. Using the

different functions in such as descriptive statistics - including frequencies such as mean, median,

and mode - and cross tabulation comparisons, the data was analyzed, compared, and explored in

relation to the proposed hypotheses.

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Results

Survey Results

Marshall University Communications dispersed the Marshall Signature Dessert survey by

email to all students, faculty, and staff possessing a Marshall University email address. Within

the survey, respondents were asked to identify the following demographic characteristics:

respondent’s role on campus – faculty or staff –, respondent’s gender identification, and

respondent’s age. The survey received 636 responses. Of the responses, 261 individuals, or 41%

of respondents, possessed the role of Marshall faculty or staff, while 247, or 38.8% of

respondents, possessed the role of students at Marshall University. However, 128 respondents, or

20.1%, did not answer the question. In addition, the gender frequencies of the respondents are as

follow: 129, or 20.3%, male respondents, 355, or 55.8%, female respondents, 20, or 3.1%, non-

binary respondents, and 6, or 0.9%, of respondents preferred not to answer the gender

identification question. However, 126 responses were missing from this question. Lastly, the

survey identified the following frequencies of respondents in regard to age: 200 respondents

were of the ages of 18-24 years old, 68 respondents were of the ages of 25-34 years old, 63

respondents were of the ages of 35-44 years old, 75 respondents were of the ages of 45-54 years

old, 73 respondents were of the ages of 55-64 years old, and 31 respondents were of the ages of

65 years or older. Therefore, the percentages of respondent ages, respectively, are as follows:

31.4% were of the ages of 18-24 years old, 10.7% were of the ages of 25-34 years old, 9.9%

were of the ages of 35-44 years old, 11.8% were of the ages of 45-54 years old, 11.5% were of

the ages of 55-64 years old, and 4.9% were of the ages of 65 years or older. However, 126

individuals did not respond to the question. The following graphs allow for visual depiction of

the demographic results of the Marshall Signature Dessert Survey.

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Figure 1

The above pie chart depicts the percentage answers to the question regarding respondent

Figure 2

role within Marshall University.

The above pie chart depicts the percentage answers regarding respondent gender

identification.
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The pie chart below depicts the percentage answers regarding respondent gender age.

Figure 3

The Marshall Signature Dessert Survey contained twenty-eight questions in total. Of

these, three were the aforementioned demographic questions, one question allowed for

respondents’ comments, and three questions regarding respondents’ general tendencies or

perceptions towards desserts. The remaining twenty-one questions consisted of seven repeating

questions, divided into three categories pertaining to a different specified Marshall Signature

Dessert option. The seven repeating questions follow: how likely are you to purchase this dessert

if it were available on campus; thinking about your friends/co-workers on campus, how likely is

it that they would purchase this dessert if it were available on campus; at what price would this

dessert begin to be too expensive for you to purchase; which factors below would be most

important to you when you are deciding to purchase this product; based on the description of

Marcos Brookie how likely are you to recommend this dessert to others; if the recipe/instructions
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were made public, how likely would you be to make this dessert at home; if the

recipe/instructions were made public, how likely would you be to serve this dessert at a social

gathering, e.g. tailgate or gathering. In order to address and either support or deny the research

hypotheses of this paper, the analysis of the results will focus on a comparison of the three

Marshall Signature Dessert options. The three options for the Marshall Signature Dessert are a

cookie, a cake pop, and a brookie. The respondents were given a detailed description of the

Figure 4

dessert option and then asked to respond to the aforementioned questions in relation to that

specific option.

The first option-specific question asked respondents how likely they would be to

purchase the dessert if available on campus, with 1 representing the highest purchase intention

and 5 representing the lowest purchase intention. The chart above presents the descriptive

statistics of the respondent results for the three dessert options: cookie, cake pop, and brookie. As

seen in the chart above, the brookie option possesses the lowest mean, closely followed by the

cookie, then the cake pop third. Therefore, respondents expressed the highest purchase intention
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for the brookie. The cookie received similar purchase intention scores. Respondents expressed

Figure 5

lowest purchase intention for the cake pop.

Following the question assessing respondent purchase intentions, the survey asked

respondents how likely they believed friends or co-workers would be to purchase the dessert.

These results demonstrate the assumed purchase intentions of others. As seen in the cart above,

the brookie possesses the lowest mean; therefore, respondents believed that friends and co-

workers would be likely to purchase this dessert. In addition, the cookie option received a similar

mean score as compared to the brookie. The cake pop received the lowest mean score. As seen

within the first two questions, the brookie would be the dessert most likely to be purchased,

followed closely by the cookie. However, the cake pop appears to be a least likely purchase

option according to respondents.

The third option-specific question asked respondents at what price would the dessert be

too expensive to purchase. The above charts display the statistical results of the survey. Based on
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the results, the majority of respondents believe that the cookie would be too expensive to

purchase at a price at or above $2.49-$2.99. For the cake pop, the majority respondents believed

that the dessert would be too expensive to purchase at or above the prices of $1.99-$2.99.

Finally, the majority of respondents believed that the brookie dessert options would be too

expensive to purchase at any price at or above $2.99-$3.49. From the results, it can be seen that

consumer would be willing to pay the most for the brookie, followed by the cookie, then finally

by the cake pop.

