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British Food JournalEmerald Article: Factors important for the selection of fast food restaurants: an empirical study across three cities of PakistanUsman Ehsan

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To cite this document: Usman Ehsan, (2012),"Factors important for the selection of fast food restaurants: an empirical study across three cities of Pakistan", British Food Journal, Vol. 114 Iss: 9 pp. 1251 - 1264

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Factors important for theselection of fast food restaurants:an empirical study across three

cities of PakistanUsman Ehsan

Asian Society of Management and Marketing Research, Islamabad, Pakistan

Abstract

Purpose – There are different factors that affect customers’ experiences at restaurants, and thiscould lead towards the selection or rejection of a fast food restaurant. The primary purpose of thisstudy is to explore the factors that are important for the selection of restaurants and also to identify thecultural or regional differences in consumer behaviours amongst student customers in relation tointernational fast food restaurants.

Design/methodology/approach – A total of 447 questionnaires were randomly distributed amonguniversity students of three cities. Data analysis was done in SPSS Version 17. Important factors wereidentified by factor analysis and ANOVA was used to measure the differences (among cities).

Findings – According to the findings, customers considered price, variety of food, promotional dealsand timely service as the important factors for the selection of fast food restaurants. Different factorswere found in different cities. This implies that the choice and selection criteria of customers fromdifferent cities in the same country for fast food restaurants may vary.

Research limitations/implications – The results of this study should only be generalised to thefast food sector as the research only explored the fast food industry. The respondents were selectedonly from university students of three cities in Pakistan. Other customer segments and geographicalareas should be included in future studies.

Practical implications – The results enable marketers to focus on key points in formulatingdifferent strategies, like designing the pricing strategy, the service blueprint, the menu, andpositioning and promotional strategies, so that they can provide memorable experiences to customers.The findings also suggest that while operating in multicultural countries, customers need to observeclosely. Also, adaptation to local cultures should not be limited to the national level; it should also betailored to the regional level (cities).

Originality/value – This paper puts forward the selection criteria for fast food restaurants in a largeand ethnically diverse country like Pakistan. The paper also provides useful information for bothacademicians and marketers about new and emerging areas in how consumer choices vary inculturally diverse nations.

Keywords Services marketing, Customer preferences, Customer behaviour, Fast food, Restaurants,Culture, Consumer behaviour, Pakistan, Service operations

Paper type Research paper

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0007-070X.htm

The author would like to express appreciation to the following for their cooperation in datacollection from three cities: Mr Ali Bodla from Islamabad, Mr Bilal Arshad from Gujranwala andMiss Hafsa from Lahore. Their cooperation made the data collection process simple and easy.Good luck for their bright future.

Factors forselection ofrestaurants

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Received 11 March 2010Revised 26 November 2010

Accepted 30 April 2011

British Food JournalVol. 114 No. 9, 2012

pp. 1251-1264q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0007-070XDOI 10.1108/00070701211258808

1. IntroductionContinuous study of customer behaviour and perceptions is very important in order torespond efficiently to a changing market environment. The studies by Jones et al.(2002), Bukari and Aziz (2009) and Qin and Prybutok (2009) examined customers’behaviour towards fast food. To manage and deliver customer service in a better way,understanding of customer choices and priorities is essential. It is a common assertionamong management and marketing theorists that customer service quality is essentialto business success (Kristensen et al., 1992; Zeithaml et al., 1996; McColl-Kennedy andSchneider, 2000). Delivering superior service quality leads towards higher returns ascompared to others (Aaker and Jacobson, 1994).

