Posted

Brands ranked below the category average in alphabetical order: Applebee’s, Bahama Breeze, Benihana, BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse, Bonefish Grill, Carrabba’s Italian Grill, Chili’s Grill & Bar, Dave & Buster’s, Denny’s, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Romano’s Macaroni Grill and Italian Restaurant, Ruby Tuesday, Shoney’s, TGI Fridays​. TEXAS ROADHOUSE: Casual dining: The heartbeat of the American consumer. If there’s one thing the micro-chain movement taught us about casual dining, it’s that restaurants can’t bank checks entirely on brand equity. This generation of customers is less forgiving and sticky. They’re not as much brand loyal as product and lifestyle loyal. They hold chains accountable across the marketing and operational spectrum, everything from sourcing to mission statements, community involvement, seamless ordering, design, and pretty much every other element inside and outside a brand’s personality. But what these legacy chains can do, however, is put that scale behind disruptive industry trends. While you could tap delivery, off-premises in general, mobile access, and technology advancements as opportunity fire starters, they’re also headwinds. All restaurants want to drive frequency, of course, yet how many can invest significant marketing spend in a value campaign?

And it’s not just about competing on price. Casual players with strong guest affinity have an opportunity to court guests via loyalty. They have the data wealth and segmentation tools to target customers with comeback deals and other incentives independents typically don’t. The ability to go well beyond the email list and Facebook updates, if leveraged smartly. Does this help cover some of the ground chains lose to local spots in regards to younger consumers? Brinker International CEO Wyman Roberts said of Chili’s in May, “there’s a consistent pattern of over performance by larger concepts versus smaller concepts. So the independents and the smaller concepts really now, for a while, have been losing share to the larger concepts, and we continue to see that as probably something that will play itself out into the future.” What he was referring to was Chili’s ability to lean into its marketing spend and promote a value construct in ways regional or single-unit concepts couldn’t. Chili’s moved away from traditional marketing—bringing new news to consumers—to a more guest-centric model that focuses on embedded traits that don’t change by the promotional calendar. There’s also the rise of at-home dining to consider (according to industry data, 28 percent of consumers stay at home more versus two years ago) and how equity-heavy brands can compete.

Dining out of home represents an $870 billion slice of the restaurant industry. Casual-dining amounts to roughly $86 billion of that competitive set, according to NPD. How does this affect the big brands? Firstly, there’s the ability to strike massive deals with aggregators, as Chili’s just did with DoorDash. There’s also the notion of restaurant models themselves. Just glancing at some legacy players, like IHOP, Buffalo Wild Wings, Denny’s, and Outback, you see innovation in the footprint. Most chain restaurateurs would agree, if they could rewind time with a crystal ball in the desk drawer, they would take another look at how restaurants were thought out from a functional perspective. A dedicated pick-up element. The ability to integrate POS technology with third-party delivery, etc. Bloomin’ Brands, in one example, has a relocation strategy that moved 50 Outbacks since 2012 (14 last year). Those units are witnessing a 30 percent sales lift. Before relocation, they averaged $2.9 million AUVs. After: $4.1 million. Bloomin’ said there’s potential for at least 50 more relocations (11 in 2019). Outback is currently testing multiple design prototypes that modernize the brand and expand the off-premises room to handle higher order volumes. Buffalo Wild Wings’ restaurant of the future showcases a takeout area enclosed separately with its own dedicated entrance. The space features a sauce bottle wall and TVs for guests. Outside there are designated parking spots for off-premises orders. However you look at it, these coming months will be interesting for all sit-down restaurants. Casual dining, like fast food, has often represented the heartbeat of the American consumer. It’s why the segment struggled mightily a few years back when its innovation lagged a shifting guest preference. And it’s why some brands have managed to climb back into positive territory while others still search for fresh ways to grab share. So how do they all stack up: The Harris Poll, in its 31st edition, released its 2019 EquiTrend Brands of Year. It’s based on a sample of 45,541 US consumers ages 15 and over surveyed online, in English, in the month of January. A brand’s Equity is determined by a calculation of Familiarity, Quality and Purchase Consideration. Brand of the Year is determined by a simple ranking of brands. Each respondent was asked to rate a total of 40 randomly selected brands. Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings. Data was weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. population of consumers ages 15 and over based on age by sex, education, race/ethnicity, region, income, and data from respondents ages 18 and over were also weighted for their propensity to be online. – Source: fsrmagazine.

 

Leave a Reply