Abstract

Purpose: How to build the positive emotion of customer is very important, because it affects the positive attitude. Brand evidence has a significant impact on consumer behavior in terms of reinforcing consumers' perception of food service companies and differentiating them from competing brands. Thus, this study examines the effect of brand evidence on emotion (positive emotion and negative emotion), and attitude in restaurant industry. Research design, data, and methodology: This study examines the structural relationship among brand evidence, emotion, and attitude. Brand evidence divide into three sub-dimensions such as physical evidence, core service, and employee service. In order to test the purposes of this study, research model and hypotheses were developed. The questionnaire items were modified and used according to the content of this study based on previous studies. All constructs were measured by multiple items tested and developed in the previous research. The data were collected from 439 restaurant users from Seoul area were analyzed using SPSS 22.0 and SmartPLS 3.0 program. A total of 460 questionnaires were distributed and a survey was conducted for 4 weeks, and a total of 439 were used for analysis, excluding non-response data and 21 unusable response data among the collected questionnaires. Frequency analysis was conducted to identify the general characteristics of the survey subjects. To measure the reliability and validity of the measurement tools, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted. Structural model analysis was conducted to verify the research model. Result: The findings demonstrate that physical evidence, core service, employee service had positive effects on positive emotion. And core service and employee service had negative effects on negative emotion while physical evidence did not have. Also, positive emotion had positive effect on attitude and negative emotion had negative effect on attitude. Conclusions: The findings of this study provide guidelines on how to enhance competitiveness in restaurant industry through understanding brand evidence's effects on raising perceived consumer's emotion and attitude. Therefore, food service companies should establish a marketing strategy that can stimulate positive emotions through brand evidence, which is all factors related to service brands that influence consumers' evaluation of service products and purchase decision-making process.