Economic, environmental and social developments and issues are puttingincreasingly varied and complex pressures on rural areas in many countries (Hallet al., 2003). Following the global trend, the service sector is also growing in Pakistan.The contribution of the services sector to the growth of Pakistan’s GDP has been morethan 50 per cent in recent years. According to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2008-2009,Pakistan has also seen a major transformation in its economic structure, and the share ofthe service sector was 53.8 per cent. The service sector grew by 3.6 per cent against atarget of 6.1 per cent and an actual outcome of 6.6 per cent. The service sector has been animportant contributor to Pakistan’s economic growth over the past five years bygrowing at an average of 6.6 per cent annually since 2003-2004. The sub-sectors thatcontribute most to the service sector include retail trade, wholesale trade, research andeducational consultancy services, restaurants and hotels, financial, construction, andsome business services. In Pakistan, there is a growing trend for fast food restaurants.Food services have been among the major recipients of foreign investment worth around$US492m (SMEDA, 2006). The percentage contribution of fast food restaurants andhotels is also augmented by the contribution to overall employment in Pakistan.Restaurants and hotels comprise approximately 15 per cent of total employment inPakistan (Economic Survey, 2008). Huge FDI and significant employment of labourclearly depicts a greater contribution to the service sector of the Pakistan economy.

In a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (2004), in the section “Food andDrinks Forecast Asia and Australia”, it is identified that demand is gradually shiftingfrom unprocessed to processed foods. Total retail sales of processed foods amounted to$US1.1bn in 2000. Diet foods are growing in popularity due to rising healthconsciousness, while fast foods are also becoming popular, especially with youngerpeople. This growth is also evident from the growth of McDonald’s, Pizza Hut,Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Express and many other fast food companies inPakistan. Fast food chains such as Pizza Hut, Papa Johns, McDonald’s, Domino’s, KFCand Subway are doing well in Pakistan with a simple strategy of expansion andprofits. With the advent of globalisation, Asian eating habits are changing to emulatethose of the West, and this is why the consumption of fast food is also on the rise(SMEDA, 2006). Multinational organisations (like McDonalds and other fast foodchains) should find out how they should adjust their entire marketing strategy,including how they sell and distribute, in order to fit in with the demands of newmarkets (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1995).

Pakistan has a population of above 180 million, with a growing middle-class.Approximately one quarter of the total population represents the potential market forfast food, and interestingly it is also rising due to increased affordability. The success

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of international fast food chains such as McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Pizza Express,Subway and others clearly validates the increased desirability of fast food in Pakistan(Austrade, 2009). Understanding the customer perceptions of service quality and valueis especially important to international service firms because such perceptions aresusceptible to cultural differences (Lee and Ulgado, 1997). Pakistan’s diversity isamazing, not only from the geographical point of view but also from cultural andlingual perspective and a lot more research is needed to know more about the localperspective as it is not yet fully studied (Parekh, 2010). In today’s ever-increasingglobalisation of services and brands, service-oriented businesses need to attend to thesatisfaction of their customers both domestically and abroad while transcendingunique cultural differences (Gilbert et al., 2004). Consumer satisfaction and itsdeterminants are measured in both perspectives; one nation and across nations. Studiesmeasured customer satisfaction of various countries (Anderson et al., 1996; Fornellet al., 1996; Dermanov and Eklof, 2001; Gilbert et al., 2004; Goyal and Singh, 2007).Studies also compared and analysed customers across the countries and cultures (Leeand Ulgado, 1997; Espinoza, 1999; Gilbert et al., 2004; Gilbert et al., 2004; Cunninghamet al., 2006). These researchers studied customer behaviour in fast food but questionedwhether there were differences in consumer choices in different cities (in the samecountry); this still needs to be answered. More specifically, objectives of this study are:

. to analyse customer behaviour towards fast food across different cities inPakistan;

. to identify the important factors used by customers in the selection of fast foodrestaurants; and

. to study the differences/similarities in important factors considered bycustomers in different cities for the selection of fast food restaurants.

