CASE STUDY

The Pita Pit has its beginnings in 1995 in Kingston, Ontario, and was the brainchild of Nelson Lang and John Sotiriadis. The push for healthy eating had not taken off as it has now, yet the duo was still convinced they were on to some- thing. After two years in operation, the franchising began in Canada followed quickly by the United States. Currently, there are more than 300 Pita Pits in North America.

In May 2012, the company announced a new menu offering, a vegan black bean patty called the Spicy Black Bean Pita. Paul Erwin, Chief Financial Executive of Pita Pit, said We know that a growing number of our customersand consumers everywhereare looking for delicious and nutritious heart-healthy options and are also increasingly concerned about animal welfare issues. Thats why were excited to introduce a hearty all-vegan black bean patty to our menus nationwide.

The pita is made of a bean patty, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, and pepperoncinis. It is a certified vegan product that was developed through consumer feed- back, particularly for spicier menu options. Before launching the product nationwide, test markets were conducted to evaluate consumer responses.The Spicy Black Bean Pita did very well in tests with vegetarian as well as meat-loving customers, said Peter Riggs, Pita Pits vice-president of corporate business unit. Weve used the slogan Dont substitute meat, sur- pass it, and with this product we believe we have a menu option that provides the health benefits of a vegetable base without losing the texture of a meat product.

The Spicy Black Bean Pita played so well in the college market that were placing special emphasis on these areas in our roll-out, said Tracy Carbonneau, Pita Pits marketing director. The idea of a vegetarian pita that still tastes great is a concept that aligns with that seg- ment of our fan base.

The Pita Pit test market exemplifies a marketing experiment. Do marketers really conduct experiments? Arent experiments done only in labs by scientists wearing long white coats?

QUESTIONS

1. What advantages does Pita Pits test market experiment have over a survey asking people whether they would be willing to purchase a vegan option?

2. What type of experimental design does Pita Pit appear to have used? The formula would be denoted as X₁ 0₁.

3. What were the independent and dependent variables in the experiment? Were there any extraneous variables that may have skewed the results?

4. What is your assessment of the experiments internal and external validities, respectivelyhigh or low?

5. If you were doing an internet survey to customers who where given a free sample of the vegan Pita, how would you phrase a qualitative survey question?