Case study on Design Characteristics for Restaurant Space in a Non-commercial Area Zone - Focused on Uniqueness and Curiosity from the Spacial Marketing Perspective -

The purpose of this study is to identify design elements for restaurant space in a non-commercial area and propose them for profit improvements of founders with small capital. As the barriers for market entry declines, new players in restaurant business has stiffen the competition and increased risk. So, it is crucial to reduce the investment costs for better risk management. In this paper, a non-commercial area is considered as an alternative location for a restaurant, and a survey is conducted to analyze the uniqueness and curiosity of the restaurants. Uniqueness and curiosity are worth studying as they are important factors of decision making. The survey was conducted on 121 individuals between 20’s and 40’s who are target customers of the restaurants. The survey measures the level of uniqueness and curiosity via images of the restaurant: how likely you will visit it, what are design elements that make it unique and curious. The results are as follows: Firstly, the respondents said positively about the degree of uniqueness and curiosity of the restaurants. The interior design elements are perceived to be more important than exterior design elements. Secondly, uniqueness and curiosity had a positive corelation with number of visits. Uniqueness in the interior space and curiosity in the exterior space have a higher influence on customers. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance effects by expressing curiosity on the exterior and uniqueness on the interior. Thirdly, the exterior shape of the restaurant is regarded as the most factor to induce the uniqueness and curiosity of the space. And the elements of spacial design related to shape such as layout, ceiling, sign are found to be more important than color. Therefore, it is necessary to actively utilize the formative factors to induce uniqueness and curiosity. The study can be a useful basic resource for the spacial marketing to supplement the disadvantages in a non-commercial area.