2. Literature reviewThe fast food market is defined as the sale of food and drinks for immediateconsumption either on the premises or in designated eating areas shared with otherfood service operators, or for consumption elsewhere (Datamonitor, 2009). Most fastfood consumers seem to place a greater importance on the quality of a service (valuemenus) than they do on the costs associated with its acquisition (food only). Marketersneed to emphasise the importance of service quality as an operational tactic andstrategic objective. Researchers should also understand that service quality is animportant decision-making criterion for service consumers (Cronin et al., 2000). Thebehaviour of the consumer is not always the same – it varies from time to time andfrom person to person. Rapid economic and income growth, urbanisation, andglobalisation are leading to a dramatic shift of Asian diets away from staples andincreasingly towards livestock and dairy products, vegetables and fruit, and fats andoils (Pingali, 2007). Differences also occur while customers experience goods andservices, because each experience is derived from the interaction between the stagedevent and the individual’s prior expectations (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). Marketersshould now focus on providing memorable experiences to their customers because itmatters most (Pine and Gilmore, 1999).

Fast-food marketers should understand consumers’ perceptions and preferences forfast-food outlets and how they differ across cultures/countries, so that strategies can be


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tailored to improve perceptions of their restaurants and to increase demand (Kara et al.,1995). Differences in perceptions can be observed between the consumers in thedifferent cities of a country (Liu et al., 2007). Fast food restaurants should deliver a mixof services and products that engage customers at an individual level and convert avisit into a memorable event. Commodities are fungible, goods tangible, servicesintangible, and experiences memorable (Pine and Gilmore, 1999).

Customers select a restaurant on the basis of a number of factors. A number ofstudies have suggested various factors that customers consider important for theselection of fast food outlet. Studies relevant to the objectives of this study have beenincorporated in the discussion. Studies with application of models like SERVQUAL,etc., were neither the part of discussion nor the study because focus of these studieswas service quality not the selection of fast food restaurants.

3. Research methodology3.1 Discussion of factorsAccording to Kivela (1997) and a Quick Track (2003) study, critical factors for theselection or rejection of restaurants are food quality and variety. In addition to thesefactors, customers also prefer a quick-service restaurant (Quick Track, 2003). In thelatter study, the taste or flavour of the food, cleanliness of the restaurant, accuracy,temperature of the food, quality of the ingredients, value for money, speed of service,friendliness/courtesy, convenience of locations, variety of menu items, availability ofhealthy/nutritious food, and overall appeal to children were studied.

Both males and females are attracted to fast food, but have different factors ofattraction. In the study of Aziz and Bukhari (2009), price, quality of food, servicesprovided, packaging style, freshness of food, delivery timings, variety of food, late nightofferings, friends gathering, brand image, environment of restaurant, location ofrestaurant, and cooperation of staff were studied. Males were found to be attractedtowards fast food due to cooperation of staff, services provided by the restaurants, tasteof food, price and late night offerings, whereas factors for females were brand image,location of restaurant, quality of food and packaging style (Aziz and Bukhari, 2009).

With a view to identifying the major attributes for choosing eating outlets, sixattributes of fast food outlets – variety of food, food taste and quality, ambience andhygiene, service speed, price, and location – were studied using a five-point Likert-typescale (Goyal and Singh, 2007). According to Andersson and Mossberg (2004), there arefive customer satisfiers:

(1) service;

(2) fine cuisine;

(3) restaurant interior;

(4) good company; and

(5) other customers in the restaurant.

Customer satisfaction was also analysed through using a five point Likert-type ratingscale (1 ¼ strongly disagree; 5 ¼ strongly agree) consisting of 18 service attributes(Gilbert et al., 2004). The sources of the ten factors used in this study are shown inTable I.

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3.2 Selection of citiesThis was the most crucial task for the study to select the cities to observe resemblanceand variations in consumer perceptions of fast food restaurants across cultures. First,these three were selected on the basis of convenience of data collection. These wereIslamabad (capital of Pakistan), Lahore (capital of Punjab) and Gujranwala. Second,these cities were also selected because most fast food outlets operate in Islamabad,Lahore and other metropolitan cities, where the majority of urban, Western culture hasbeen greatly advanced (Wikipedia, n.d.).

