This project was done by Clemson University Marketing seniors at the request of Waffle House executives and managers in order to find a way to raise awareness of Waffle House Management positions and to learn better ways to recruit college graduates to the position.

1. Mid-Term Project
Marketing 450: Strategic Marketing Management
Daniel Carroll
Julie Clamp
Alyssa Goodson
Wesley Moran
Katherine Williams

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary…………………………………………….3
Situation Analysis………………………………………………4
SWOT Analysis………………………………………………...5
Value Proposition……………………………………………….8
Identification and Evaluation of Strategic Alternatives………...8
Recommendations……………………………………………..13
Appendix………………………………………………………15
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3. Executive Summary
The goal for this particular case study was to provide a recruitment plan to help Waffle
House attract potential managers to their booth at career fairs in order to find employees for
management positions. However, many students are not aware of the management jobs that
Waffle House has to offer, and have the negative perception that Waffle House is only a late-
night hangout spot.
The first step in the process was performing a situation and SWOT analysis. Following
this, a value proposition that clearly stated Waffle House’s core values, while also appealing to
many individuals in the job market, was created: “Great training, friendly people, and countless
opportunities will make this House your home.”
Further analyzing the situation analysis, five strategic alternatives that Waffle House
could implement to effectively recruit top students to career fair booths were created. The first
situation requires Waffle House to get more involved at the university level by meeting with
students and faculty to let them know about the jobs that Waffle House offers. The second
alternative calls for Waffle House to focus on their internship program in order to capitalize on
the fact that it is a great way to attract potential employees and exposes them to all aspects of the
company. The third strategy suggests that Waffle House targets specific individuals through
professor recommendations and/or career centers. This would allow Waffle House to choose
specific individuals they feel would be a good fit with the company. Similarly, the fourth
strategy calls for Waffle House to target specific universities in order to recruit students from
environments that best coincide with Waffle House’s values. The fifth and final alternative was
for Waffle House to revamp their website to make it more user-friendly and offer promotional
videos about Waffle House employment. This would increase publicity and job awareness,
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4. informing students and other potential employees about the specifics of job opportunities
available within the company.
After evaluating the alternatives, it was determined that the best strategy for Waffle
House to execute would be a combination of strategies one, two, and five. This means that
Waffle House would get involved at the university level, they would build their internship
program and raise awareness for career opportunities within the company, and they would
revamp their current website to attract top students to their company. If implemented correctly,
many top students would be aware of the opportunities with Waffle House, resulting in boosted
interest levels at career fairs.
A variety of sources were used to gather information from this case study. Most of the
information utilized was found in the documents posted on BlackBoard. Also, a survey asking
students questions about internships and qualities they look for in a job was used for primary
research.
Situation Analysis
By looking at the internal, external, and customer environments, it was possible to get a
good idea of Waffle House’s position in the market. Internally, Waffle House has great customer
service and a friendly atmosphere. They are privately traded, giving employees the opportunity
to become owners. Also, there is a strong emphasis on improving the communities in which
Waffle House is located. Waffle House faces problems associated with the fact that their website
lacks professionalism and creativity. Also, many people, especially the millennial generation,
associate Waffle House with a place to go when the bars are closing. Externally, Waffle house
faces the fact that there is a current economic recession and that top students looking to graduate
and start a career are more interested in starting out with larger, more prestigious companies,
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5. such as those included in the Fortune 500. Also, openings in the job market are very competitive
now, which is really an advantage for Waffle House since they are always looking for
worthwhile employees. Within the customer environment, Waffle House succeeds in attracting
all different types of customers and employees. They serve a variety of entrees and stay open 24
hours a day, 365 days a year, with over 1,500 locations nation-wide.
SWOT Analysis
By looking into the internal environment many strengths and weaknesses associated with
Waffle House were found. The following characteristics are ones considered strengths of Waffle
House, helping them in their desire to attract top students to their booth at college career fairs.
Waffle House has 1,650 locations and they continue to add new units frequently.
Waffle House restaurants are known for their welcoming environment and they take
pride in the fact that their employees are friendly and create a constructive work
environment.
Waffle House is people oriented in both the customer sense and the employee sense.
They go out of their way to portray this by their value proposition, “We are not in the
