Consumers Behavior in Restaurant Industry

The interest in the study regarding the factors that influence restaurant-choice has been developed in recent decades. In 1962, Becknell and Maher identified the main criteria to select a food retailer, which include food quality, cleanliness, pricing, service, and unique features. Miller and Ginter (1979) also mentioned fast-food criteria that influence choice, such speed of service, variety of menu, popularity with children, cleanliness, convenience, taste of food, and price. However, these two studies do not assist marketers in understanding the factors on how consumers choose a restaurant. Restaurants-choice research was started to support the study of Lewis (1981) regarding restaurant advertising. In addition, Lewis (1981) concluded that the aspect of food is the most important factor for restaurant choice, which was also confirmed by Auty (1992) and Kevila (1997). Yet, Lewis (1981) still mentioned that when consumers made the restaurant choice, they seemed to process “the bundle” of factors or “total-benefit” factors instead considering the single criteria(Alpert, 1971, Lewis, 1981).

The role of dinner’s occasions was revealed by June and Smith (1987), where the ranking of restaurant’s feature are not stable, but varied depending on occasions. In this study, five features were given consideration, including the price, service, atmosphere, liquor license, and quality of food in four occasions, namely family occasions, intimate occasions, celebrations, and business lunches. Liquor license was the most important factor for intimate occasions, and celebration dinner, but for business lunches and family dinners, liquor license ranked third. In support of this study is the study done by Auty (1992), Sweeney (1992), and Koo (1999), which supported the role of occasions in choosing a restaurant. Auty (1992) stated the restaurant choice model, and identified the important attributes influencing restaurant choices in the United Kingdom. The study emphasized