Hypothesis Analysis

The first hypothesis states that of the three options presents, Marco’s Cake Pop will be

the most desired by Marshall University consumers. After testing the hypothesis, as shown in

figures 4 and 5, it can be concluded that the first hypothesis was not supported. Using SPSS,

descriptive statistics were used to find a mean. The mean showed what the average answer was

for the questions assessing how likely respondents were to purchase this dessert if available on

campus and how likely respondents believed friends and coworkers would be to purchase the

dessert if it were available on campus. The number 1 shows the highest purchase intention and

the number 5 representing the lowest purchase intention. Therefore, the lower the mean, the

higher the purchase intension. The results of figure 4 showed that the brookie was the dessert

that was most wanted on campus. With a mean of 2.22, the brookie won over the cookie with a

mean of 2.35, and the cake pop with the highest mean of 2.73. Moreover, the same conclusions

resulted from the means in figure 5; with a mean of 2.21, the brookie won over the cookie with a

mean of 2.23, and the cake pop with the highest mean of 2.42. Therefore, the hypothesis was not

supported by the results of the survey.

Figure 6
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The second hypothesis states that of the here dessert option presented to Marshall

consumers, respondents will be willing to pay a higher price for the Marco Brookie dessert. The

second hypothesis was supported by the results of the survey. As shown in figure 6, respondents

were willing to pay the most on money for the brookie. Descriptive statistics were used to make

a frequency table which showed what price the majority of respondents believed to be too

expensive to pay for the specific dessert. Based on the results, the majority of respondents

believe that the cookie would be too expensive to purchase at a price at or above $2.49-$2.99.

For the cake pop, the majority respondents believed that the dessert would be too expensive to

purchase at or above the prices of $1.99-$2.99. Finally, the majority of respondents believed that

the brookie dessert options would be too expensive to purchase at any price at or above $2.99-

$3.49. Therefore, as the respondents were willing to pay the highest price for the brookie dessert,

the second hypothesis was supported.

By using a crosstabulation, as shown in figure 7, it can be seen that the two hypotheses

possess a correlation. Since respondents are more likely to buy a brookie, they will be more

willing to spend more on this dessert compared to the two others. Out of 164 people that

answered they would “definitely buy” a brookie, 33 would be willing to pay up to $3.99. This

compared to the cake pop, only 119 said they would “definitely buy” and only 19 would pay up

to $3.99. This crosstabulation helps explain the relationship between the two results and how

they affect each other.

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Figure 7

Figure 8

Conclusions

Despite the valuable information found from the conducted research problems and short

comings exist within the research. First, a problem may come from the smaller sample size of the

surveyed population. A larger sample size leads to more people knowing about the study and

what it pertains to as well as getting more accurate, generalizable data. Second, the type of

respondents may present a problem; if it is not the targeted group responding, it can cause

problems for the study. However, this problem was eliminated due to the manner in which the

survey was dispersed. A way in which the survey could be made more accurate would be to

resend the survey out again in order to increase respondent numbers and, therefore, data

accuracy.

The Marshall Signature Dessert survey results can be utilized to present a supported

recommendation to the organization members. First, Marshall University should increase the

awareness of desserts on campus and increase efforts to get students to purchase available

desserts on campus. As seen in figures 9 through 11, the proportion of individual who eat
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desserts frequently and those who purchase those desserts on campus can be seen to be low in

relation. In fact, the individuals who reported eating dessert every day or multiple times a week

reported, as a majority, to almost never purchase desserts on campus. Therefore, the organization

should discover why respondents do no purchase desserts on campus, be it from lack of

awareness or price difference, and take measures to increase the number of purchases on campus.

Second, the preferred dessert appears to be the Marco Brookie, which will allow for the highest

respondent satisfaction and profit from dessert prices. As seen in figures 4 and 5, the brookie

received the lowest means, meaning that respondents expressed the highest intention to purchase

that dessert option. Therefore, the organization should focus on the Marco Brookie dessert in

order to maximize consumer satisfaction. Moreover, respondents expressed a higher willingness

to pay a higher price for the brookie. Therefore, not only can the brookie increase consumer

satisfaction, but it can maximize profit for the organization. Lastly, the organization should

ensure quality, flavor, and a reasonable price for the dessert. As seen in the survey, results found

that, on average, respondents believed the three most crucial factors in deciding to purchase the

dessert were flavor, price, and portion size. Therefore, the organization should take such factors

into consideration when creating and implementing the Marshall Signature Dessert.
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Appendices

The following page shows the final copy of the Marshall Signature Dessert survey.
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The following figures demonstrate the frequencies for the number of respondents who eat

sweets and how often, as well as the number of respondents who buy the consumed desserts

from campus and how often. The third figure demonstrates a cross tabulation to compare how

many of those who eat desserts purchase them on campus.

Figure 9
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Works Cited
Figure 10
Burns, Stephanie. “Why Convenience Is Essential.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Dec. 2021,

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephanieburns/2020/09/24/why-convenience-is-

essential/?sh=60ae09df1a31.

Harris, Jen. “You're Not Being Shallow, Pretty Food Does Taste Better, Science Says.” Los

Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2014,

https://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-pretty-food-really-taste-better-20140703-

story.html.

Spence, Charles, et al. “Does Food Color Influence Taste and Flavor Perception in Humans?”

Chemosensory Perception, vol. 3, no. 1, 2010, pp. 68–84.,

Figure 11

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12078-010-9067-z.

Tasting and Pairing Chocolate. Moonstruck Chocolate Company, February 2022.

https://moonstruckchocolate.com/tasting-pairing.