How does the consumer choose a restaurant? An overview of the determinants of consumer satisfaction

The failure rate of restaurants is high in many countries, primarily because of the complex relationships between services and customers. Therefore, improving restaurant customer experience is a significant challenge for entrepreneurs. This multi-dimensional experience encompasses several aspects that may or may not be related to food consumption. Many restaurant owners can avoid bankruptcy if they understand theories of service quality and the factors involved. The objective of this research is to identify and summarize known important factors that lead consumers to choose, patronize or be satisfied with a restaurant. The research question for this review is: What are the important factors that influence consumers (population) to choose, patronize, or be satisfied with a restaurant  (outcome)? Therefore, we conducted an integrative review to address this question. We included 111 studies and identified 117 factors/indicators related to consumer satisfaction and restaurant choices. First, we grouped these factors into four categories based on the Big Four restaurant attributes: atmosphere, food, service, and price & value. Four categories emerged based on consumer- and business-related aspects: behavioral intentions, values and beliefs, experiences, and companies. The "food" category is the most important factor in consumer choice and experience. However, the importance of this category may vary depending on the situation (e.g., lunch, dinner, weekends, weekdays) and should be carefully considered, as all categories were relevant but intricate. Such factors are associated with many positive outcomes, such as satisfaction, loyalty, brand love, patronization, and intent to visit and revisit.

Do Brazilian consumers intend to use food labels to make healthy food choices? An assessment before the front-of-package labelling policy

Front-of-package labelling is a measure that can facilitate consumption of healthier foods. This study examined the predictors of consumers' intentions to use food labelling to make healthy food choices and prevent non-communicable diseases before the implementation of the front-of-package labelling policy in Brazil. An extended theory of planned behaviour incorporating knowledge and food literacy served as the theoretical foundation. First, experts (n = 6) and the target population (n = 30) validated the questionnaire, and the validation data were analysed using content validity coefficients (CVC). An online questionnaire was administered to 783 participants, and data were collected between May and October 2022. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the prediction hypothesis. The questionnaire showed adequate content validity, with all indicators of CVC ≥ 0.75. In the PLS-SEM attitudes (p < 0.001), subjective norms (p < 0.001), knowledge (p < 0.001), and food literacy (p < 0.001) positively predicted the intention to use food labels to make healthy food choices, confirming the main hypothesis. Also, Food literacy and knowledge predicted all constructs of the theory of planned behaviour (p < 0.001). The results highlight the importance of providing nutritional knowledge and food literacy, developing nutritional skills and abilities to encourage consumers to make healthy food choices, and to strengthen other policies such as front-of-package labelling.

Dimensions of food-related wellbeing and their relative importance among New Zealand consumers: A quasi-replication and extension approach

Research into perceived wellbeing (WB) can improve understanding of consumer food choices and support development of strategies to promote healthier and more sustainable eating habits. In this research, using online studies, food-related WB was explored among New Zealand consumers. In a "quasi-replication" of Jaeger, Prescott, and Worch (2022), Study 1 uncovered word associations to different WB-related terms ('Sense of wellbeing,' 'Lack of wellbeing,' 'Feeling good,' 'Feeling bad/unhappy,' 'Satisfied with life,' and 'Dissatisfied with life') with 912 participants in a between-subjects design. The results confirmed the multidimensional nature of WB, and the need to consider positive and negative aspects of food-related WB, as well as differences linked to physical, emotional, and spiritual WB. Drawing on Study 1, 13 characteristics of food-related WB were identified, and in Study 2 their importance for feeling a 'Sense of wellbeing' and 'Satisfied with life' was determined with 1206 participants using a between-subjects design. In a further extension, Study 2 also adopted a product-specific perspective and explored the associations of, and importance, for 16 different foods and beverages to food-related WB. Based on Best-Worst Scaling and penalty/lift analysis, the four most important characteristics overall were 'Is good quality,' 'Is healthy,' 'Is fresh,' and 'Is tasty,' with the nuance that healthiness contributed most to feeling a 'Sense of wellbeing' while good quality contributed most to feeling 'Satisfied with life.' The associations to individual foods and beverages underscored that food-related WB is a complex construct arising from an overall evaluation of the different effects of foods (including physical health, social and spiritual aspects of food consumption) and their short-term effects on food-related behaviour. Contextual and individual differences in perceptions of WB in relation to food deserve further investigation.

