HINDERLITER 1

Lucas M. Hinderliter
Franklin College – Pulliam School of Journalism
PRL 499
15 April 2024
Revitalizing Campus Dining:
Franklin College Dining’s Transformational Journey Towards Student Satisfaction
Franklin College Dining, which is contracted by Parkhurst Dining, is faced with a
critical challenge: a negative perception and dissatisfaction among students mainly
focusing on food quality and service. Though this is not isolated to just Franklin College,
it is imperative that change is made to how students perceive the company by focusing on
existing concerns while increasing the overall experience.
Parkhurst Dining, which is a part of the Eat n’ Park Hospitality Group based in
Homestead, Pennsylvania, offers food services to private institutions across the eastern
United States and eastern Midwest. Parkhurst Dining has the goal of providing fresh,
made-from-scratch food and services that make students and guests leave with a smile.
At Franklin College, the dining and catering team are required to follow recipes provided
by Parkhurst Dining Corporate Support Center (CSC). By adhering to guiding principles
put in place by the corporate support center, there is continued balance across other
accounts. Food is produced fresh, from scratch.
The primary objective is to start a gradual shift among students’ views towards
Franklin College Dining, where negative views are traded with positive interactions and
impressions. By generating positive and impressionable interactions among students,
they create an environment where students feel valued, appreciated, and satisfied. The
opportunity to address concerns of food quality and service will enhance the relationship
that Franklin College Dining continues to build on.
Another crucial objective is to improve the image of Franklin College Dining
within the campus community and beyond, which includes but is not limited to incoming
students, their parents and guardians, and employees of the college. By demonstrating a
commitment to continuous improvement, it places Franklin College Dining into a
position as a premier service that reflects the college’s values and aspirations.
Fostering community and increasing engagement is key to improving student
perception. By creating opportunities for students to gather, socialize with other students
and Franklin College Dining’s team, and share experiences about dining, provides the
ideal environment that builds on the relationship for students to not be afraid to discuss
issues they are facing.
Supporting student success is an important and key aspect of the vision Franklin
College Dining wants to create with students. Nutrition is a vital aspect of well-being,
 HINDERLITER 2

which in turn affects students’ academic, social, and personal development. By

prioritizing students’ needs and preferences, Franklin College Dining contributes to the
health of the campus community.
By implementing these goals, Franklin College Dining can shift students’ views
towards a more positive perception, fostering an environment where students feel heard,
and supporting the success of students.
The message that is needing to be conveyed to the public is centered around the
transformation of Franklin College Dining into a proactive, vibrant, inclusive, and
student-focused dining experience. Expanding on the importance of fostering a
community to increase a positive experience and engagement is found through in-person
interactions and by traditional and social media. Creating social spaces, whether they be
online or in person, is an important step to encourage meaningful and informative
interactions.
Using traditional and social media will assist Franklin College Dining to establish
a connection with the campus community. Currently, they use two social media
platforms frequently: Facebook and Instagram. They also have X (formerly Twitter) and
Tik Tok, but those are not typically used as a relied platform. On Instagram, which is
their most popular platform, they have over 950 followers, where they engage with their
followers daily with posts and polls. Regarding traditional media, they currently use
flyers and email. I propose that they continue to use their current social media platforms,
especially Instagram. Franklin College Dining posts mainly pictures of their team
members and of students, which is great, but I believe that there needs to be a focus
towards their food as well, whether it is a mixture of both or just of the food. It is
recommended that they maybe show “behind the scenes” of how they make their fresh,
made-from-scratch food rather than still photos. When speaking with Franklin College
Dining, one thing they plan to bring up is email newsletters specifically to parents and
guardians of Grizzlies. They believe that this a great place to start, since students heavily
rely on their parents or guardians, which typically reach out to management when there
are concerns.
Another strategy to take into consideration is utilizing campus events and student
ambassadors to help relay messaging. Hosting events such as taste-testing, cooking
demonstrations, and themed lunches or dinners will provide students the opportunity to
interact with team members, sample new menu items, and provide feedback in real-time.
These events will serve as touchpoints to enforce the message of quality, service, and
community. Student Ambassadors, or influencers, can help amplify their message to
reach a wider audience of students, whether it is through persuasion or through positive
experiences.
To strengthen their message stronger, Franklin College Dining will collaborate
with key stakeholders, including faculty, staff, and student organizations, like Student
Government Association, to strengthen their support and increase their impact. By
 HINDERLITER 3

