Campus dining officials want students to know J Street has changed.
The often-criticized dining hub is seeking feedback from student leaders to redefine its brand, after one of the largest overhauls in the venue’s history last summer failed to increase sales.
The marketing revamp will become the second major change in a year to make J Street more appealing to students. With perpetual student dissatisfaction despite large-scale improvement efforts over the last six years, Director of Campus Dining for Sodexo Richard Yokeley declined to say how the latest strategy to rebrand J Street differentiates from past plans.
“We’re continuously trying to bring innovation to J Street,” Yokeley said. “We think that the more we can continuously change, the better we will do.”
After swapping out nearly all outside vendors for Sodexo venues in the most recent overhaul, the University reported a 25 percent drop in sales last fall that then flatlined early this semester. University spokeswoman Michelle Sherrard said Sodexo would not release information about its total sales this academic year, citing a policy change since The Hatchet last reported the numbers in February. She did not explain why the policy changed.
University officials lauded Sodexo for an 11 percent increase in student satisfaction with J Street in late January, but refused to provide past approval ratings – making it impossible to discern the impact of the summer overhaul.
GW Campus Dining formed five focus groups this month to strengthen outreach to students, looking to draw in upperclassmen that might overlook the menu options added last fall. The dozen-member focus groups met for the first time last week and will continue to identify solutions for problem areas, such as food quality and menu options, until the end of May.
When asked how this effort would produce better results than past endeavors that created larger changes but could not boost J Street’s image, Yokeley did not answer the question, instead saying this year’s new marketing plan is “standard procedure” for Sodexo.
He added that he is “not aware of any major changes in food set.”
The focus groups include students from the Student Association, the Marvin Center Governing Board and house staff. Working with students who are well known on campus will help enhance the dining center's reputation and could create a potential partnership with student groups, Yokeley said.
“We all have a favorite restaurant, but if we ate there seven days a week, it wouldn’t be our favorite. We’re trying to keep our customers interested in what we're doing so they keep coming back,” Yokeley said.
The marketing plan relies on creating partnerships between campus dining and major student organizations, helping the University advertise to students through organizations' listservs and group leadership and creating “communication avenues to students through their organizations,” Yokeley said.
Campus dining underwent a landmark change in 2006, ditching longtime food vendor Aramark for Sodexo, which added multiple new venues including Quiznos and Chick-fil-A. J Street’s massive overhaul last summer again welcomed new vendors.
Chair of the Student Dining Board Ben Leighton, who has worked with the campus dining office this year to coordinate programming, said the marketing campaign could help defy negative stereotypes about Sodexo’s food – a perennial student complaint.
“People have written it off. It’s about opening peoples’ minds to eating at J Street,” Leighton said, adding that some upperclassmen do not realize there are healthier and fresher eating options at the venue since last summer’s revamp.
Students will also see more themed programming during the year, which Yokeley said has increased sales and is “more memorable for our customers.” The plans will expand events like last fall’s crab boil, the annual Thanksgiving meal before break and Freshman Feast earlier this month.
The campus dining team will step up its use of visuals online, adding more photos of food options on existing social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook, in addition to e-mail newsletters.
“We have heard back from students and staff that students often don’t know about programs, events and daily information that they might find relevant,” Yokeley said.
In case anyone with decision making power reads this: PLEASE BRING BACK WENDY’S!
You take away the tastiest option at J Street then you are surprised when sales drop.
The nasty, greasy smell from Wendy’s was the reason I avoided J-Street freshman year.
At least bring back Chick-fil-A!!!
What the guy says about it being impossible to eat 7 days a week at your favorite restaurant is not entirely true. Good food is good food, and I am hungry every day. So convince me that J Street is cheaper, more convenient and just as tasty as Whole Foods, then maybe I’d consider eating there.
If anyone thinks that “marketing programs” will solve J Street problems, they’re just crazy. The fundamental notion of a fast-food dining plan is flawed on so many levels. I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me why GW is the only college in America that doesn’t have a traditional meal plan. Oh yeah, go to the Vern. Maybe they need a marketing plan for that too. I could come up with a marketing plan for a traditional meal plan: “it works everywhere else, let’s see how it works here.” There’s your marketing plan. For free.
At some point, they need to realize the no amount of rebranding or remarketing will compensate for a) inflated prices and b) Sodexo being a crappy vendor. Why on earth would you sink more money renovating the place when it still costs me $8 for a sandwich with a third the substance of a Subway $5 foot long?
Bring back WOW!!!
As an upperclassman, I don’t see the incentive for coming to J St. It is expensive, the vegetables in the salad bar(the only edible part) aren’t fresh and the food just doesn’t taste good. The diner WOULD be a good option if it didn’t take years to get your food.
