Choosing A Good Food And Beverage Outlet Marketing Essay

Choosing A Good Food And Beverage Outlet Marketing Essay 1. Introduction Imagine yourself are feeling hungry and feel confused where to eat? Which food and beverage outlet would you prefer to dine in? You might be confused as there are many restaurants in PJ area, these are the question that sometimes comes from our mind. Either to try dines at a restaurant you have not visit before or come back and dine to the restaurant you have tried. The previous study shows that a demand of ethnic food is has increase in worldwide, due to the influence of ethnic diversity, difference of overseas food and cultural experiences on different foods (Josiam Monteiro, 2004). As there are many type of restaurant in Malaysia, therefore in this study I will be focusing on ethnic based restaurants, and focus on Petaling Jaya area. It is important to know about consumers preference especially students in choosing ethnic restaurant. As we know, Petaling Jaya has lots of university and college around and its good to targeting the student to introduce and experiencing ethnic food to them. As there are research problem arise from this study, therefore I come out with research questions which are, What are the factors that can influence student in choosing ethnic restaurant to eat? and also How to improve the ethnic Asian restaurant in order to fulfil student needs based on their behaviour? This study shows that student will become customer for now and for the next generation. There are several objectives arise from this research such as to examine the factors affecting student preference of ethnic Asian restaurant, to find out eating behaviour of student towards ethnic Asian restaurant Lastly, to assist restaurant owners particularly of ethnic restaurant for them to understand deeper on the pattern of student behaviour in restaurant selection This research consists of five chapters in order to meet the research objective. This report would make a significant contribution for the ethnic restaurant owners or the related industry players, with a focus on the factors that affecting student preference of ethnic Asian restaurant in Malaysia. The second chapter begins with a review of the literature related to the buying behaviour of consumer and the consumer buying process. Furthermore, it describes the methodology used in conducting this research in chapter three. After all the details of the results obtained, together with a discussion on the detailed meaning of those findings are presented in chapter four which is under findings and analysis. Then, recommendations and conclusion will be showed at the end. 1.1 Malaysia Foods Understanding the culture in Malaysia is really essential in order to develop a new restaurant or to improve an existing restaurant. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic and multi-culture country with the population in February 2007 is 62% Malays, 24% Chinese, and 8% Indians, the rest are others (Zahari, et al, 2005). The Malays are the largest community, which defined as Muslim because Malaysia is an Islamic country. Each population in Malaysia has different unique culture. The main food product in Malaysia is the same, no matter what the cultures are, and it is rice. They usually eat with different side dish such as vegetable, meat, and seafood. 1.1.1 Malays Cuisine The Malays cuisine shows strong influences from the countryside, like Indonesia. The religions of these malays are mostly Muslim. In order to fulfill the needs of Malaysian, the cuisine in Malaysia must have certificated of Halal, which means the food in one restaurant does not contain any ingredient from any part or product of animals that are considered non-halal to Muslims by Islamic Law or products of animals, which are not slaughtered according to Islamic Law. But, the government also allows the restaurant with non-halal food to grow in Malaysia. Malays culture has different manner of dining. They use their fingers to eat, if they are not using any utensils. Malays are advised not to eat more than two-third of their capacity and sharing is recommended. Malays cuisine incorporates a lot of herbs and spices. Preparation and seasoning are important factors when it comes to the making Malays cuisine. Desserts are a must for any Malays meal, either only fruits or sweet dessert that i ncludes ingredients such as coconut milk, palm sugar, and flour. According to the research conducted, Malays consume more flour products than other ethnic groups (Zahari, et al, 2005). 