Arcadia Cafe Case Study Answers

Arcadia Cafe is a restaurant, coffee shop, and bar located on Welch Avenue in Ames’ campustown area. The business is co owned by Liz Jeffrey and her husband and has been in Ames since 2011, but has been located on Welch for one year. One of Arcadia’s main goals is to “do what we do well” according to Jeffrey. Another goal Jeffrey talked about for Arcadia is to bring all people of Ames to eat there, both Iowa State students and Ames community members. Jeffrey and her husband went to school at the University of Iowa downtown Iowa City was integrated within the University campus. “Ames is not like that,” Jeffrey said. “Ames is very segregated.” Because of this, Jeffrey and her husband aim to “change the culture” in Ames. Jeffrey said that
Freshman at Iowa State receive a packet with advertisements for local businesses and Arcadia is included in this packet. According to Jeffrey, they try to get their customers to start coming earlier in their Ames life because local residents do not go to campus town very often during the school year. Jeffrey said they try to use social media, mostly Facebook, to update customers about everything regarding Arcadia. They have an active facebook page that posts multiple times and week and sometimes twice per day. They also have good communication with customers on Facebook as they reply via comments to questions customers post. Arcadia has an Instagram too where they post some, but not as often as on Facebook. There are also less people following Arcadia on Instagram than Facebook by over 1,000
Arcadia already has an appealing atmosphere because of their relocation and recent remodeling. This is something they can’t let go to the wayside if they want to improve their draw to young people. There is research that proves that students, and people in general, work better in a cafe environment. New Scientist echos previous research about how the ambient noise in cafes help people focus and get work done, but they also talk about how being surrounded gives a sort of audience effect. “It’s also well established that we perform better when we have someone to compete with,” so when humans are surrounding by others working, that, in turn, makes them work harder. Jeffrey really wants Arcadia to be a place where everyone in Ames feels welcome. She said she wants a cafe “where I can have frat guys hanging out at the bar drinking cocktails and I can have grandma and grandpa over there sharing a sandwich.” In order to appeal to a younger crowd and draw in more Iowa State students, while also trying to make Arcadia a place for local Ames residents, Arcadia needs to continue to to use Facebook and use Instagram and Twitter more. They also need to make sure the aesthetic stays as pleasing as it is now because that is a big reason why students study in