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Purpose This study aims to provide empirical evidence to verify the dimensional structure of artificial intelligence (AI) Chatbot quality and examine the impact of these dimensions on consumer satisfaction and brand advocacy among Gen Z in the fast food industry in Egypt. Design/methodology/approach The empirical data was obtained with an electronic self-administered survey instrument from 397 young consumers who had prior experience using AI Chatbots across multiple fast food brands in Egypt. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the formulated hypotheses. Findings The results showed that AI Chatbot quality dimensions, specifically information authenticity and system compliance, significantly enhance young consumers’ satisfaction. In addition, information authenticity of AI Chatbot quality was observed to wield a significant influence on young consumers’ advocacy. In contrast, an insignificant relationship was noticed between satisfaction and advocacy. Moreover, the mediating role of consumer satisfaction was not established. Practical implications Given that Gen Z is more technology savvy and computer literate, marketers and practitioners of fast food brands should invest in AI tools to respond to young consumers’ expectations and improve their perception of their services. Originality/value This study uses stimulus-organism-response theory to understand the mediating effect of young consumers’ satisfaction in the relationship between AI Chatbot quality and consumer brand advocacy within the fast food industry. Also, it introduced two novel main constructs of AI Chatbot quality, namely, information authenticity and system compliance.

The serendipitous emergence of social media at the turn of this century created new uncensored avenues for the advertising industry. This created conditions conducive to peddling controversial ads or shockvertising. Controversial ads came as a result of the need to breakthrough the advertising clutter. The pervasiveness of controversial ads created mixed feelings among the audience. In order to avoid offending some target markets, advertisers are now faced with a daunting task of channeling their controversial ads to the target market groups that are likely to respond favorably. This study therefore seeks to determine the differential effects of controversial advertisements across various demographic groups. A sample of 1200 respondents was surveyed from one of the leading fast-food restaurants that regularly flight controversial ads laced with sexual humor in Zimbabwe. The data were analyzed using factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study revealed that in general shockvertising was well appreciated across all demographic groups studied. There were some differential effects of age and marital status on the ad evaluation. However, there were no differential effects on gender, religion, and levels of education on ad evaluation. The study recommended the use of controversial ads as they can manage to cut through the information clutter. Advertisers, however, should emphasize more on the youth and the single consumers since they appreciate controversial ads more than other demographic groups.

Despite big differences in culture, types of food, retail environments and the brands on offer, the loyalty of Australian and Taiwanese consumers to fast food outlets is nearly identical. In both countries, a third of buyers purchase from the same branded outlet twice in a row, while two thirds buy from a different outlet, usually of a bigger brand. This was true for all brands, regardless of the type of food on offer or whether the brand was local or global. The analysis also confirmed that partitioning is limited, although there is some partitioning of the Australian market based on functional differences. The management implications are that marketers would be best served by aiming to attract customers rather than aiming to encourage loyalty, and that small sets of survey data can be usefully employed to reveal underlying market structure and brand performance measures. This is especially helpful in data-poor markets and categories.

This study examines the effect of green practices on green brand equity, and it looks at the impact of green brand attachment and green skepticism as mediating variables on these relationships. We employed a dataset of 454 consumers from international fast-food restaurants. Our empirical results indicate that green practices enhance consumer-based green brand equity. Green skepticism has a significant negative effect on green brand attachment, and green brand attachment has a significant positive effect on green brand equity. Green brand attachment mediates the relationship between green practices and green brand equity and between green skepticism and green brand equity. The study findings provide consumer insights into green products and managerial implications for international fast-food chains.

The big data of user-generated content (UGC) on social media are laden with potential value for brand managers. However, there are many obstacles to using big data to answer brand-management questions. This article presents a framework that automatically derives latent brand topics and classifies brand sentiments. It applies text mining with latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) and sentiment analysis on 1.7 million unique tweets for 20 brands across five industries: fast food, department store, footwear, electronics, and telecommunications. The framework is used to explore four brand-related questions on Twitter. There are three main findings. First, product, service, and promotions are the dominant topics of interest when consumers interact with brands on Twitter. Second, consumer sentiments toward brands vary within and across industries. Third, separate company-specific analyses of positive and negative tweets generate a more accurate understanding of Twitter users' major brand topics and sentiments. Our findings provide brand managers with actionable insights in targeted advertising, social customer relationship management (CRM), and brand management.

Food marketing restrictions often apply nutrient profile models (NPM) to distinguish unhealthy products that should not be advertised, however brand-only marketing remains largely unaddressed. We sought to test a threshold method for classifying packaged food, beverage, or fast-food brands as (non)permitted for marketing, based on the nutrient profile of their product-lines. We retrieved nutrient information from the Nutritrack databases for all products sold by the top 51 packaged food, beverage and fast-food brands in New Zealand, selected by market share. All products under each brand were classified as permitted (or not) to be marketed to children, using the NPM for WHO Western Pacific. The 25%, 50%, 75% and 90% threshold of brands' products permitted to market were compared. The 50% and 75% thresholds were compared to the WHO CLICK method, which is based on assessment of the brand's leading product. The 90% threshold permitted 13% of the brands to be marketed to children. The 25% threshold permitted the marketing of 62% of brands. The 50% and 75% thresholds remained highly sensitive in identifying brands that should not be marketed to children. Comparison to the WHO CLICK method identified that a threshold method is more comprehensive and less arbitrary. A threshold model based on product-line nutrient profiling provides a robust and option for brand classification. The 50% and 75% thresholds may be the most politically preferred options for use in regulation, while remaining highly effective. Brand marketing (e.g. sponsorship) remains largely unaddressed in existing restrictions on unhealthy food and beverage marketing to children.An established Nutrient Profile Model can be applied to a brand's entire product line, allowing calculation of the proportion of products that would not be permitted to be advertised to children.Restricting brand marketing for food and beverage brands with less than 50% or 75% of their products classified as 'permitted to be marketed to children' is a robust and evidence-based method that can be applied in regulation, with potential to mitigate industry challenges.