1.1.2 Chinese Cuisine The Chinese have been setting in Malaysia for many centuries. It has been influenced by Malays culture. Their eating habit is slightly different from Malays. Most of the Chinese prefers to eat the food from their origin country, called as Chinese food. The taste of the food is more salty compare to Malays food. The Chinese can eat in non-halal restaurant. That is one of the reason a lot of restaurants in Malaysia are non-halal. Chinese eating manner is usually eating their foods with chopstick. They usually eat the rice in the bowl with the side dish separately in small plate. The manner of eating is shared with their family or friends. For the dessert, they prefer to have fruits. From the research of the Chinese restaurant, they mostly have more variety in appetizer compare to the dessert. The culture of Chinese is they like to hang out together with their friends in the restaurant, do some drinking beer or might be drink tea only (Zahari, et al, 2005) 1.1.3 Indians cuisine The Indian community in Malaysia is the smallest of the three main ethnic cultures. The Indian who come to Malaysia bring with them the Hindu culture, especially for their cuisine. The cuisine of Indian is similar with Malay cuisine. They use a lot of herbs and spices that originated from India. The example of Indian cuisine is curry, briyani rice. The taste of their cuisine is tastier and have unique flavor compare to other ethnic cuisine. The eating manner in Indian culture is almost the same with Malays culture. If they not use the utensil, they will eat using their finger (Zahari, et al, 2005). Many cultures have greatly influenced the cuisine, from Malaysia and the surrounding areas. Most of the influence comes from Malay, Chinese, Indian, Thai, Javanese, and Sumatran culture. And most of this is due to Malaysia is a part of the ancient spice route. The cuisine is very similar to Singapore and Brunei, and also bears resemblance to Filipino cuisine. The different states of Malaysia have varied dishes. Most of the time, the food in Malaysia is different from the original dishes. This means that although much of Malaysian food can be traced back to a certain culture, they have their own identity. Therefore, these researches are conduct to another ethnical food that is minority provided in Malaysia, for example Korean food, Thailand food, Indonesian food, Japanese food and Vietnamese food. 1.2 Petaling Jaya Eating is one of Malaysias cultures as they have varieties of national and international food, and Petaling Jaya area is one of the favourite eating places for food hunter in this nation. With an abundance of eateries all over the place, and this city also often dubbed Foodies Haven by food lovers (www.asiawebdirect.com). All types of food and establishment can be found here. From 24 hour mamak stalls to bistros, these place are becoming heart and soul of the city. The reason why this research will conduct on Petaling Jaya area is because Petaling jaya is located on petaling district of Selangor state. This is one of the largest cities in Selangor state. 1.3 Ethnic foods The terminology of Ethnic food has been defined by various study. Ethnic food can be defines as a product that have a special ethnic (racial or national) or cultural group favours (The food marketing research, 2008). Ethnic food also could be defined as a specific cuisine that reflect characteristic of the local origin (Utami, 2004). Turgeon and Pastinelli ( 2002,pg. 252) refers ethnic as people that come from different land and a foreign to widespread the culture. An ethnic restaurant means a restaurant that publicity a a regional cuisine of another land (Turgeon and Pastinelli, 2002). 2. Literature review 2.1 Introduction In order to identify how consumer decide which restaurant to dine-in, first, we must understand the studies of buyers behaviour as it is significant and there are many factors that manipulate the manners of customer in selecting food choices. The marketing literature explained that many features may affect the shoppers purchase decision which consists of individual and psychological attributes, cultural, social and environmental variables and promotional strategies (Belk, 1975). Consumers are unique and this distinctiveness can be revealed in the consumption pattern and purchase practice (Pravin Tripathi 2008). The restaurant owners should recognize and understand the consumer because food and beverage outlets are expanded through the consumers preferred of food choice and how popular the restaurants among consumers. The aim of this paper will include consumer behaviour by using consumer decision-making process as foundation and identifies the factors that influence decision about their food preference of ethnic restaurant. This review explains about relationship between consumers and services, consumer decision-making process, and studies of consumers restaurant selection behaviour. Moreover, the connections between customer satisfaction, food quality, service quality and behavioural of choosing are discussed. Lastly, other factors that influence the selection of food are personality traits for example, neophobia and sensation seeking (Stone Pangbom, 1990; Venkatramaiah Devaki, 1990; Raudenbush et al. 1995; Pliner Melo, 1997) and socio economic factors such as, socio economic status, the price of foods (Cabanac, 1995; Jeffrey French, 1996, Steptoe Wardle, 1999). 