3.3 Selection of factorsFactors for the selection of fast food restaurants used in this study were:

. variety of food;

. taste of food;

. sitting space;

. timely service;

. promotional deals;

. price;

. location of restaurant;

. environment of restaurant;

. cooperation of staff; and

. brand image of restaurant (Table I).

Factors Source

Brand image of restaurant Andersson and Mossberg (2004), Liu and Chen(2000), Zopiatis and Pribic (2007)

Cooperation of staff Qin and Prybutok (2009), Quick Track (2003), Gilbertet al. (2004)

Environment of restaurant Andersson and Mossberg (2004), Qin and Prybutok(2009), Goyal and Singh (2007), Gilbert et al. (2004),Zopiatis and Pribic (2007)

Location of restaurant Goyal and Singh (2007), Quick Track (2003), Zopiatisand Pribic (2007)

Price Goyal and Singh (2007), Bukhari and Aziz (2008),Quick Track (2003), Stewart and Davis (2005)

Promotional deals Bukhari and Aziz (2008), Kara et al. (1997), Peattie(1998)

Timely service Andersson and Mossberg (2004), Qin and Prybutok(2009), Goyal and Singh (2007), Gilbert et al. (2004)

Sitting space Andersson and Mossberg (2004), Qin and Prybutok(2009), Gilbert et al. (2004)

Taste of food Qin and Prybutok (2009), Goyal and Singh (2007),Bukhari and Aziz (2008), Quick Track (2003),Andersson and Mossberg (2004)

Variety of food Qin and Prybutok (2009), Goyal and Singh (2007),Kara et al. (1997)

Table I.Sources of factors for fastfood restaurant selection


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There found a list of factors, so in order to limit the factors only those factors were usedthat had been studied in two or more previous studies.

3.4 Sample selection and sizeUniversity students were considered as actual and direct consumers of fast food (Leeand Ulgado, 1997; Goyal and Singh, 2007; Aziz and Bukhari, 2009). Students(homogenous sample) were chosen as the respondents in all three cities in this studybecause as a sample they provide more precise results and predictions and statisticallyvalid conclusions (Calder et al., 1981). Sample sizes for each of the three cities werebased up convenience sampling including undergraduate and graduate businessstudents, as in the studies of Espinoza (1999), Cunningham et al. (2006) and Goyal andSingh (2007) due to budget and time constraints. Convenience sampling (which isrelatively quick and cost-effective) was found to be adequate as the purpose of theresearch was to explore the importance of factors and differences in consumers’selection criteria (Calder et al., 1981). The literature recommends a sample size of 65-150(O’Cass and Grace, 2004), but for better generalisability and measurement (Nunnally,1978), the size of a convenience sample should be above or near to 300. In this study atotal of 600 questionnaires were delivered over the three cities (200 in each city).

3.5 Instrument and data collectionAn English version of the printed questionnaire was distributed among students (anUrdu version could also have been used, but as the language of teaching in universitiesin Pakistan is English, the understanding the language was not a problem). Thequestionnaire was organised in three sections. The first section concerned therespondent’s demographic profile. The second section analysed customer behaviourtowards fast food restaurants, while in the third section respondents were asked to ratethe importance the various factors in the selection of restaurants. These factors weredeveloped on five point Likert scale, where 5 ¼ strongly important and 1 ¼ not at allimportant (Gilbert et al., 2004; Zopiatis and Pribic, 2007). Questionnaires weredistributed among students in university timings (in campuses) to achieve betterresponse rate.

3.6 Data analysisAn overview of descriptive statistics is presented in Table II. The responses wereanalysed using factor analysis and ANOVA, as has been used by different researchers(Lee and Ulgado, 1997; Gilbert et al., 2004; Aziz and Bukhari, 2009). Factor analysis wasused to identify the important factors for the selection of restaurants individually (seeTable III) and a one-way ANOVA was used to compare means of these variables withrespect to the city of respondent Table IV).

