I’ll have the usual: how restaurant brand image, loyalty, and satisfaction keep customers coming back

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study how repeat customers utilize their established overall restaurant brand image (ORBI), overall restaurant loyalty, satisfaction and behavioral intentions (revisit, recommend) to reengage with a casual-dining restaurant brand. Design/methodology/approach The study design consists of a mixed-methods, two-phase research approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative data. First, focus groups and in-depth interviews with adult customers reveal preliminary insights on restaurant dining patterns and familiarity with franchised casual dining restaurants. Second, an online self-administered survey tests the influence of ORBI on repeat customers’ overall restaurant loyalty, satisfaction and behavioral intentions. Findings For repeat customers, ORBI positively predicts loyalty and satisfaction. Loyalty and satisfaction mediate the relationship between ORBI and intentions to recommend, while loyalty alone mediates the relationship between ORBI and intentions to revisit a casual dining restaurant. Practical implications Managers looking to stimulate recommendation intentions can increase ORBI, loyalty or satisfaction among repeat customers; or choose some combination of these three predictors. To improve revisit intentions, managers should first increase loyalty, followed by ORBI. Importantly, management needs to tailor information given to repeat customers differently than other customers. Originality/value This paper provides a first conceptualization of how both loyalty and satisfaction jointly mediate the relationships between ORBI and two behavioral intentions (revisit, recommend). The results show that loyalty plays a significant role in these predictive relationships and is more important than satisfaction for enhancing intentions to revisit a restaurant.

The Influence of Brand Awareness, Brand Image, and Brand Trust on Brand Loyalty

“…Furthermore, Table 6 also explains that the higher the brand image, the higher the brand loyalty would be. However, it is not in accordance with the research results by (Alkhawaldeh and Eneizan, 2018); (Espinosa et al, 2018); (Kim et al, 2018); (Lee et al, 2017); (Lin et al, 2017); and (Liu et al, 2019); (Semadi and Ariyanti, 2018). An increasing or decreasing brand image had no direct impact on brand loyalty.…”

“…This is evident from the results of researches by (Iskandar and Berlianto, 2018), (Chinomona, 2016); (Lee and Jee, 2016); (Liu et al, 2019) which confirmed that brand image could contribute to increasing the customer trust in product brands. Besides, previous researches found that the brand image also had positive effects on brand loyalty (Alkhawaldeh and Eneizan, 2018;Espinosa et al, 2018;Kim et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2017;Lin et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2019;Semadi and Ariyanti, 2018;Tran et al, 2019). Therefore, hypotheses that can be formulated are as follows: H4: The higher the brand image, the higher the brand trust.…”

Millennials' preference of hedonic value over utilitarian value: Evidence from a developing country

“…Organizations having a positive image are usually get preference among the customers, and it is true, particularly for retailers (Nguyen & Leblanc, 2001). In their study, Espinosa, Ortinau, Krey, and Monahan (2018) argued that restaurant visit (loyalty) is significantly geared up with the presence of positive overall restaurant brand image. Corporate social responsibility helps the firms to develop a positive image which eventually enhances the customer loyalty (Lu, Liu, & Rahman, 2017).…”

The Effect of Trust and Brand Image on Customer Retention with Customer Loyalty as Intervening Variables to Customers of Sharia Commercial Banks

“…Meanwhile, in the opinion of Espinosa et al (2018), brand image is considered the most important strategy to encourage customers to continue buying products predicted by a company. The study conducted by Johansson et al (2018) suggests that a brand image can be conceptualized as a consumer's perception of a brand that is formed in the minds of the consumers.…”