food business…We are in the people business.”
They dedicate time to training. They have a 12 week training program.
They are involved in the communities in which they are located and partner with many
local organizations to improve the quality of life through the use of funds and resources.
Their stock is privately traded. Along with that, their stock value has continued to rise.
They offer competitive salaries and good benefits.
They are a company that offers quick promotions if employees perform their job well.
They offer 3 weeks paid vacation.
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6. Waffle House has been around for 56 years. They are an established, well known
restaurant.
Waffle House offers job security. They take pride in the fact that they place value in their
employees and keep them employed. Also, they are always looking for new people to
join the Waffle House team.
Listed below are some of the weaknesses determined to be associated with Waffle House that
could potentially limit the types of students who would be interested in a full-time position
with Waffle House following graduation.
Being a unit manager would sometimes require employees to work poor hours.
The Waffle House website gives a bad impression of the position due to improper
grammar and lack of creativity. It also doesn’t provide a lot of information on the
specifics of the responsibilities and expectations of a management position. Another issue
associated with the website would be that it doesn’t have a lot of information about the
training program or what characteristics they are looking for in a management position.
Waffle House has the perception that working as a manager it is not challenging and/or
there is no intellectual development involved with the career.
There is not an image of professionalism or prestige associated with the Waffle House
brand/careers.
Waffle House lacks in advertising and marketing efforts, and without knowledge of the
company, there is lack of knowledge in the careers possible with them.
Not a lot of technological advancement involved in the operations of the individual
restaurants.
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7. By looking at the external environment it was found that there were a number of
opportunities and threats relevant to Waffle House. Listed below are some of the opportunities
Waffle House could choose to use in their advantage.
The current state of the economy allows for the future improvement in many aspects of
business.
There are numerous technological advancements within the restaurant industry, such as
computer software programs that help with efficiency and inventory that are not utilized
by Waffle House.
Many companies do not offer the amount of employment opportunities and/or
opportunities to advance that Waffle House does during the current economic recession,
so this would be great thing to stress to management prospects.
The target market of potential employees currently has little knowledge of the company.
Many other companies are not currently hiring or are much less approachable in the
current job market than Waffle House
Listed below are the threats that Waffle House faces.
Other opportunities with large companies for entry-level employment tend to overshadow
those offered by Waffle House.
Current graduates tend to seek out employment at prestigious corporations and Fortune
500 companies.
The current legal environment effecting Waffle House includes sexual harassment
lawsuits as well as discrimination lawsuits, which threaten the brand’s image of a friendly
and accepting environment.
The current trends in society are moving towards healthier foods and lifestyles.
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8. Value Proposition
“Great training, friendly people, and countless opportunities
will make this House your home.”
This value proposition communicates the core values of Waffle House, and also shows the
desirable traits that this company has to offer. When conducting research, it was discovered that
training and experience, work environment, and opportunities for advancement are all very
important characteristics to those who are involved in a job search.
Strategy 1: Get involved at the university level
Waffle House needs to first get involved at the university level. In order to do this, Waffle
House must give presentations to marketing and management classes, professors, and
professional business groups. It is also suggested that Waffle House hosts luncheons for both
faculty and students in order to provide detailed information on possible career opportunities.
When giving such presentations, recruiters would dress professionally and act with a high level
of competence to negate many of the negative connotations associated with the company. The
second part to this strategy involves attending multiple career fairs and being listed on college
career center websites.
Overall, this strategy will help Waffle House educate potential employees on details of
the company and allow them to ask question about the company. It would also allow them to
target a large number of students who attend events like career fairs. Additionally, this will allow
students to step outside of the restaurant setting and see all of the aspects of the company.
Students will also be able to meet face-to-face with managers and understand what actually goes
on in the day of the life of a Waffle House manager. However, this strategy does have its
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9. drawbacks. For instance, this strategy may spark a need for recruitment training and may force
Waffle House to allocate funds to send managers or recruiters to meet with potential employees
and faculty at universities. Regardless of the drawbacks, it will be beneficial for Waffle House to