4. Results4.1 Analysis of customers’ profileIn total, 447 useable questionnaires were recorded including 94 from city A (Islamabad,response rate 47 per cent), 194 from city B (Lahore, response rate 97 per cent) and 159from city C (Gujranwala, response rate 79.5 per cent). Sample characteristics andconsumption patterns of customers are shown in Table II. Low participation was foundin city A due to respondents’ busy time schedules (most of the respondents refused to

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respond). The percentage of male respondents of city A was 61.7 per cent; femalescomprised 38.3 per cent. Overall males were dominant with 60 per cent. Students ofhigher studies dominated with a percentage of 71.3 per cent in city A, around equalparticipation of both Master’s and graduation in city B, but in city C those studentsstudying for a Bachelor’s degree were most prominent with 62.3 per cent, whereinoverall graduates comprised 54 per cent and Master’s were 45.9 per cent.

Variables City A City B City C Overall

Gender of respondentMale 61.7 54.6 65.4 60Female 38.3 45.4 34.6 40

QualificationGraduation 28.7 52.6 62.3 54.1Masters 71.3 47.4 37.7 45.9

Visits to fast food restaurants per week1-3 times 88.3 72.7 76.7 77.44-5 times 7.4 19.6 17.0 16.1Daily 4.3 7.7 6.3 6.5

With whom fast food restaurants are visitedAlone 2.1 5.2 5.0 4.5Family 36.2 35.6 32.7 34.7Friends 61.8 59.2 62.3 60.8

Reason to go to fast food restaurantsTime saving 2.1 6.2 6.3 5.4Change of taste 42.6 46.9 46.5 45.9Economical 3.2 2.1 3.1 2.7Outing 43.6 39.7 42.1 41.4Others 8.5 5.2 1.9 4.7

Place to enjoy eating fast foodHome 4.3 8.2 9.4 7.8Restaurants 70.2 55.2 68.6 63.1Both 24.5 36.6 22.0 30.1

Weekly spendBelow 500 35.1 21.6 20.8 24.2501-1,000 35.1 41.2 49.7 43.01,001-1,500 11.7 17.0 11.9 14.11,501-2,000 8.5 9.3 8.2 8.7Above 2,000 9.2 10.8 9.4 10.7

Preferred fast food restaurantsKFC 31.9 35.6 55.9 42.7McDonald’s 18.1 18.0 10.7 15.4Pizza Hut 25.5 32.5 17.6 25.7Others 24.5 13.9 15.7 16.8

Table II.Sample characteristics of

respondents


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Table III.Factors identified acrosscities

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Customers visiting fast food restaurants one to three times a week outnumbered thosevisiting four to five times a week or daily. The number of individual customers goingto fast food restaurants was nominal, whereas the number of those going with friendsand family was significant – approximately 60 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.

There was a lesser number of fast food customers who enjoy fast food only at home,while restaurants were found to be the most popular places top enjoy fast food in allcities (Table II); overall, restaurants were the favourite place for 63 per cent ofrespondents. There were also many customers who liked eating fast food both inrestaurants and at home.

In city A, 70 per cent of customers were spending up to PKR1,000 weekly, while theremaining customers spent more than PKR1,000 weekly. In city B, the percentage ofcustomers spending PKR1,000 weekly was above 60 percent, with the remainderspending more. More than 70 per cent of respondents city C spent up to PKR1,000weekly, with the remainder spending more. On comparing the consumption patterns ofthe cities with the overall percentages, no significant differences were observed; thepercentages were quite similar (Table II). Previous studies have also used students asdirect customers of fast food (Lee and Ulgado, 1997; Goyal and Singh, 2007; Aziz andBukhari, 2009), so one can easily generalise the results over the population.