involving the campus community, they can ensure that their message reflects a diverse
audience.
In other strategic campaigns, Franklin College Dining will explore avenues such
as advertising, fundraising, and events to go along with their PR efforts. Advertising
campaigns targeted at reaching toward current and prospective students can influence
their opinion on dining services and attract “partners.” This can be tackled through
partnerships with Franklin College’s First-Year Engagement to showcase students who
have been or are pleased with dining services, and hearing from them about it. This can
be with videos or testimonials. Students tend to be influenced by their counterparts rather
than from the problem.
Fundraising events have been proven to aid in the image of those who are
struggling with publicity. In Spring of 2024, Franklin College Dining partnered with
Sororities at Franklin College to host a Women’s History Month drink contest. The three
sororities, which are Pi Beta Phi, Zeta Tau Alpha, and Delta Delta Delta, created their
own drinks to be sold at the Grizzly Café. For the entire month of March, the Grizzly
Café kept a record for the number of drinks sold through their point-of-sale system. The
sorority who sold the greatest number of drinks, which was Pi Beta Phi, received a $100
donation to their chosen philanthropy.
Franklin College Dining utilized their social media platform, Instagram, to push
the sale of items. This fundraising event not only supported a great cause, but it also
supported the vision students have of Franklin College Dining. Fundraising events not
only generate revenue, but also showcase their commitment to community engagement
and social responsibility. Additionally, lobbying efforts focused on advocating for
policies that support good dining practices could further enhance the impact of a better
vision.
As for how long this campaign is needed to run, it is envisioned to run for either a
full semester or an entire academic year. Building a great dining experience is an
ongoing process but may take even longer when taking a new approach than what has
been taken for the past 5 years that Parkhurst Dining has been at Franklin College. This
long-term initiative is aimed at fostering lasting relationships and creating a thriving
dining experience.
Parkhurst Dining, and Franklin College Dining, remain neutral politically. It is
believed that this is a best practice to be able to represent all audiences and demographics
without being biased in any way. This is also emphasized in Parkhurst Dining and
Franklin College’s core values and visions. Parkhurst Dining “advances diversity, equity,
and inclusion.” Their teams tend to be stronger and more engaged when they value
individual and group differences. Franklin College pursues the commitment to
inclusivity that honors all forms of diversity, the dignity of self and others, and the goal of
having empathy, sincerity, and openness.
 HINDERLITER 4

Parkhurst Dining and its parent company Eat n’ Park has community involvement
woven into their fabric. As a company, they donate at least five percent of their pre-tax
earnings to local charitable organizations. Though Franklin College Dining does not
directly do this, it is important to understand that they still have these type of ideals and
core values at their roots.
The demographics of the company, specifically looking at Franklin College
Dining, is mostly female with the average age of their team members being between 30
and 50 years old. Franklin College Dining has 55 team members, many of whom are
favorites of the students because of their personality and dedication to their roles of
serving students with a smile.
Parkhurst Dining, and Franklin College Dining, tend to separate themselves from
their competitors like Sodexo and Chartwells because of their use of fresh, made-from-
scratch products rather than the majority use of frozen items. Parkhurst Dining has
standards they call “Gold Standards,” which is a list of almost 20 ways that they set
themselves apart from their competitors. One of the complaints that Franklin College
Dining receives is that they use “pre-packaged and unhealthy frozen foods,” which is not
the case.
The story that this audience should be targeted to is their consumer, which are
students and some Franklin College employees. Students make up most of their guests,
which they use to their advantage by connecting with the group social media platforms.
One real life scenario in Indiana was a news article published by Indiana State
University’s student-ran media talking about their food provider’s “stringent yet
somehow entirely low standards for what even constitutes food.” Their food provider,
Sodexo, does not seem to have a response or plan of action from this array of journalism
covering the quality of their products and service. I also did a quick comb of their social
media pages, which do not get much attention even though they have 1,000 and counting
followers.
To effectively execute the plan of transforming Franklin College Dining into a
proactive, vibrant experience for students and other guests, a comprehensive approach
that targets their key stakeholders and utilizes several methods to gather information and
disseminate their message, which is to serve students with a smile while offering fresh,
made-from-scratch food.
Students are their primary audience and area of focus, especially those who utilize
dining services on campus. The goal of reaching them through social media platforms
and campus events is key to establish their vision. Typically, this audience can be
reached only through social media. The generation that is currently in college do not
necessarily like in-person conflict. They instead prefer to submit their issues from behind
a computer or phone. This tends to be a problem for Franklin College Dining because
they do not learn of issues until after the fact, rather than in the moment.
 HINDERLITER 5