2.2 Consumers and Services It is important for the service providers to understand how consumers evaluate their offerings (Zeithaml, 1981). Consumers cannot evaluate services in the same way they do to physical goods as services, because they have distinctive characteristics and experience quality. Therefore, services are finding more difficult to evaluate compare to physical goods. The main characteristics that can make services are different from physical goods are: intangibility, variability, inseparability, and perishability. (Kotler et al., 1998; Zeithaml, 1981; 2003) 2.2.1 Intangibility There is an argued between the difference of product and service in the characteristic of intangibility. As a matter of fact it has been said that intangibility is the key to determining whether or not an offering is a service or product (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996). The intangible quality of service is the services that cannot be seen, touched, feel or taste like physical goods ( Zeithaml, 1981). Usually people are using tangible and intangible factors to make restaurant choice decisions before they come and eat at the restaurant (Rammaniya, 1998). Auty,1992; Soriano, 2002 stated that some of intangible factors from restaurant are: food quality, service quality and value for money. These intangible characteristic of service makes a hard decision to do the actual purchase. Therefore, most of the restaurants are rely on tangible factors such as facilities of the restaurant, decoration, and also atmosphere to fulfil the customers expectation about the restaurants (Bitner, 1990; Wall Be rry, 2007). 2.2.2 Variability Service has a numerous meanings because service may vary across service providers, employees, consumers and service encounters ( Zeithaml Bitner, 2003). The diversity of services makes it difficult for consumers to provide criteria towards one service provider to another service provider (S.Burton, 1990). On the other hand, restaurant operators face challenges due to maintaining consistency of the performance levels between food quality and service quality ( Cadotte Turgeon, 1988). For example, if one waitress provides a good service today and makes the consumers happy, it doesnt mean that on the next day that waitress will be perform the exact service to the same consumers as the previous day. (Kotler et al., 1998). 2.2.3 Inseparability Service is a unique characteristic which are cannot be produced and consumed at the same time before they are purchased and usually called as a simultaneous process ( Zeithmal Bitner, 2003). The service and the product of the restaurant cannot be sold individually, means that are the important thing to get the good perception from guest for their dining experience ( Kotler et al, 1998). 2.2.4 Perishablility Service cannot be stored. In difference to physical goods, it can be stored and sold at the next time, but services are a waste if they are not sold on the day available (Hoffman Bateson, 2001). Similarly, if one customer already reserved a table on the restaurant and suddenly the customer did not show up, it will cause the restaurant operator loss for that table that have been reserved on that day when the restaurant full occupied (Kotler et al., 1998). Service providers often notice it difficult to balance the demand and supply of the services that given by unpredictable character of consumer demand for services ( Holfman Bateson, 2001) 2.3 Consumer decision making process The buyers decision process is significant if the correct information of is distributed at the right time and at the right manner (Chris, 2005), and these literature are explain the steps of consumers decision that typically used when making purchase for a service. The consumer decision-making process are consists of five level which is: recognition from the consumers, information done by the consumers, evaluation of other alternative for the food, service purchase and consumption by consumers and also post purchase evaluation (Zeithaml Bitner, 2003) 2.3.1 Recognition The buying process and choice of food preference can start with the customer will identify a dilemma or a need, for example I am hungry or when a customer will respond to a marketing stimulus such as when you pass by at Starbucks and you are drawn to the aroma of the muffins (Fill, 2005). In a restaurant, Finkelstein (1989) highlight that modern restaurant has lots to do with psychological desire to get recognition for the customer about the restaurant. They want to be seen as a restaurant that could project their brand images and as a part of latest trends (Finkelstein, 1989). 2.3.2 Information Search The information search begins when a customer will decide how much information is needed, if the need is strong and that if it meets the desires and wants. Consumer can find information in many basis (Fill, 2005). Personal sources such as family and friends commercial sources for instants: advertising and packaging and public sources such as, examining and using the product. Once the need recognised, usually the consumers will find for some information about the service provided to fulfil their need. Consumers may look information from their relative or friend and also can search the information from outsource such as internet or magazine as their way to discover what are the services that they purchase ( Zeithaml, 1981) Restaurant meals was one of the categories to be considered in experience quality as they cannot be measure before the purchase, means that the selection of the restaurant was identify to be high( Zeithaml, 1981). Most of the consumers are relied to the personal sources like word of mouth from friends that already experience the restaurants before(Ladhari, Brun, Morales, 2008). 