The Influence of Food Aromas on Restaurant Consumer Emotions, Perceptions, and Purchases

ABSTRACT

The effect of basil, bacon, and hickory-smoked beef aromas on customers’ emotions, perceptions of food quality, and the restaurant environment, as well as entrée selection was investigated. Following an experiment, a survey with 196 responses showed that food aromas had a positive influence on some emotions (pleasure, but not arousal), as well as customers’ impressions of the general food quality and restaurant environment; however, the hypotheses that food aromas influenced congruent entrée choices (e.g., the basil aroma increased purchase of basil containing entrees) were not supported. The findings have direct applications for the restaurant industry and offer suggestions for research.

罗勒，影响熏肉和山核桃熏牛肉的香气对消费者的情绪，食品质量的看法，和餐厅的环境，以及企业的选择进行了研究。下面的一个实验，196个反应的调查显示，食物的香味已经在一些情绪的积极影响（高兴，但不兴奋），以及客户的印象一般食品质量和餐厅的环境；然而，食物的香气的影响一致的入口选择的假设（例如，罗勒香气增加罗勒含有主菜购买）不支持。研究结果对餐饮业有直接的应用价值，并为研究提供建议。

KEYWORDS:

• Food aroma
• food choices
• restaurant
• processing fluency theory
• stimulus-organism-response model
• congruent purchasing behavior