4.2 Factor analysisFirst, critical values of factor analysis like the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure ofsampling adequacy, Bartlett’s test of sphericity and Cronbach’s a were checked toensure quality of measurement (see Table V). KMO, which measures the distribution ofvalues, was 0.80, which is adequate for conducting factor analysis for all cities (Georgeand Mallery, 2006). Barlett’s test of sphericity was highly acceptable, with a significantvalue of 0.000 for all samples. Cronbach’s a was ideally acceptable in overall analysis

Sum of squares df Mean square F Significance

Promotional deals/offers 5.665 2 2.833 2.062 0.128Variety of food 1.824 2 0.912 0.853 0.427Image of restaurant 6.031 2 3.016 2.756 0.065Timely service 8.347 2 4.174 4.001 0.019Price 5.587 2 2.794 2.148 0.118

Table IV.ANOVA

Test Islamabad Lahore Gujranwala Overall

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.828 0.830 0.859 0.868

Bartlett’s test of sphericityApproximate x 2 259.728 387.061 423.810 991.027df 45 45 45 45Significance 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000

Cronbach’s a 0.469 0.582 0.682 0.805

Table V.Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin

measure of samplingadequacy, Bartlett’s test

of sphericity andCronbach’s a


1259

at 0.805, while it was marginally acceptable in city A with a value of 0.469 (i.e. close to0.5). It was acceptable in the case of city B (0.582) and city C (0.682) (George andMallery, 2003) as 0.7 is an acceptable reliability coefficient but lower thresholds aresometimes also used in the literature (Nunnally, 1978; Santos, 1999).

Communalities of all ten variables ranged from 0.64 to 0.93 and inter-variablecorrelation was non-significant for all of them (tables not shown).

4.3 Factors in the selection of restaurantsFactors in the selection of restaurants preferred by the customers were identifiedthrough factor analysis. The data file was sorted and split with respect to the city of therespondent. The number of variables was intentionally controlled to four on the basisof variance explained criteria to satisfy the requirement of minimum cumulativevariances, which should be above 50 per cent (Garson, 2009).

In city A, the four most important factors were timely service (0.850), image ofrestaurants (0.799), Promotional deals/offers (0.835) and price (0.878), with acumulative variance of 70.5 per cent. In city B, the most important factors werevariety of food (0.752), timely service (0.821), promotional deals (0.821) and price(0.909), with a total variance of 63.33 per cent. City C was similar to city B in terms offactors but with different loadings: the most important factors were variety of food(0.693), timely service (0.769), promotional deals (0.788) and price (0.918), with a totalvariance of 67.31 per cent.

4.4 ANOVA resultsThe assumptions of ANOVA were considered and it was confirmed they were notviolated (tables not shown) prior to application of the test. From the results presentedin Table IV, it is clear that the cities differ significantly only for the timely servicefactor, with a significance level of 0.019. The cities also differed marginally in thefactors promotional deals/offers (significance 0.128), image of restaurant (significance0.065) and price (0.118) (George and Mallery, 2006). Although conventions adopted byresearchers favour a value of 0.5, there are circumstances that justify the use of highervalues like 0.10 (Heine et al., 2000; and Dixon, 2003). Insignificant differences werefound for the factor variety of food, with a significance value of 0.427.

5. DiscussionIn descriptive statistics, it is shown that more than 70 per cent of customers in all threecities visit fast food restaurants one to three times in a week. Most customers enjoyeating at restaurants with their friends and family, which suggests that eating at a fastfood outlet is enjoyed collectively as an event. Customers go to fast food restaurants fora change in taste and for an outing. The majority of customers spend around 1,000rupees in a week. As regards customer choice, KFC (maybe because of its penetrationin the market and attractive promotional offers) was found to be in top position in allcities and also overall in a leading position, followed by Pizza Hut. Although Pizza Hutis not available everywhere, its high ranking can be justified by its diffusion incustomers’ minds through advertisements and promotion on satellite TV and cable(Austrade, 2009). Customers from all cities gave high importance to price, timelyservice and promotional deals/offers when selecting the restaurants for an outing andfor a change in taste along with their friends and family, while customers in cities B