2.3.3 Evaluation of alternatives The study explains that customers generally select the product which is provided by personal source in contrast with commercial sources (Brunett, 2000). In the assessment stage the customer will then analyze how important and imperative the product and services is to them (Brunett, 2000). Once the customers collect all their information needed, they start to raise another set of alternative. The alternative means that option to considered that the price are compatible with the product or service ( Zeithaml, 1981). Consumer can evaluate their alternative by analyzing other factors that related to their needs. They have a different level of the factor affects or likely to choose the service that provide best option that most important to them (Kotler et al., 1998). For example, from two restaurants that offer same menu and service but the other restaurant can get the customer trust just because of one of the restaurant provide cheaper price or other factors that affect consumer decisio n (Brooke, 2004). 2.3.4 Purchase In this level, a purchase decision will take place if the consumers need is strong. If the food is not perceived as positive in its appearance, smell, texture or taste, it is unlikely to be eaten (Hetherington and Rolls 1996).After comparing the alternative, it is the time for the consumer to make a decision to purchase from their chosen service provider. On this level, restaurant service can have different experience from their consumers (Zeithaml Bitner, 2003). 2.3.5 Post Purchase Evaluation On last level, the post purchase evaluation refer to the concern of the customer after purchasing, for instants, a customer think that the food served in the food court are more cheap and more appetizing than the food served in the fast casual restaurants. In this situation, the customer will dine in the food court in his next visit (Kotler, 2005). For example, after dining in an Italian Restaurant, you realized that you want to eat in a Chinese Restaurant instead (Pravintripathi, 2008). The importance of understanding of consumer behaviour plays an important role in the shopping mall operators which have an impact to their marketing strategies. There are several diverse factors that influence the behaviour and priorities of a consumer. Nevertheless additional in depth research and studies are necessary in this field. In addition, there are many factors that can influence consumer restaurant choice in shopping malls in Malaysia. Therefore, below we are going to discuss all the factors that could influence consumer restaurant. Restaurant operator can apply these factors to plan strategies to influence the behaviour of their customers (Monteiro, 2000). 2.4 Food quality, service quality and customer satisfaction The literature of service marketing shows a connection between food quality, service quality, satisfaction of customer and also repeat patronage intention. In general, food quality was mostly affected customer satisfaction and behavioural intention (Namkung Jang, 2007). Furthermore, it has been well authorize by a number of studies that service quality is an priority reason to determine customer satisfaction (Chow et al, 2007) Research Methodology The research methodology that will be use in this research paper is quantitative technique, the data collection method will be a form of survey which is questionnaire and the sampling method will be the student from college and university student. The respondents will be male and female in different background and profile but more specific of their ages between 18-25 years old. The reason why this research conduct for student because most of generation x especially college student are having their meal away from home, reflecting their largely activity and single lifestyle (hfgconsulting.com) There will be 250 questionnaires distributed and 200 questionnaires expected to be completed in a correct manner. It will be conducted around Petaling Jaya area which are having some international college such as Monash collage, sunway college, Inti college, and other famous collage around Petaling Jaya area. Potential respondents were pre-screened with the question, Have you dined at an upscale ethnic restaurant in the past twelve months? If the answer was yes, respondents were asked to participate in these research by completing the next questions. The survey will be measure by 5 points range scale, range from 1 ( strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree).