Restaurant Image Parameters and its Importance in Building Children's Perception for Multinational Fast Food Restaurants

Children and fast food have a symbiotic relationship. As in the case of the situation depicted in the poem titled “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”, the children follow the marketing communications of multinational fast food restaurants, have food, spend some cherishable moments and enjoy. Children are the primary market, influencer market and the future market (Mc Neal, 1999). Hence, the objective of the study was to understand the perception of children for MNC fast food restaurants so that marketers can offer services as per the requirements of the target market and improvise accordingly.

The entire study was conducted taking the help of 410 urban schools going children belonging to the age group of 8 years to 17 years. The study was done in the major cities of Gujarat namely Ahmedabad, Anand, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat. The various restaurant image parameters based on which children select and visit fast food restaurants include the taste of food items, variety of food, quality of food, the location convenience, quantity of food, the interior design, the behaviour of professional staff, cleanliness and low price. The children's consumption pattern for fast food at five MNC fast food restaurants which includes McDonald, Dominos, Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC were also examined. The study revealed that children gave the highest level of importance to taste, variety and quality of food offered at the restaurants.