Though I haven’t eaten in the new establishment in Ames, I think that the dining facility in West is atrocious. There are so few healthy food options, the salad bar is often empty or filled with stale food. The only edible things are at the grill – which is INCREDIBLE unhealthy.
Maybe the University shouldn’t have lied about how the new food was going to be cheaper. All of the food prices increased. STOP TAKING ALL OF OUR MONEY AND GIVE US AFFORDABLE CHEAP FOOD. It is not too much to ask. I was a regular at the pasta place until you made the amount SUPER SMALL but kept the price EXPENSIVE. Think about it.
I bet the service still sucks too, with the surly slop line servers behind the counter with chips on their shoulders who haven’t the slightest idea what customer service means.
All Sodexo needs to do is walk over to Whole Foods. Without the burden of Dining Dollars I have not eaten at J Street for dinner a single time this year because it is cheaper to eat at Whole Foods! When the grocery store known for being extravagantly expensive is undercutting your prices you know you have an option. There needs to be a way to get a fresh, healthy and rounded meal for less than $8-$10 (I can get a fantastic, varied, and fresh meal from Whole Foods for $8 a pound. If Sodexo wants to know what students want they should walk across I street where all the students are.
If the administration wants jstreet to be good, get rid of sodexo dining dollars. The only way they will ever try to serve good food at fair prices is if they have competitors.
We know the problem! We don’t have a traditional cafeteria. I believe that all students should have access to inexpensive, healthy meals. When my daughters were in college, their meal plans were reasonable, the cafeteria made things easy, and they enjoyed the social aspects of the experience to boot. it was a natural hub. The cafeteria made their lives less of a hassle during crunch time, like finals. My suspicion is that someone must have signed some crazy multi-year contract with the AWFUL Sodexo.
I agree with those who are critical of the way the university thinks that rebranding can solve every problem. The multi-million dollar rebranding effort for the college is kind of baffling. The college will be different if the university changes its polices, not its logo!
Problems here we all seem to agree on
-The food is too expensive for what it is
-The food is gross
-The people are rude
-Nobody seems to be listening to students complaints.
However, getting the SA involved or students “well known” on campus isn’t going to help a thing. Send out a survey, the numbers won’t lie. If they don’t want to do that, why don’t they just read the comments on the articles regarding JStreet, thats proof enough.
Fix the prices, fix the food, hire a nicer staff, and listen to the students.
How can you have a good dining plan when you spoiled GW brats don’t want to pay for anything. Also, when you have old men in the administration deciding what the students should eat, you’re never going to have food that you want. GW needs to decide to grow up and institute a real meal plan, but they won’t because they have no balls and the Brats at GW whine about everything.
You complain about the price of food, do you think food is free???? Get real, food is expensive to make.
When something needs to be done about the employees, you only have yourselves to blame. The bleeding heart wimps of GW stand up and say that you can do nothing to these employees. Once you stop getting in the way, maybe something can be done to improve customer service.
Also, get rid of Nancy Haaga and Anya Hughes. All they do is come up with dumb ideas and never have any clue what is really going on with dining.
It doesn’t matter which food vendor is at GW. As long as you have old men and those two clueless women making decisions, nothing will ever improve.
I’m not sure when the Sodexo contract for J Street is up, but it honestly can’t come soon enough. The service is synonymous with poor quality and general apathy from its workers, a pretty unpleasant bunch. The new changes don’t seem to be working for students, unsurprisingly, because the venue is still being run by a terrible food service provider. How Sodexo survives as a company in a market economy completely baffles me. Either bring in brands that students want and can deliver or create a traditional campus meal plan with a better provider.
I hope Sodexo will consider offering less expensive AND healthier options! Fast food like Wendy’s isn’t what I want my son eating on a regular basis. Plus, if students are buying food at Whole Foods, that should show they want healthy options. I’m concerned about the sodium content as well as fat and corn syrup.
GW’s meal plan for freshmen is extremely expensive, and anything the university can do to provide healthy but cheap options will be appreciated. Some ideas: pasta and homemade pasta sauce, taboule and hummus, roast chicken and roasted vegetables … Kids will appreciate meals like they had at home.
seriously i wish the university would give up this bullshit dream of theirs.
J Street sucks. The food is terrible and the prices are worse. If you want kids to enjoy your shitty food, make it cheaper. if you want kids to enjoy paying so much money, make the food worth is. Jesus Christ, it’s not that hard of a concept. No one’s happy because everything there sucks.
Not to mention getting rid of WOW was the worst mistake GW has made in recent memory.