Olive Garden (Chapter 3)

Olive Garden has become one of the most well-known Italian-type restaurants. It is promoted as a family-oriented restaurant that provides quality food and service. The restaurant chain has a good understanding of consumer behavior and how consumers select restaurants. Access the following resources then answer the questions listed.

Resources:

• Television ad “Holiday Promotion”
  
• Television ad “Signature Favorites”
  
• Television ad “New Tastes”
  
• Olive Garden’s YouTube Channel
• Olive Garden’s Facebook
• Olive Garden’s Twitter
• Olive Garden’s Website

Discussion Questions:

1. After watching the three television ads, discuss each component of attitude formation and how the ads approach each. Which attitude component sequence is most dominant? Explain why.
2. Look at the consumer values listed in the chapter. Which consumer values do you see promoted in the three television ads? Explain.
3. In selecting a restaurant, which of the three evaluation alternatives is used most frequently by consumers? Explain how Olive Garden approaches the evaluation of alternatives in its television ads as well as the YouTube channel.
4. What information and videos are on Olive Garden’s YouTube channel? Discuss why you believe Olive Garden place these items on the YouTube channel.
5. Examine Olive Garden’s website, Facebook page, and Twitter page. What common elements do you see? What differences do you see? How well does Olive Garden integrate these three digital sources with its YouTube channel and television ads? Explain.
6. Examine the consumer buyer behavior trends presented in the chapter. Which trends does Olive Garden seem to utilize in its marketing communications? Explain with specific examples from their resources listed.