The purpose of this study was to analyze the key factors considered important by customers in the selection of a Korean restaurant through the use of conjoint analysis techniques. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed over a 2-week period in October 2011, of which 354 were completed (88.5%). Statistical analysis was then carried out using the Windows 18.0 Statistics package. The research was based on the analysis of two target areas -daily meals and special purpose meals. Responses were measured by using Zaichkowsky's Personal Involvement Inventory (PII) and a 7-point Likert Scale. Overall it was found that in all areas of the results regarding the involvement related analyses, daily meals scored lower than special purpose meals. This implied that the choice of daily meals is more applicable to customers with a low level of involvement, whereas high-involvement customers were more likely to focus on special purpose meals. The analysis of high-involvement customers revealed that the quality of food, price, service quality and physical environment , in order of priority, were the most important factors in selecting a restaurant. The use of the optimum attribute combination revealed the following results: delicious food (0.601); friendly staff (0.170); clean restaurant (0.191); price of 20,000 won (-0.513). Furthermore, low-involvement customers considered the following factors as important when selecting a Korean restaurant: quality of food, followed by price, physical environment and service quality in that order.In this instance, the optimum attribute combination showed the following outcomes: tasty food (0.645); friendly staff (0.418); clean restaurant (0.365); price of 5,000 won (-0.847). These results indicated the importance of developing a marketing plan which was based specifically on a customer's involvement level, focusing on their main selection criteria when choosing a Korean restaurant.
