Article

Sure, you're marketing to the individual diner, but what about the 'diners'?

Marketing to the individual and "knowing the diner" are familiar terms to restaurateurs, but new University of Virginia research shows brand leaders must also know dining groups and how companions affect buying decisions.

July 11, 2019 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

It's the perpetual question for any restaurateur: What does the diner want? 

Reams of data, equal amounts of analysis and plenty of lengthy meetings in brand boardrooms have been devoted to finding the elusive answers to those questions. Now, a University of Virginia Darden School of Business professor is urging restaurateurs and other business operators to consider also asking another question: What does the diner eating with other people want?  

Darden Professor Lalin Anik and colleagues investigated this question and produced some relevant research around how consumers in close relationships make buying decisions involving others, like those that take place daily in restaurants around the word. The research titled,  "Consuming Together (Versus Separately) Makes the Heart Grow Fonder" has been published in numerous journals, including those from Harvard Business School and Duke University. 

Since eating out is quite often an activity undertaken in pairs or larger groups, the research and its findings have implications for restaurant operators, particularly because — until now — much of the investigation into consumer purchasing decisions has been aimed squarely at the individual's decision-making process, according to each person's beliefs, attitudes and preferences. 

But Anik discovered that consumers making buying decisions involving themselves and others — like those eating out or ordering in with a partner or family members — they choose items that their dining companion or companions prefer more than they choose items of their own preference because they want help companions enjoy and appreciate the purchase and the occasion. 

By way of example, a news release about the findings said someone picking up a pizza for a romantic night in with their partner might forego their own cravings for extra mushrooms on top, and instead choose the extra olives their partner is known to love. 

The study put this to the test when Anik and her co-authors asked 201 romantically involved individuals to think about buying a couple of menu items. Those in the group who were told to imagine they would then eat that food "face-to-face" with their loved ones, chose many more items they thought their partners would like than what was selected by those imagining they were eating by themselves. And, perhaps intuitively, those involved in more "happy" relationships, worked even harder to pick items their partners might like, while those in troubled partnerships, were less inclined to do so. 

The essential question: 'Will you be dining alone?'

The research and its findings hold value for restaurant brands because it can help create offerings and market them more accurately to the diners most likely to be on the receiving end. Is lunch at your brand more attended by single workers on the go? Your selection of offerings and the way you market them then should take a different tack than that developed for your evening diners, which you know are mostly couples. 

In cases where the time of day (evenings after work, for instance) or year (Valentine's and other natural occasions for couples), the researchers said brands should consider tilting marketing toward the idea of "shared enjoyment" since the consumers on the receiving end are more likely to patronize the brand with a partner. 

The research concludes that some of its more significant implications for the bottom line include:

• Expanded sales opportunities to products that please pairs of diners, rather than simply individuals.  
• Easier sells when diners are focused on partners' "emotional reactions and enjoyment." 
• Improved customer retention and loyalty from dining couples who've had great experiences together and are more apt to return. 

Photo: iStock

About S.A. Whitehead

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Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.