become more involved at university level and let their presence be known on college campuses.
This will ultimately publicize the fact the Waffle House has quality jobs to offer for top level
graduating seniors.
Strategy 2: Focus on the internship program
Waffle House could focus on internship program recruitment strategies. The internship
program currently in place at Waffle House gives students the opportunity to work in a hands-on,
productive learning environment. This offers Waffle House the opportunity to exploit these
aspects of the internship program during the recruitment process. The program also allows
interns to work with Human Resource managers, senior-level management, and corporate
employees. This shows interns the various jobs and career options available if they accept a full-
time managerial position upon graduation from college. There are numerous positive aspects
associated with this strategy. First, students that were selected to be Waffle House interns would
have the ability to get to know the company on a highly personal level, which could be converted
into an early sense of company pride, inspiring them to pursue a full-time career at Waffle
House. Additionally, word of mouth about the Waffle House internship program would continue
to raise awareness around university campuses due to the fact that students tend to discuss
outside professional experiences. This also has the potential to spark interest in other students on
college campuses. Fully utilizing every aspect of the internship program in its promotion would
also allow Waffle House to develop strong impressions of potential hires by getting a first-hand
view of the individual’s work ethic, attitude, and other characteristics influencing Waffle
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10. House’s decision to offer interns full time employment post-graduation. In analyzing data from a
survey distributed to Clemson students, it became abundantly clear that students are looking for
internships prior to graduation (See example A in the Appendix). An overwhelming 78.2% of
students surveyed said that they have previously held or plan to hold an internship before
graduation from college. These results reinforce the importance of promoting the strong
internship program offered by Waffle House. One drawback with focusing on the internship
program, however, is that too much focus on the internship program might take away from
Waffle House’s full-time employee recruitment process. It can also be an expensive form of
training that does not result in a guaranteed full-time employee upon the conclusion of the
internship.
Strategy 3: Target specific individuals
The third strategy would be to target specific individuals. This could be done through
professor recommendations and resume searches conducted with the help of the college career
centers and their online websites. This would allow recruiters to specifically seek out students
with characteristics that they felt stood out and would add to the Waffle House work
environment. It would also place value in those individuals and prospects would be more
receptive to offers made for employment because of the flattery associated with being
specifically sought out. There are some drawbacks to this strategy though. First, there would be
expenses involved, whether that is paying the recruiter for the extra time spent talking with
professors and career centers, or paying for meals during meetings between recruiters and
students. Second, while targeting specific top students, you would only be pursuing a very small
percentage of your target market and you might miss out on the opportunity to meet a variety of
individuals. Another thing to think about is that recruiting specific prospects could offend the
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11. students that Waffle House did not specifically target, which could create bad word of mouth
among other things.
Strategy 4: Target specific universities
One tactic to consider would be to target specific universities. Waffle House would seek out
and develop relationships with particular schools. This would allow Waffle House to develop a
strong base from which to recruit students for employment. There are several positives
associated with this strategy. In targeting specific universities, it would enable Waffle House to
develop a visible presence at universities. This, in turn, would create a higher level of awareness
among students attending each particular school. This strategy would also allow Waffle House to
determine the environment from which they would like to recruit. However there are also several
drawbacks to consider. The primary downside is that this strategy might take a lot of time to
implement. It will take time and effort to develop and foster the networking relationships
between Waffle House and the chosen universities. It is also possible that targeting specific
universities could limit the scope of Waffle House’s search. It is easy to want to target large
universities without giving smaller colleges much consideration, but if they only sought out large
universities, Waffle House could miss out on a lot of qualified potential employees.
Strategy 5: Website Development
The fifth and final strategy suggested focuses on further development of the Waffle House
website. Along with careful proofreading and editing of the current web content, this
development would involve the addition of a number of videos focusing on different aspects of
multiple Waffle House careers as well as the revamping of the manger-specific career webpage.
The careers webpage could offer “a day in the life” video series featuring different career
positions walking the viewer through what an average employee in their role does on a day-to-
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12. day basis. This would not only include the tasks they are required to perform, but also the
