Leger is proud to release its new report on restaurant choice drivers for U.S. consumers. The report, which is available on Leger’s website, details the top reasons why restaurant goers choose the establishment that they want in each restaurant sector, including quick-service, convenient dine, and fine dining restaurants.
The data was collected by using a representative sample of U.S. consumers who have visited restaurants in the last month, and then were asked to analyze their choice based on the type of restaurant they visited.
Top 5 key takeaways of the study:
- Value:
- Value is still a key driver within the context of a brand’s segment. However, value is more than just price. Options play a key driver for quick-service restaurants (QSRs), as entrée and side dish options are the top answers for why U.S. consumers choose one restaurant over the other. The experience plays a larger role as we move up to convenient dine and fine dine categories, as it was a top 3 driver in both categories.
- Convenience:
- While convenience or fast service may be important depending on the occasion, these drivers ranked in the middle of the order. This may be because there’s little or no perceived differentiation between brands in each respective segment.
- Experience:
- For QSRs, the experience can be enhanced by providing options, as mentioned previously in the value takeaway. But, for Convenient and Fine Dine locations, the experience goes beyond menu items to other factors. For convenient dine locations, the existence of a loyalty program and the use of local ingredients were the top two drivers, showing that the menu is not the only way to impact the consumer. For fine-dine locations, local ingredients and specials with discount pricing were the top two drivers.
- Differentiation:
- The key to getting customers to return to the restaurant one more time is uniqueness versus their competition. That could be a menu item, menu options, a special experience, a relationship or something else. The key is finding that difference that ranks high enough to evoke an additional visit. For example, chef specials ranked as the third-highest driver for convenient-dine restaurants, and seasonal menu items was the third-highest driver for fine-dining restaurants.
- Next steps:
- The important next step for a brand is to see where they rate versus their direct competition, and to see where they can differentiate going forward.
