The roles of emotion induced by types of restaurant attributes in advertisement on evaluation

Purpose – Cheerful emotions are associated with achievement goals and quiescence emotions are associated with protection goals. The compatibility between consumer's goal orientation and the types of emotions can be extended to linking the types of emotions with the types of the product attributes used in advertisement. Previous studies have kept silent about the roles of differences between types of feelings induced from different advertisements on evaluating target advertised. The purpose of this paper is to explore the different effects of emotions triggered by the advertising information on evaluating the target. Design/methodology/approach – Restaurant attributes were classified into hedonic and performance and reliability attributes. In total, three types of scenarios and advertisements were developed to induce the specific affect and 165 undergraduate students were assigned to one of three groups, each group consisting of 55 participants. Different scenarios and advertisements were provided to different group members and participants filled out the questionnaire. ANOVA was used to verify differences of feeling types (cheerful and quiescent) induced from each scenario and advertisement. Multiple regression analysis was used to verify the effects of feeling types induced from each scenario and advertisement on restaurant evaluations. Findings – The appeals created by using each attribute induce positive emotions differently between the types of attributes which have a strong influence on restaurant appraisal. That is, the appeal using hedonic and performance attributes helps consumers feel cheerful more than quiescence. In addition, the appeal by using reliability attributes helps consumers feel more quiescence than cheerful. Also the cheerful emotions have more positive influences on restaurant appraisal than quiescence emotions do when appealed by using hedonic and performance attributes. Furthermore, quiescence emotions have more positive influences on restaurant appraisal than cheerful emotions when appealed by using reliability attributes. Practical implications – It is of great importance for restaurant marketers to induce positive affects useful for customers' evaluation in a competitive environment. This research provides the insights into the roles of specific emotions induced from three types of restaurant attributes on the evaluation. Marketers should examine what types of goals consumers have and make an effort to trigger emotions by carefully using product attribute to be advertised to be consistent with the goals. Originality/value – The main theoretical contribution of this paper is to extend prior affect‐as‐information researches to the effects of specific feelings compatible with certain types of restaurant attributes on evaluation.