A Consumer Buying Behavior In The Restaurant Industry

LITERATURE REVIEW

By Rafael A. Soten

“Buying Behavior” illustrates widely and mostly used in business activities wherein all several
companion in buying and selling process have been innovatory emerged on this topic from
historically fundamental value until the present time. In this topic most of the researchers
determined the factors, causes and effects of the various behavioral aspects that a consumer
needs to consider the most. These documents ameliorate the aspects of individual and
organizational buying behavior.

Keyword: Activities,Buying,Effects,Aspects,Roles.

Introduction

The influence of the environment on behavior has long been acknowledged by retailers,
architects and interior designers (Baker and al., 1992; Tai and Feng, 1997; Gilboa and Rafaeli,
2003). According to Mehrabian and Russel (1974), and Russel (1980), that the environmental
stimuli specifically in the restaurant industry have a direct effect on the approach and
avoidance behaviors of participants in that environment marked by three dimensions: Pleasure,
Arousal, and Dominance. The majority of researches try to dismantle the influence on a unique
atmospheric key. They are the result of world events, social and economic changes, as well as
technological integration in their everyday lives. Hence the culture and shared life experiences
have led them to the development of similar attitudes and beliefs, knowing what motivates
them and what their expectations and behaviors are, have increased the research interest in
this area, which by the way is in constant development.