An exploration of what freshness in fruit means to consumers

Perceived freshness is a key determinant of consumers' food choices but remains an imprecisely defined concept. A comprehensive and consumer-centric definition of freshness appears to be lacking, and the present research was situated in this knowledge gap, seeking, in particular, to explore the complexity of freshness in consumers' minds. People from the USA (n = 2092) took part in an online survey and completed a text highlighting task. Herein, participants read a text that described different aspects of freshness and the technologies used to prolong freshness during storage. While reading, they used highlighting functions within the software to indicate text content that they liked/disliked or agreed/disagreed with. The combined results from text highlighting and responses to the open-ended question "Considering the fruit you eat, why is freshness important to you?" confirmed that freshness is a complex construct with multiple dimensions and suggested that the complexity of freshness extends from food in general to specific product categories (in the case of fruit and apples). Further, the findings showed that freshness is desired by consumers because fruit are perceived as healthier and better tasting. The findings revealed negative attitudes towards stored fruit among participants, but also indicated some acceptance of the fact that some storage was unavoidable. Results provide useful insights to the development for communication strategies to increase consumer acceptance of stored apples and fruits in general.

Consumer conceptualisations of food-related wellbeing: An exploration of wellbeing-related terms in four industrialised countries

Perceived (or subjective) wellbeing is regarded as key to understanding consumer food choices and the development of strategies to promote desirable eating habits. Yet, in-depth understanding of the specific factors that contribute to people's perceived wellbeing across cultures is lacking. These factors motivated the present research that used word associations to conduct an exploratory analysis of consumer conceptualisations of food-related wellbeing (WB). Adults (n = 4945) living in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore or Germany, speaking respectively, English or German, took part in the study. Health, pleasure, food quality, positive emotions and social aspects of food consumption were the main associations with food-related wellbeing. Absence hereof was associated with unhealthiness, disgust, negative emotions and poor mental health. The differences in these main associations emphasised the importance of exploring wellbeing, as well as lack hereof. Not doing so leads to an incomplete understanding of this multidimensional construct. The research was conducted with four terms related to wellbeing (each in their positive and negative versions): 'sense of wellbeing' and 'lack of wellbeing', 'feeling good' and 'feeling bad/unhappy', 'satisfied with life' and 'dissatisfied with life' and 'fulfilled in life' and 'unfulfilled in life'. Because these different terms gave rise to different wellbeing associations, researchers in this area must choose their empirical approach with care. The terms 'sense of wellbeing' and 'feeling good' tended to more frequently give rise to health-related associations. Conversely, 'satisfied with life' and 'fulfilled in life' tended to more frequently give rise to positive spiritual and emotional associations of food-related wellbeing. The main conceptualisations of food-related wellbeing were cross-culturally similar, but extension of the present research to other Asian countries was recommended based on several differences between Singaporean participants and those from other countries. In ethnically diverse countries like Singapore, further within-country investigations of different cultures also have merit.

Effect of front-of-package labels on consumer product evaluation and preferences

Front-of-Package (FOP) labels highlight important nutrients and help consumers make informed decisions about food purchases. In this study, we investigated consumer comprehension, opinion, and preference associated with two different formats of FOP labels and compared consumer shopping behavior and general trends related to nutrition labeling. Consumer eye-tracking was used for measuring perceived understanding of nutritional information objectively. Results revealed that a color-coded FOP label would garner more attention than a black and white FOP label. Subjects found color-coded FOP labels more straightforward than black and white labels. Participants used the information provided on the FOP for shopping goals. Still, FOPs did not affect objective consumer attention to labels, and labeling schemes did not significantly affect participants' decisions. Participating subjects did use FOP labels instead of the nutrition facts panels. Still, FOP groups scored lower on a nutrition literacy quiz, indicating that their perceived and actual understanding of nutritional information differed. Our findings suggest that subjects pay attention to FOP labels but do not make decisions.

