Application of a balanced attribute satiation model to predict consumer utility for multiple item meal bundles in restaurants.

摘要

A bundle is a subset of items drawn from a product line and offered for sale for a single price. Many industries engage in bundling in order to improve profits and market share. In capacity-constrained services, bundling can be used to accomplish the same things as yield management tools. Restaurant managers bundle menu items into multiple-item meal offers in order to increase capacity utilization and average check, decrease marginal costs, avoid direct price comparisons with competitors, and market new menu items. Consumers find multi-item meal offers attractive due to price savings, simpler decision making and value.;It has long been recognized that the consumer's utility for a bundle can be more than, equal to, or less than the sum of the individual item utilities. In the case of multi-item restaurant meals, some combinations of items may enhance the meal, while others may detract from it. Similarly, the number of items and amount of food may be too much, too little or just right. In order to bundle effectively, restaurant managers need a way to predict the consumer's utility for different combinations of menu items.;The Balance model (Farquhar and Rao 1976) and Attribute Satiation model (McAlister 1979) were identified as candidates to solve the restaurant manager's utility prediction problem. In addition, a hybrid "Balanced Attribute Satiation" model was formulated. An empirical study involving 63 combinations of items drawn from a simple restaurant menu of 12 food items (sandwiches, side orders and desserts) was administered to 225 subjects. Contrary to prior research results, it was found that the Attribute Satiation model did not predict utility better than the Balance model. Consistent with prior work, all three sophisticated models predicted better than the simple additive model of subset utility. The hybrid "Balanced Attribute Satiation" model had better model fit and prediction ability than the other competing models,;It was concluded that restaurant managers should use the Balanced Attribute Satiation Model to predict consumer utility for bundled meal offers they may consider.