PurposeThis study aimed to determine whether the brand image of fast-food restaurants moderates the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty among Chilean customers.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted using a structural equation modeling approach and involved a sample of 1,000 fast-food customers who were surveyed through nonprobabilistic sampling with a questionnaire consisting of 21 items. The instrument underwent validation by a panel of experts, and the results obtained were processed using the statistical software Smart PLS4. Convergent validity, discriminant validity and the structural model were tested to assess the acceptance or rejection of the proposed hypotheses.FindingsThe results of the research indicate that product quality, service quality and physical environment are crucial factors influencing customer satisfaction and shaping customer loyalty. However, it was found that brand image does not moderate the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty in fast-food consumption.Originality/valueThe present study contributes to the field of knowledge on fast-food consumption behavior and unveils findings that help fill knowledge gaps regarding the influence of restaurant brand image on the relationship between satisfaction and consumption loyalty. Thus, it demonstrates that, for certain customers, the brand becomes an irrelevant factor for their consumption loyalty as long as the restaurant offers product quality, excellent service and a pleasant physical environment.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the impact of symbolic and functional incongruity on brand hate. According to self-congruity theory, symbolic and functional congruence are a critical phenomenon in consumer buying decisions. Therefore, the present study develops a theoretical framework based on self-congruity theory to examine the key determinants of brand hate.Design/methodology/approachData were collected only in fast-food chain franchises in the capital city territory of Pakistan. Therefore, it is hard to generalize the findings of this research for customers from different cultural backgrounds.FindingsThe results of the study reveal that symbolic and functional incongruence are the primary factors responsible for brand hate among Pakistani fast-food customers. Customers carefully consider both self-image and product attributes when purchasing products.Research limitations/implicationsThe research uses the cross-sectional method, which limits the findings’ usefulness in other sectors.Practical implicationsThe current research helps policymakers understand the key determinants of brand hate, showing that symbolic incongruence is the primary antecedent. Therefore, policymakers and corporate leaders should consider that Pakistan is an Islamic country where consumer choices of food are not only derived from food quality, food hygiene and service quality, but also the symbolic image (i.e. halal food) is a vital determinant of consumption.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by discussing the above issue and presenting quantitative data. This research extends the literature by testing and validating a conceptual model that includes two types of congruence (symbolic and functional) to study brand hate. The proposed conceptual model provides a novel, theoretical, self-congruity point of view on brand hate.

Objectives To explore the promotion of fast food to lower-income adolescents on Instagram with the specific aims of (i) identifying the marketing strategies used by fast food brands on Instagram to promote fast food to Nigerian adolescents and (ii) examining the influence of these strategies on user engagement. Design A content analysis of posts from a 90-day period of the Instagram accounts of five fast-food brands in Nigeria was conducted. Overall, 576 posts were analysed, using a codebook developed based on the relevant literature, to identify adolescent-targeted strategies. User engagement was measured by number of likes each post received. Results The observed brands frequently utilised adolescent-targeted marketing strategies, with the most popular strategies being emotional appeal, ‘teen language’ and product appeal. The results of Mann-Whitney U tests revealed significant associations between the use of these promotional strategies and user engagement. Adolescent-aimed strategies like product appeal and competitions resulted in higher user engagement with fast food promotional content. Conclusion Fast food companies heavily target lower income adolescents through the use of Instagram. This raises health concerns related to the consumption of unhealthy food that arises from regular advertising in that demographic. Further, this exposure increases ad interactions that could cause adolescents to view fast foods more positively. Overall, findings indicate the need for actions aiming to limit and reduce the effect of adolescents’ exposure to fast food marketing on social media, to target the features of social media platforms which affords users the ability to interact with fast food advertisements.

PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the impact of social media advertising features (interactivity, perceived relevance, informativeness and entertainment) on brand engagement in the fast food industry. It was also designed to identify the effect of brand engagement on purchase intention.Design/methodology/approachThe data was gathered from 258 customers of fast food restaurants in United Arab Emirates using an online survey. The collected data was analyzed via the partial least square approach (PLS-SEM) to verify the hypotheses and reach at conclusions.FindingsThe findings indicated that social media advertising features have positive effects on brand engagement. In particular, it was found that interactivity, perceived relevance, informativeness and entertainment are positively associated with brand engagement. The results also confirmed that brand engagement has a positive effect on purchase intention.Originality/valueThis study provides a noteworthy contribution to the literature by examining the effect of four unique social media advertising features on consumer engagement. By looking at previous studies, it can also be observed there is a limited empirical research on the effect of perceived relevance and informativeness on brand engagement. It further focuses on covering existing gaps in the literature concerning the effect of brand engagement on purchase intention in the fast food industry setting. This is one of the earlier studies that collectively examined these factors in model; particularly, in fast food industry setting with empirical data from a Middle East country.