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Front-of-Package (FOP) labels show important nutrients and help understand nutrition facts.

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This study investigated FOP labels using eye-tracking to measure visual attention in consumers.

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More educational campaigns are needed to assist in the comprehension of the FOP labels by consumers.

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The study shows that the shopping goals affected visual attention to the nutritional facts on the FOP.

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Our findings suggest that consumers do not use FOPs much in making purchase decisions.

Barriers to consumption of plant-based beverages: A comparison of product users and non-users on emotional, conceptual, situational, conative and psychographic variables

Production and consumption practices that reduce the environmental burden of eating and drinking and promote global sustainability are of paramount interest. Against this background, we present a quantitative study of US adults' perceptions of selected non-alcoholic beverages including pairs of regular and plant-based alternatives (iced coffee/iced coffee with almond milk, fruit smoothie/fruit smoothie with soy milk and cow's milk/oat milk). Particular focus was directed to comparing product perceptions of consumers who never consumed these plant-based alternatives with those who did (n = 249 and n = 274), as a means for contextualising the barriers that hinder uptake among non-users. The data were collected via an online survey with a multi-response empirical strategy where the beverages were characterised using a large set of emotional, conceptual, situational, and attitudinal/behavioural variables. Fitting expectations, negative associations were dominant in the group of consumers who never consumed the plant-based beverage variants. However, these associations were product dependent and decreased in the order: oat milk, fruit smoothie with soy milk and iced coffee with almond milk. This pointed to a likely interplay of sensory properties, situational appropriateness and household routines. Food neophobia negatively influenced perceptions of less familiar products, including but not limited to plant-based beverages. While the research was limited to a small number of beverages and plant-based alternatives, it identified the important role that in-depth and product-specific investigations have in helping to uncover and overcome barriers to sustainable eating and drinking solutions.

How buyer-focused projective techniques can help to gain insights into consumer perceptions about different types of eggs

This study aimed to analyze the consumer perception (n = 840) about different types of eggs using Product Personality Profiling and Shopping List tasks. White egg, brown egg, organic egg, free-range egg, and eggs enriched with omega 3 and vitamins were evaluated. The consumers associated the white egg with unhealthy, sedentary, and overweight individuals in the Product Personality Profiling task and people that are not concerned with health in the Shopping List task. The brown egg was associated with a person who does physical activity and has a healthy diet in the Product Personality Profiling task. The omega 3 egg was associated with a person concerned with health in the Shopping List task, which does physical exercises and follows a healthy diet in the Product Personality Profiling task. The vitamin-enriched egg was associated with people with health disorders in the Shopping List task and following a vegetarian/vegan diet in the Product Personality Profiling task. The free-range egg was associated with a man with a rugged personality, a healthy diet, and animal welfare concern. Finally, the organic egg was associated with a person concerned with animal welfare and a vegetarian/vegan diet. Shopping list and Product Personality Profiling projective techniques proved to be useful tools for understanding consumer perceptions and beliefs about eggs, providing similar or complementary results. The Shopping List was more appropriate in eliciting egg buyers' profile, while the Product Personality Profile shows the "target buyer".

Animal welfare information affects consumers' hedonic and emotional responses towards milk

This research aimed to explore the effects of animal welfare information on consumers' hedonic and emotional responses towards milk. Two studies were conducted. For Study 1, participants (N = 101) were asked to fill out a questionnaire on attitudes towards animal welfare, in which a variety of factors including raising methods, quality of life, emotions, quality of the product, nutrition, price, and environment, were tested. For Study 2, participants (N = 63) tasted a milk sample (2% fat, standardized and homogenized) in two different conditions: [1] blind (without any previous information), and [2] informed (with information stating that the milk was obtained from a farm with an animal welfare system in place). For Study 1, participants with higher milk consumption per week showed a higher agreement with positive animal welfare statements. For Study 2, the overall liking for the milk in the informed condition was significantly higher than that of the milk in the blind condition (7.4 vs. 6.8, using a 9-point hedonic scale). Participants had higher penalizations for the milk in the blind condition as they suggested that the milk's flavor, sweetness, aroma, and mouthfeel were not enough in the product. This research showed that animal welfare can be an important extrinsic factor in the consumers' hedonic and emotional responses towards milk. These findings can be useful for understanding consumers' behaviors towards animal welfare.