Parents and guardians are the secondary audience who have great influence over
their student’s decisions. While students are the primary consumers of services offered
by Franklin College Dining, this group tends to provide guidance, financial support, and
input on aspects of their college experience, including where and what they eat.
Therefore, it is crucial that this group of stakeholders is interacted with as well.
To understand the primary audience, really the secondary audience too, and to
gather information to make data-backed decisions, it is recommended that utilizing social
media analytics, conducting surveys and feedback forms, and campus events is important
and should be done.
Social media analytics provides insight to understanding audience demographics,
engagement metrics, and content preferences. Audience demographic makeup over their
social media audience is essential for crafting targeted, relevant content. By
understanding age, gender, location and general interest of followers, trends and patterns
can be analyzed to generate content that reflects a dining experience that students expect.
Monitoring engagement metrics enables Franklin College Dining to identify areas for
improvement. For example, they posted a picture of food for their traditional “Late
Night” that happens every Thursday, got 62 likes, engaging with only 63 accounts, and
reaching 359. In comparison to their Solar Eclipse post, which strictly included pictures
of students and animals, earned 481 likes, engaging with 488 accounts, and reaching
2,772. Obviously, this shows the preference of what students want in their feed, which
seems counterintuitive as a dining service. Franklin College Dining tends to try and find
the balance of posting a mixture of food and team member pictures, shown all in one
post.
By leveraging social media analytics to understand demographics, engagement
metrics, and content preferences, Franklin College Dining can tailor messaging that they
are there to build on personal relationships and authentic culinary experiences. Through
continuous monitoring and analysis, they can ensure that their social media presence
supports their overarching goals and objectives, driving positive outcomes.
Surveys and Feedback Forms are key to gather feedback on Franklin College
Dining’s performance. By establishing clear objectives, data analysis and planning
makes developing a comprehensive action plan easy. Surveys help gain valuable
insights into the needs and preferences of the diverse group of stakeholders to drive
continuous improvement.
In addition to surveys, focus groups provide an opportunity for personal, in-depth
discussion that brings qualitative feedback. Convening small groups of students can
bring deeper meaning and conversation that may not emerge through surveys alone. One
example of this that is being done is called “Griz Forums,” which is a partnership
between Franklin College’s Student Government Association and Franklin College
Dining. These forums are held once a month, with a focus on engaging with students
and being able to structure conversation on themes and topics, such as menu planning,
 HINDERLITER 6

dining hall atmosphere, and guest experience to gather targeted feedback to generate
actionable recommendations.
Incorporating feedback mechanisms, and utilizing current avenues that do work,
will facilitate real-time communication. Parkhurst Dining provides digital feedback
kiosks that are placed strategically in the dining hall to allow students to provide
feedback on their experience instantly. These are temporary as they only have so many
to give around to other higher education accounts. By defining key performance
indicators related to student satisfaction, there is data that can be tracked over time to
measure the impact on Franklin College Dining initiatives. Gathering feedback,
conducting surveys, and hosting focus groups is important. However, seeking out
opportunities for innovation and enhancement is key to guest satisfaction. This may
involve exploring new menu offerings or introducing new technologies, such as mobile
ordering. Staying ahead of emerging trends and listening to the evolving needs of
students and guests ensures that the dining experience remains relevant and responsive to
changing priorities.
To ensure that Franklin College Dining’s message is effective, utilizing a mixture
of traditional and social platforms is important. The traditional media message would be
conveyed through print publications such as flyers and posters. An example would be a
flyer featuring images of current students enjoying meals in the dining hall alongside
catchy, meaningful slogans promoting Franklin College Dining’s commitment to fresh,
made-from-scratch food. These flyers would be mounted and/or displayed in areas of
high traffic to maximize visibility and reach.
Social media platforms are essential in pushing out Franklin College Dining’s
message. By currently using their current platforms, which are Facebook and Instagram,
they can engage with students and guests by providing contents that resonates. For
example, Franklin College Dining may create a series of Instagram posts that feature
mouth-watering photos of their signature dishes with students enjoying their meals.
These posts will be accompanied with captions that highlight the quality ingredients and
attention to detail that goes into each meal. Student testimonials are utilized to bring
prospective and relatable experiences to life. Utilizing user-generated content, such as
photos showcase the authentic dining experience Franklin College Dining offers.
Measuring the success of a campaign to transform Franklin College Dining into a
proactive experience requires a comprehensive approach that encompasses quantitative
and qualitative metrics. By leveraging a different array of reporting methods and tools,
tracking the campaign’s progress in real-time helps identify areas for improvement by
making data-driven adjustments.
One key reporting method that can help with measuring the success of the
campaign is social media analytics. Facebook and Instagram provide detailed
performance reports and data on audience engagement, reach, and interaction. By
monitoring different areas such as likes, comments, shares, and followers, Franklin
 HINDERLITER 7

