Restaurant & fast food brand index 2019 Q3

Every quarter we survey British consumers on their brand awareness and preferences in relation to the restaurant and fast food sector. Our latest insights into this industry can be found below. Plus, in Q1 of each year we dive even deeper into the data to create an in-depth report on the state of the industry.

To jump straight to our 2019 restaurant & fast food brand index report, click below:

To compile this quarter’s restaurant & fast food brand index below, we looked at three things:

  • Percentage of unprompted brand recall within the restaurant and fast food category
  • How likely a person is to purchase each brand (purchase intent)
  • How likely a person is to recommend each brand (net promoter score)

Key changes in brand attributes

Our recent future of food report revealed some of the UK’s new and surprising eating habits. For instance, over half of consumers are actively trying to reduce their sugar intake, and 26% are consciously reducing the amount of meat they eat. 

With changing eating habits that are fueled by science, the environment, governmental laws and the consumer tastes, restaurants need to keep their ear to the ground to keep up. If brands fail to match consumers’ calls for healthier, more plant-based diets, they could be replaced by a competitor. 

Each quarter we ask consumers to rank the top 10 restaurant and fast food brands they named in eight category-specific attributes. Here are the main winners, losers and movers this quarter:

  • Subway is this quarters’ most successful brand across these attributes. While they won the highest weighted ranking in three of the key attributes last quarter (reliability, service and food quality), this quarter they add three more titles: most conveniently located restaurants, most innovative brand and the most inclusive menu for those with dietary requirements. Back in April, the sub chain added vegan options to their permanent menu for the first time. Three months later, word of the inclusive menu has reached consumers, who gave Subway the highest weighted ranking in this attribute. As the world’s largest fast food chain, it’s doing something right.
  • Another brand to take top spot for an attribute is McDonald’s. They receive the highest weighted ranking for memorable branding, despite recently retiring their instantly recognisable mascot – Ronald McDonald – from all UK ads following new advertising standards rules. At the other end of the scale, McDonald’s was also voted as the brand with the least inclusive menu, and offering the poorest food quality. 
  • The only other brand to receive the highest weighted ranking in one of the attributes is JD Wetherspoon, which is deemed to be the best-priced restaurant on the British High Street. 
  • For a second quarter, Frankie & Benny’s takes the highest number of low scores. In Q3 they’re thought of as having the least convenient locations, being unreliable, and highly priced. Despite rising from 10th to 9th place in the leaderboard overall, the chain restaurant will need to focus on these areas to bring consumers back on-side in the coming months. 
RestaurantBrandIndex

Key takeaways

  • Despite a brief fling in first place last quarter, McDonald’s have now dropped back down to second place behind Nando’s. McDonald’s lose ground in purchase intent and NPS this quarter, allowing them to be overtaken by Nando’s who increase in these two metrics. 
  • Pizza Hut knock Pizza Express out of the top three, to take the crown as the most memorable pizza chain. Rising from 6th place in Q2 (and demoting Pizza Express to 6th place this quarter), Pizza Hut drive up their Total Brand Equity score by improving in all three of the key metrics, most notably their NPS which almost doubles over the course of three months, from 16.1 to 31.7. 
  • Just one brand enters the leaderboard this quarter. Prezzo, which ranks in 10th place overall and pushes Just Eat out of the leaderboard, in what might be a positive sign for the High Street restaurants increasingly threatened by home delivery services. We’re left with a leaderboard of 10 brands that can be found on any UK High Street, and no delivery service has received a high enough recall to make it into the top 10. Even though restaurants still continue to close branches, these ten brands can feel confident that they have a place in consumers’ minds, for the time being…

The full report

The report includes:

  • The UK’s leading restaurant & fast food brands for awareness, purchase intent and net promoter score
  • Overall brand strength and total brand equity index
  • Industry averages and market dynamics
  • Key takeaways for the UK restaurant & fast food industry

The report is based on a nationally representative survey of 1000 people in the UK (aged 18+), surveyed in January 2019. 

Brand index methodology

The Attest brand index is a platform agnostic measure of a brand’s total brand equity in the health and wellness sector, as determined by real consumers.

What does that mean?

When we say ‘platform agnostic’, we mean the results are not influenced by any particular method of collecting them, like looking exclusively at social media mentions or at brand search terms. This reduces bias and gives us a more accurate view of a brand’s strength in their category.

Learn more about why we think this is the best methodology for brand intelligence.

Brand index data is gathered every quarter from a nationally representative survey to 1,000 UK consumers aged 18-65.

Attest

Content Team 

Our in-house marketing team is always scouring the market for the next big thing. This piece has been lovingly crafted by one of our team members. Attest's platform makes gathering consumer data as simple and actionable as possible.

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