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and C were found to be more variety-seeking. Customers in city A go to restaurantsthat have better image; therefore these restaurants should be advertised differently indifferent regions. Although the differences were not found to be significant (as theresults of the ANOVA showed) for all factors, descriptive statistics and the results offactor analysis justify the differences in consumers’ priorities regarding factors acrossthe cities. Dixon (2003) also does not recommend accepting or rejecting results only onthe basis of p-value.

6. Conclusion and managerial implicationsThe motivations of customers regarding fast food were a change of taste and havingfun. From the marketing point of view, restaurants should improve their taste andambience so that customers can have memorable experiences. Marketers need toemphasise and carefully consider key points in strategy formulation like affordabilityin designing their pricing strategy, service timings in service blueprints, variety inmenus, image in positioning strategy and promotional mix in promotional strategies(Kara et al., 1995) because customers are price sensitive. These findings are found to beconsistent with findings of Aziz and Bukhari (2009). This will help them to providememorable experiences (in fast food restaurants) because it matters most (Pine andGilmore, 1999). In addition, as companies are expanding in the global economy, theyneed to understand the cultures in which they are competing and their associateddiversity so that their products and services satisfy the preferences of their newconsumers (Gilbert et al., 2004). Altering and adjusting the marketing mixdeterminants are essential and vital to suit local tastes, and to meet special needsand customers’ non-identical requirements (Czinkota and Ronkainen, 1995). Customerswere observed to be price- and time-concious and also to be more inclined towardsattractive promotional deals/offers. This also confirms the importance of these factorsin decision making and strategy formulation. Differences were observed in the contextof image and variety of food. Customers from cities B and C (Lahore and Gujranwala)were more variety concious, whereas customers of city A (Islamabad) were more imageconcious. So managers need to be aware of the differences in the priorities of customers(Lee and Ulgado, 1997) when entering into a new market and also in developingstrategies at national level with a local touch.

7. Future research and limitationsOverall, the results were reliable as Cronbach’s a showed an acceptable value.However, in future research some individual items could be re-examined and modifiedor completely changed because the Cronbach’s a value was found to be a little lower(Santos, 1999). This research has investigated only customers in fast food restaurants,so further generalisability of the findings could be made only to the same sector andnot all service sectors. Differences in customers’ choices and priorities can also bevalidated by conducting future studies in other service sectors, such astelecommunications, banking, advertising, consulting and others. The sample waslimited to university students in three cities in Pakistan; other customer segments andgeographical areas could also be included in future studies. Further research could alsoinvestigate other culturally diverse countries like India and other Asian countries.Future research could also include other metropolitan cities like Karachi, Peshawar andothers. Research could also be undertaken to determine whether customers perceive


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and have expectations of products/goods in a different or a similar fashion (asobserved in this study).

References

Aaker, D.A. and Jacobson, R. (1994), “Study shows brand-building pays off for stockholders”,Advertising Age, Vol. 65 No. 30, p. p18.

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Further reading

Martensen, A., Grøbholdt, L. and Kristensen, K. (2000), “The drivers of customer satisfaction andloyalty: cross-industry findings from Denmark”, Total Quality Management, Vol. 11,pp. S544-53.

Raj, G.J., Cutler, B.D. and Winans, W.A. (2001), “At your service! Does country of origin researchapply to service?”, Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 15 No. 7, pp. 565-82.

About the authorUsman Ehsan is currently working as a Marketing Research Manager at Welcome Industries,where he is involved in strategic decision-making with directors. He has also worked as afreelance research consultant with leading organisations including World Vision and N-IRM(NRSP). In academic research his areas of focus were services excellence, services branding, trustand customer loyalty. Usman Ehsan can be contacted at: [email protected]

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