Microsoft Word 2007 ichrie conference Proceedings Final-Final 06-06-07. doc

 
2007 Annual International CHRIE Conference & Exposition 
63
A recent VNU Food Service Network survey showed that 44% of respondents from the quick service restaurant 
sector said they had added menu choices in the past year targeted to help customers manage their weight and all 
without mandates from lawmakers (Tyson Foods Inc., 2004). This would seem to indicate that even companies in 
the fast food restaurant sector are stepping forward in order to take advantage of this changing customer eating 
trend.
Even though consumers are not all alike and the number of consumers looking for healthy menu items is only a 
portion of total sales, the increase of reporting of the obesity epidemic worldwide has resulted in the prediction that 
customers choosing healthy menu items will increase in the future. Nevertheless, we should not overlook that the 
taste is the core factor at point of menu selection, even with the increasing healthy eating trend. Hence, successful 
restaurant professionals, regardless of restaurant sectors, should focus on the development of the taste of menu items 
as well as the healthfulness in the variety of their menu choices.
The comparative results of relative importance by expenditure level 
It can be assumed that one’s expenditure level for a meal may be related with their perception of relative importance 
of menu attributes at point of menu selection. So, the relative importance of menu attributes was analyzed separately 
according to subjects’ expenditure levels for a lunch, based on a low expenditure (less than $4.00), moderate 
expenditure ($4.00 ~ $6.00), and high expenditure (more than $6.00) in campus dining (Table 3). These levels were 
based on results from the pre-survey.
†
Utility value, 
*
p < .05,
**
p < .01,
***
p < .001 
Overall result shows that respondents in all the levels consider taste as the most important menu attribute. 
But the relative importance results in the moderate level group showed that they consider the price as more 
important than other groups. That is, the relative importance percent for the price in each group were 4.02 (low 
expenditure), 22.53 (moderate expenditure) and 15.38 (high expenditure) respectively. What this seems to indicate is 
that when the price is low, its importance in comparison to other attributes is also low, but when the price increases 
to a moderate level, its relative importance to other attributes increases considerably. This would seem logical. 
However, as the price increases higher to the highest expenditure level, its relative importance drops off somewhat. 
A possible explanation of this result might be that when menu items are perceived as expensive, they had better taste