• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.231-239
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• 2014

The purpose of this study was to look into how alliance discount cards affect customers using family restaurants by analyzing and identifying the difference in brand equity and satisfaction according to the propensity of using alliance discount cards. For this purpose, 407 customers who have used family restaurants completed a questionnaire survey. The study findings indicated that (1) there were significant differences in brand equity and satisfaction according to the propensity to use alliance discount cards. Moreover, it was found that groups with a strong propensity to use alliance discount cards had higher brand equity and satisfaction than groups that did not; also, (2) it was found that there were significant differences in brand equity and satisfaction according to the intensity of dependency on alliance discount cards. The group with strong loyalty to alliance discount cards went beyond the level of strong propensity to use alliance discount cards, of preference, and of use, which were previously proposed. This study implied that from mid-to long-term perspectives, it was necessary to operate a policy for more active alliance discounts as well as to ensure sufficient options for partnership benefits. Furthermore, it was essential to maintain the menu and service quality of restaurants, which were intrinsic factors for elevating brand equity and satisfaction in restaurants among dining customers.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.55-78
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• 2011

Recently strategic alliance between business firms has become prevalent to overcome increasing competitive threats and to supplement resource limitation of individual firms. As one of allianced sales promotion activities, a new type of discount program, so called "Alliance Card Discount", is introduced with the partnership of credit cards and loyalty cards. The program mainly pursues short-term sales growth by larger discount scheme while spends less through cost share among alliance partners. Thus this program can be regarded as cost efficient discount promotion. But because there is no solid evidence that it can really deliver profitable sales growth, an empirical study for its effects on sales and profit should be conducted. This study has two basic research questions concerning the effects of allianced discount program ; 1)the possibility of sales increase 2) the profitability of the discount driven sales. In F&B industry, sales increase mainly comes from increased guest count. Especially in family restaurants, to increase the number of guests we need to enlarge the size of visitor group (number of visitors for one group) because customers visit by group in a special occasion. And because they pay the bill by group(table), the increase of sales per table is a key measure for sales improvement. The past researches for price & discount sensitivity and reference discount rate explain that price sensitive consumers have narrow reference discount zone and make rational purchase decision. Differently from all time discount scheme of regular sales promotions, the alliance card discount program only provides the right to get discount like discount coupon. And because it is usually once a month opportunity given by the past month usage level, customers tend to perceive alliance card discount as a rare chance to get. So that we can expect customers try to maximize the discount effect when they use the limited discount opportunity. Considering group visiting practice and low visit frequency of family restaurants, the way to maximize discount effect should be the increase the size of visit group. And their sensitivity to discount and rational consumption behavior defer the additional spending for ordering high price menu, even though they get considerable amount of savings from the discount. From the analysis of sales data paid by alliance discount cards for four months, we found the below. 1) The relation between discount rate and number of guest per table is positive : 25% discount results one additional guest 2) The relation between discount rate and the spending per guest is negative. 3) However, total profit amount per table is increased when discount rate is increased. 4) Reward point accumulation & redemption did not show any significant relationship with the increase of number of guests. These results suggest that the allianced discount program substantially contributes to sales increase and profit improvement by increasing the number of guests per table. Though the spending per guest is decreased by discount rate increase, the total amount of profit per table is improved. It seems the incremental profit by increased guest count offsets the profit decrease. Additional intriguing finding is the point reward system does not have any significant impact on the increase of number of guest, even if the point accumulation & redemption of loyalty program are usually regarded as another saving offers by customers. In sum, because it is proved that allianced discount program with credit cards and loyalty cards is effective to both sales drive and profit increase, the alliance card program could be recommended as strategically buyable program.

• Korean journal of food and cookery science
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.531-544
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• 2009

Strategic alliance is increasingly becoming a popular strategy in the family restaurant industry. In general, strategic alliance can be defined as several brands collaborating in technology development, marketing, or production while keeping their independence as separate business entities. This study identified segments on the basis of sales promotion resulting from strategic alliances between family restaurants and card companies. This study further investigated how brand image, brand value, price fairness, customer loyalty and demographics are different among the segments. From the statistical analysis, three segments were found; 'short-period benefits oriented' segment, 'intangible and discount benefits oriented' segment and 'free benefits oriented' segment. Among the three segments, the 'free benefits oriented' and 'intangible and discount benefits oriented' segments had greater perceived brand image, brand value and customer loyalty than the 'short-period benefits oriented' segment.