Effects of Processing Styles on the Preference of Restaurant Menu Type: How Do Millennials Compare to Other Segments?

Abstract

Employing an online survey, U.S. Millennials' wine consumers processing styles (cognitive versus affective) were identified and restaurant menu information preferences (visual versus verbal) were examined. Participants' processing styles were established then presented graphics of hypothetical restaurant menus, one visually oriented (symbols) and one verbally oriented (text). No significance was found in processing style across generational segments. Verbal was chosen over visual by those identified as Thinkers (high cognition / low affect). Feelers (low cognition / high affect) and Combiners (high cognition / high affect) were expected to choose visual menu yet also chose the verbal menu. The results support the continued use of traditional verbal menus used in restaurants.

Generation Y's dining out behavior

“…For example, they prefer bowls over plates (Saulo, 2016). They view dining out as an experience (Hammond et al, 2013) and want to enjoy a nice meal out, even when financially short (Reiter, 2015). They also appreciate the social aspects of dining out (Nyheim et al, 2015) and prefer communal tables at restaurants where either they eat in large groups of friends and colleagues or they are seated with strangers.…”

Motivation and personal involvement leading to wine consumption

“…One option is adopting certain market segmentation strategies and correlating these segments with factors that fall into the intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation and PI categories of this study. Effective market segmentation enables wine marketers to better target high-yield customers (Dodd and Bigotte, 1997;Getz, 2000;Hammond et al, 2013). Understanding that internal and external drivers can increase PI and thus wine consumption should create viable marketing opportunities when conjoined with effective segmentation.…”

“…Given space limitations, we describe one particular segmentation strategy applied to wine purchasing that suggests other research avenues. Hammond et al (2013) segmented consumers of wine in restaurants by age group, focusing in particular on Millennials (born between 1977 and 2000) because of this generation's size and propensity for dining out. Comprising nearly 70 million Americans who spend some $172bn per year, Millennials already consume more wine than Gen Xers.…”

“…Comprising nearly 70 million Americans who spend some $172bn per year, Millennials already consume more wine than Gen Xers. The most interesting attribute of Millennials mentioned by Hammond et al (2013) is their interest in learning more about wine. As noted previously, people who want to know about wine are more likely to be high in wine involvement and more likely to purchase wine (Lockshin et al, 2001).…”

“…Understanding the drivers of wine purchases and consumption is important in a market offering more product choices than ever (Hammond et al, 2013). While the marketing literature stresses external purchasing features such as price (Mueller et al, 2001;Thomas and Pickering, 2003), packaging and labeling (Batt and Dean, 2000;Mueller and Lockshin, 2008), brand name (Thomas, 2000) and bottle closure (Barber et al, 2006), the consumer behavior literature suggests that wine purchasing is too multifaceted to be completely captured by these product attributes (Barber et al, 2009).…”