interactions they have and first-hand examples of issues they deal with in their job. In order to
make these videos, specifically the managerial one, more relevant to the target market of top
level students about to graduate they would feature younger aged management employees just
out of school. Not only would this be an effective way to begin to build a rapport with potential
employees, but it would also paint a more believable and understandable picture of the job
requirements to potential recruits. An additional video to the series would spotlight a recently
promoted employee who could give a testimonial on the process he or she went through in order
to earn the promotion. This would give potential hires as well as current employees a concrete
example of a benchmark, which they could strive to reach or to which they could compare their
performance. This video would also offer insight into how the ambition that Waffle House
promotes in its employees can pay off. Another aspect of the strategy would be to revamp the
current managerial webpage in order to highlight the increased responsibility and trust that is
placed in Waffle House mangers beyond that of hourly employees. Not only would this indicate
to potential hires that they would be held to a higher standard but it would also play on students’
desires to know that they would be performing a vital role in the company should they pursue a
managerial career at Waffle House.
This strategy does, however, come with a number advantages and disadvantages. Benefits
of this strategy would include offering more in-depth coverage of job requirements to potential
employees as well as providing a more personal level of interaction to employee prospects
researching the company. The videos would offer an intimate look into what these researchers
would be trying to find and would also ensure there were no surprises when they came to apply.
Another benefit resulting from the revamping of the managerial career webpage would be the
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13. more appealing look and feel of the website to those researching the opportunities offered by
Waffle House and painting a more professional picture of the overall company image. On the
other hand, the negatives associated with the strategy of web development would revolve around
the extra time and costs associated with the improvements to be made. Creating the “day in the
life” video series, as well as the recent promotion video, would require an extensive amount of
time and money to go into casting the videos with the right personalities from within the
company. Heavy time involvement and costs could also be incurred when reconstructing the
website.
Recommendations
After considering Waffle House’s current position and the strategies that have been
proposed, it is recommended that the most effective method for Waffle House to attract top
students to their career fair booths would be to combine strategies one, two, and five. This would
include getting involved and increasing awareness at the university level, focusing on the
promotion of the internship program, and developing additions and improvements to Waffle
House’s web presence. Both primary and secondary research has shown many factors that
support this strategy. This research not only backs up the promotion of the internship program by
showing that a vast majority of students see value in internships, but it also showed that salary,
location, work relationships, and/or opportunities for advancement were among many students
top considerations when looking for jobs (See example B in the Appendix). These considerations
could easily be addressed in each strategic aspect of the final recommendation. Research also
showed that students look to company websites more than any other resource when researching
job opportunities. Also among the resources that were considered before job fairs was
networking as well as internship assignments, both of which are addressed in these
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14. recommendations (See example C in the Appendix). Through each aspect of the recommended
strategies, Waffle House would be able to attract students through their own consideration
preferences, offering useful information and resources before they meet face to face and
diminishing the need for impacting first impressions at career fairs.
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15. Appendix
A: Primary Reasearch
Have you previously
held, or do you plan to
hold an internship prior to
college graduation?
Held an
Internship
Have not
held an
Internship
Considerations for Employment Opportunities
(Percentage of students that listed each attribute in their top 3 considerations)
Salary 61.8%
Location 49.1%
Work Relationships 49%
Opportunities for Advancement 47.2%
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16. B: Secondary Research
*Information provided by NACE Survey “Moving On…Job Market for the College Class of
2007”
http://img.icbdr.com/images/jp/content/training/pdfs/Careerbuilder-CollegeRecruitment.pdf
How Are Most Jobs Found? (Select all that apply)
Visiting company web sites (81%)
Checking job postings on a company web site (67%)
Checking job postings on the college career center website (55%)
Job openings on commercial job-search web sites (54%)
Networking (52%)
Co-op or internship assignments (36%)
Career/job fairs (35%)
Speaking with company representatives (35%)
Viewing employer information presentations (29%)
On-campus interviewing (28%)
Reading employer recruitment brochures (26%)
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17. C: Presentation Slides
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18. 18

19. 19

20. 20

21. 21

22. 22

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