Minimal effect of evoked contexts in product testing with consumers: Case studies using typical consumption situations

Consumer studies conducted under central location test (CLT) conditions continue to be dominant in product research and context evocation have been suggested as an avenue to partly mitigate the lack of real consumption settings. In this research the influence of evoked context on product acceptability was investigated in eight diverse consumer studies (138-268 participants per study) through the use of between-subjects designs that allowed the comparison of hedonic scores obtained with and without evoked context. In a departure from previous research, consumers mentally evoked their typical consumption contexts for the focal product categories and content analysis of descriptions of these situations showed them to often be idiosyncratic. Results were partly product- and situation-specific, and in this regard replicated past research. The evoked context only significantly modified hedonic scores in two of the eight studies, whereas it increased sample discrimination in three studies. Thus, accumulating evidence now supports the conclusion that evoked context is less rather than more likely to impact hedonic responses. Nonetheless, a benefit of context evocation is to give products a more complete meaning, and this may motivate their continued use in CLT settings. For researchers who wish to continue their use, key considerations in implementation are discussed, including relevance in home-use testing (HUT). By asking consumers to describe a typical eating occasion for the tested products, useful understanding of product use and pairings is gained. Such data can be easily elicited from consumers and obtained independently of context evocation.

Multi-response approaches in product-focused investigations: Methodological variations across three case studies

Consumers' product experiences are increasingly uncovered using approaches that extend beyond acceptability and sensory perception. The present research is situated in this context and adopts a multi-response approach to jointly obtain attitudinal, conceptual, emotional, situational and/or sensorial evaluations. With the aim of greater methodological understanding, three case studies were conducted with samples in three product categories (fruit- and vegetable-based beverages (n = 10), seafood (n = 6) and chocolate (n = 7)) using consumers from New Zealand (n = 196), India (living in New Zealand) (n = 138) and China (n = 167), conducted in central location (CLT) or home-use test (HUT) settings. Showcasing this multi-response approach and demonstrating its versatility in product research is the main contribution of the research. Across the three case studies different combinations of response types and scaling formats were successfully used (including CATA (check-all-that-apply) questions, yes/no questions and rating scales), and it was also found that tasted foods and written stimuli (food names) served equally well as stimuli. The degree of liking or disliking for individual samples was a useful benchmark against which to interpret the other types of responses, and situational appropriateness, obtained as item-by-use (IBU) responses always contributed unique insights. Facial emoji to obtain product-emotion associations yielded less valuable insights than a conceptualisation task. As expected, and in accordance with the rationale for adopting a multi-response approach, the combination of response types yielded greater stimuli insights than would otherwise have been gained. This held for each of the three case studies and supported future applications using a multi-response approach that extends beyond many related initiatives by including four response types in each case study.

Influence of nutritional warnings and other label features on consumers' choice: Results from an eye-tracking study

Nutritional warnings highlighting products with high content of nutrients associated with non-communicable diseases have emerged as a potentially efficient alternative to discourage consumption of unhealthful products. However, the relative influence of this front-of-pack nutrition information scheme compared to other label features is still under researched. In this context, the aim of the present work was to study the influence of nutritional warnings and other information commonly displayed on food labels to convey health associations on consumers' choice and visual attention. A choice-conjoint study using labels of cookies and crackers was implemented considering the following three variables: front-of-pack nutrition information (nutritional warnings vs. facts up front panel), nutrient claim (present vs. absent) and type of product (conveying health vs. hedonic associations). A total of 124 people completed the task using the monitor of an eye-tracker. Participants were asked to select the label they would prefer to buy if they were in a supermarket. Nutritional warnings were efficient in attracting consumers' attention and required less time and fewer fixations to process than the facts up front panel. In addition, their inclusion on the labels significantly discouraged consumers' choice of labels. However, type of product was the most important variable influencing the choice of both cookies and crackers. Results from the present work confirm the potential of nutritional warnings as directive front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme and stress that they cannot be expected to cause radical changes in consumers' eating habits due to their competition with other product features. Instead, they are expected to encourage consumers to select the most healthful option within a product category.