One of the more engrossing concepts in the study of consumer behavior is that of personality.
Purchasing behavior, media choice, innovation, segmentation, fear, social influence, product
choice, opinion leadership, risk taking, attitude change, and almost anything else one can think
of have been linked to personality. The purpose of this article is to review the literature of
consumer behavior and organize its contributions around the theoretical stems from which it
grows.
 1. Brand Equity
Brand is the personality that identifies a
product, service or company (name, term,
sign, symbol, or design, or combination of
them) and how it relates to key
constituencies: customers, staff, partners,
investors etc. Some people distinguish the
psychological aspect, brand associations like
thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images,
experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and so on
that become linked to the brand, of a brand
from the experiential aspect.The term
„brand equity‟ refers to a set of assets and
liabilities associated with a brand, including
its name and symbol, which could impose
beneficial or detrimental effects on the
values arising from the products or services
(Aaker, 1991; Yasin et al., 2007). This bring
to bear the argument that, since brand
equity draws on the imperfect and
asymmetrical nature of markets (Erdem and
Swait 1998), economic agents are required
to transmit information about their specific
characteristics by means of signals
(Christodoulides and Chernatony, 2009).
Added to this, Keller (1998) points out that
brand equity signifies the unique marketing
effects imposed on the brand. Concerning
the positive side of brand equity, it happens
when consumers are willing to pay more for
the same level of quality just because of the
attractiveness of the name attached to the
product (Bello and Holbrook, 1995).
However, brand equity could be ruined if it
is not properly managed. For instance, poor
product quality and customer services could
adversely affect the brand image, giving rise
to a reduction in sales volume. Herein it will
diversely affect the purchasing behavior of
the consumer.
2. Marketing Mix
Researchers propose different frameworks
of retail marketing mix. For example, Dunne
et al. (2010) suggest that key marketing
elements in retailing include merchandise,
price, advertising and promotion, customer
services, store layout and design and people
while Kotler and Keller (2009) argue for an
integrative approach, indicating that store
retailers’ marketing decisions involve target
market, product assortment, services
provided by personnel. In the essence of
restaurant concepts it’s really in need of
concrete and substantial justification of
each marketing consideration that will
affect its determinants in purchasing or
availing restaurant products that will satisfy
consumer needs and wants.
3. Employee performance
Employee role performance for the purpose
of the study refers to behaviors of frontline
employees towards the organization,
individual and group that can be broadly
categorized as – prosocial role performance
& non-role performance (Bettencourt and
Brown 1997). This is one of the several
factors that affects the deficiency of the
consumer buying behavior or the
purchasing power to add up the sales of the
organizations.
3.1 Frontline employee role
performance towards the
customers
Prosocial role performance can be
perceived as to helpful behaviors of
employees directed toward the
organization or toward other individuals
(Bettencourt and Brown 1997). Frontline
employee role performance may be
directed towards either co-workers or
customers (Brief and Motowidlo 1986;
George and Bettenhausen 1990). Co-worker
directed prosocial behaviors are
organizational citizenship behaviors
directed toward co-workers and performed
by employees. Customer-directed prosocial
behaviors or the prosocial role
performances are directed towards and
perceived by the customer. These behaviors
are of particular interest in this study as
they enable to understand the impact of
frontline employee role performance
towards the customers on the service
effectiveness i.e. the gap between the
customer expectations & customer
perception of service quality. For the
purpose of the study the customer –
directed prosocial behaviors will be called
as “frontline employee role performance
towards the customers”.
4. Product Preferences
The study found that drawing attention to
product packaging for products with
ambiguous metaphors is effective at
increasing consumer appreciation for
individuals with low metaphor processing
abilities while a visual packaging prompt
increases brand excitement. The authors
conclude that metaphors should leave room
for elaboration and metaphor resolution by
leaving room for consumer evaluation,
drawing attention to the package, and using
explanatory information.
In the current competitive market, the most
crucial thing is understanding consumer
buying behavior. According to Aday & Yener
(2014), one of the major factors that affect
consumer-buying behavior besides quality
and income are packaging. Product
acceptability in the market is also
dependent on the information shared on
the packages. Important packaging
elements include visual attributes such as
color, logo, images, shape and design and
their sole purpose is to influence consumer
decision making. Informative elements
include user instructions, labels,
segmentation and cultural context. A study
by Aday & Yener (2014) also pointed that
expensive products should have dark
packages that contain expanded roman
bold writing whereas low priced and
reasonably priced goods should have light-
colored packaging. Additionally, companies
use curves, horizontal lines and curves to
illustrate products that are used by middle-
class people since they are not selective. At
any given time, color, graphics, and shape
of packaging affect the decision-making
process of consumers before they purchase
products. In order to increase the retail
market, packaging materials, color, logo,
instructions and print fonts should be taken
into consideration (White et al., 2016;
Wilkins et al., 2016). In a study on consumer
buying habits, the respondents said that
labels that attract them are those that
contain information such fat content,
vitamins, minerals and calories.
5. Culture
Spielberg (2005) posits that education
influences people’s experiences and shapes
their values, beliefs, attitudes, interests,
activities and lifestyle. The preceding points
show that as people’s level of education
increases so do their experiences of food
and beverage and level of restaurant
service (Turgeon & Pastinelli, 2002). Kivela
et al. (1999) assert that high income groups
are more inclined to dine out because of
quality, comfort, prestige and personalized
service perceived in full-service restaurants.
High income groups have more disposable
income and, presumably, some of the
greater disposable income is spent on
pleasure seeking activities such as fine
dining restaurants (Liu & Jang, 2009).
For the purpose of this study, these
attributes will be discussed under food,
service and ambience since they all
contribute to overall
satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the
restaurant experience (Sulek & Hensley,
2004). Lee (2011) studied the influence of
demographic variables on restaurant
experiences. He argues that experiences of
customers are influenced by their age
groups and income levels. He found
ambience factor as an important
determining choice variable for 25-34 year
olds.
CONCLUSION
The time has gone when customers were
only visiting nearby restaurants to their
residence. The purpose of this study was to
test the association between customer’s
demographics and their role in selection of
restaurants. Research findings indicate that
demographic variables were positively
related with selection of restaurants.
Customers prefer service quality a major
determinant in selecting restaurant over
food and atmospheric quality. The study
concludes that these demographic factors
have their influence in selection of
restaurants therefore; hoteliers should
understand not only the demographic
variables of consumers but also should
design strategies to understand the factors
influencing their buying behavior. The
results clearly show that among all quality
factors, customers choice of selecting
restaurant is determined by service quality.
This study also reveals that there is a
significant relationship between the
customer’s purpose of visiting restaurant
and their selection of restaurant. Most of
the respondents agreed that family get
together and occasion celebrations are
major determinants in restaurant’s
selection. From the research findings it is
clear that restaurant’s owners should
recognize the demographics differences in
determining the restaurant’s selection
while designing their policies in regards of
food atmosphere and service quality.
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