College Dining can gauge the effectiveness of their social media performance and
identify trends that inform their strategy.
Tracking the number of likes and comments on Instagram posts promoting dining
events and special promotions to assess their popularity is crucial for their strategy. By
comparing engagement metrics across different types of content, such as photos, videos,
and stories, identifiable trends are established to increase the relationship between the
two groups. Additionally, social media analytics tools allow Franklin College Dining to
track demographic information about
In addition to social media analytics, they can measure success through other
quantitative metrics such website traffic, email open rates, and survey responses, by
tracking the number of visitors of their website, click-through-rates on email newsletters
and bulletins, as well as completion rates on surveys and feedback forms, they can assess
the level of interest and engagement among target audiences.
One of the key advantages of digital marketing and social media is the ability to
measure campaign progress in real-time and adjust in real time. By continuously
monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking metrics such as engagement,
reach, and conversion rates, Franklin College Dining can quickly identify trends and
patterns that indicate whether our campaign is on track to meet its objectives.
For example, if they notice a decline in engagement on our social media posts
promoting dining events, they can experiment with different types of content, posting
times, or messaging strategies to see if we can re-engage their audience and drive more
interest and participation. Similarly, if they receive negative feedback or low satisfaction
scores on our surveys, we can take immediate action to address the underlying issues and
improve the dining experience for our customers.
Measuring the success of a campaign to transform Franklin College Dining
requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses both quantitative and qualitative
metrics. By leveraging social media analytics, website analytics, email marketing
metrics, survey data, and A/B testing, they can track our progress in real-time, identify
areas for improvement, and make data-driven adjustments to optimize our efforts. By
continuously monitoring key performance indicators and staying responsive to feedback
from our audience, Franklin College Dining can ensure that our campaign is effective in
driving positive outcomes and delivering a dining experience that exceeds expectations.
In the initial phase of the campaign, preparation before the launch is important,
and required. Franklin College Dining will focus on thorough research and analysis to
understand the current perception and satisfaction levels among students. This involves
reviewing existing social media analytics, feedback forms, and surveys to identify key
areas of improvement. Additionally, meetings with key stakeholders such as the client,
which is the Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students Dr. Andrew
Jones, Franklin College Dining Management, and student representatives will take place
to align campaign objectives and strategies. The goal is to develop a comprehensive
 HINDERLITER 8

campaign strategy that includes clear goals, target audience identification, messaging, and
specific tactics to achieve positive outcomes. This will take place towards the end of the
school year and some of the summer to prepare. This can take 1 to 3 months depending
on when started.
Once the groundwork is laid, the campaign will launch with an approach aimed at
engaging students and improving their dining experience. Social media optimization will
be a priority, with enhanced profiles on platforms like Instagram and Facebook, along
with a carefully planned content calendar to ensure regular and engaging posts. Campus
events, including taste-testing sessions, cooking demonstrations, and themed meals, will
provide opportunities for students to interact with Franklin College Dining team members
and provide real-time feedback. The recruitment and training of student ambassadors
will also be crucial in amplifying the campaign message and fostering community
engagement. This process can take anywhere from the second month of the campaign to
the third month, ensuring that Franklin College Dining is mindful to not rush this
campaign.
In parallel with these efforts, traditional media and public relations initiatives will
be implemented to reach a broader audience beyond the campus community. Flyers,
posters, and email newsletters will showcase Franklin College Dining’s commitment to
quality food and service. This will be targeted towards students’ parents or guardians, as
they have major influence over this audience group. The mid-campaign evaluation phase
will serve as an opportunity to review ogress and make necessary adjustments based on
analytics and feedback. Social media metrics, email open rates, and survey responses
will be analyzed to gauge the effectiveness of the campaign and identify areas of
improvement. This will take place anywhere between the fourth or fifth month.
Continued engagement with stakeholders, including the student ambassadors and
campus organizations, such as Student Government Association (SGA), will be essential
to sustain momentum throughout the campaign. Regular communication and
collaboration will ensure that the campaign remains relevant and responsive to the
evolving needs of the student body. As the campaign progresses, efforts will be made to
diversify content and expand partnerships with external organizations to enhance the
overall dining experience. Long-term planning will focus on strategies for continued
engagement beyond the campaign period, with a goal on ongoing improvement.
In the final phase of the campaign, a comprehensive evaluation will be conducted
to assess the overall impact on student perception, satisfaction, and engagement. Lessons
learned throughout the campaign will be documented, and recommendations for future
initiatives will be taken into consideration to continue positive momentum. By following
a structured implantation schedule, Franklin College Dining can effectively execute its
campaign to transform their dining experience and create a proactive, vibrant community
for students to enjoy fresh, made-from-scratch food.