Substituting sugar confectionery with fruit and healthy snacks at checkout - a win-win strategy for consumers and food stores? a study on consumer attitudes and sales effects of a healthy supermarket intervention

Background

The widespread use of in-store marketing strategies to induce unhealthy impulsive purchases has implications for shopping experience, food choice and possibly adverse health outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine consumer attitudes and evaluate sales effects of a healthy checkout supermarket intervention. The study was part of Project Sundhed & Lokalsamfund (Project SoL); a Danish participatory community-based health promotion intervention.

Methods

Consumer attitudes towards unhealthy snack exposure in supermarkets were examined in a qualitative pre-intervention study (29 short in-store interviews, 11 semi-structured interviews and three focus group interviews). Findings were presented to food retailers and informed the decision to test a healthy checkout intervention. Sugar confectionery at one checkout counter was substituted with fruit and healthy snacking items in four stores for 4 weeks. The intervention was evaluated by 48 short exit interviews on consumer perceptions of the intervention and by linear mixed model analyses of supermarket sales data from the intervention area and a matched control area.

Results

The qualitative pre-intervention study identified consumer concern and annoyance with placement and promotion of unhealthy snacks in local stores. Store managers were willing to respond to local consumer concern and a healthy checkout intervention was therefore implemented. Exit interviews found positive attitudes towards the intervention, while intervention awareness was modest. Most participants believed that the intervention could help other consumers make healthier choices, while fewer expected to be influenced by the intervention themselves. Statistical analyses suggested an intervention effect on sales of carrot snack packs when compared with sales before the intervention in Bornholm control stores (P < 0.05). No significant intervention effect on sales of other intervention items or sugar confectionery was found.

Conclusions

The present study finds that the healthy checkout intervention was positively evaluated by consumers and provided a ‘responsible’ branding opportunity for supermarkets, thus representing a win-win strategy for store managers and consumers in the short term. However, the intervention was too modest to draw conclusions on long-term sales and health implications of this initiative. More research is needed to assess whether retailer-researcher collaborations on health promotion can be a winning strategy for public health.

Consumers' conceptualization of ultra-processed foods

Consumption of ultra-processed foods has been associated with low diet quality, obesity and other non-communicable diseases. This situation makes it necessary to develop educational campaigns to discourage consumers from substituting meals based on unprocessed or minimally processed foods by ultra-processed foods. In this context, the aim of the present work was to investigate how consumers conceptualize the term ultra-processed foods and to evaluate if the foods they perceive as ultra-processed are in concordance with the products included in the NOVA classification system. An online study was carried out with 2381 participants. They were asked to explain what they understood by ultra-processed foods and to list foods that can be considered ultra-processed. Responses were analysed using inductive coding. The great majority of the participants was able to provide an explanation of what ultra-processed foods are, which was similar to the definition described in the literature. Most of the participants described ultra-processed foods as highly processed products that usually contain additives and other artificial ingredients, stressing that they have low nutritional quality and are unhealthful. The most relevant products for consumers' conceptualization of the term were in agreement with the NOVA classification system and included processed meats, soft drinks, snacks, burgers, powdered and packaged soups and noodles. However, some of the participants perceived processed foods, culinary ingredients and even some minimally processed foods as ultra-processed. This suggests that in order to accurately convey their message, educational campaigns aimed at discouraging consumers from consuming ultra-processed foods should include a clear definition of the term and describe some of their specific characteristics, such as the type of ingredients included in their formulation and their nutritional composition.