Heuristic evaluation of healthy menus: examining the effect of brand image congruity
研究餐厅顾客如何通过品牌形象与健康菜单的一致性进行启发式判断，进而影响其对营养信息可信度的感知和态度，对餐饮营销和健康推广有参考价值。
Purpose This study aims to investigate how restaurant customers’ heuristic judgment, originating from their perceived level of congruity between restaurant brand image regarding healthfulness and healthy menu products, can affect their information processing in terms of their perceived nutritional information credibility and, furthermore, how these effects influence customers’ attitude toward the menu in terms of healthiness. Design/methodology/approach A Web-based survey was developed and distributed to randomly selected respondents in the USA, and in total, 320 responses were used for the data analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationship among three constructs: perceived brand–product congruity, perceived nutritional information credibility and nutrition attitude toward the healthy menu item being promoted. To assess the mediating role of perceived information credibility, an analytical procedure proposed by (Baron and Kenny 1986) was used. Finally, to investigate the moderating effect of the health involvement, multiple group analyses were executed. Findings The study results suggested that the synchronization between healthful brand image of the restaurant and the promoted menu item is important for ensuring customers’ perceptions of information credibility regarding the menu item healthiness and for eliciting customers’ positive nutrition attitudes toward the menu item. Also, positive nutrition attitudes toward a menu item can be increased by improving perceived information credibility. Depending on an individual’s level of health involvement, the relationships between the three proposed constructs vary. Originality/value This paper includes a theoretical model that explains customers’ heuristic evaluation of a healthy menu product by assessing the influence of brand image congruity in terms of healthy menu promotion.