The Leading Aspirational Restaurant Brand in America is McDonald’s

Success does leave clues and McDonald’s does so many things right day in and day out that many don’t notice all that they do.  One key element of the undercurrents of McDonald’s ongoing success is the fact that they have never strayed too far from their roots offering consistent quality, service, and value. Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® Steven Johnson notes that “McDonalds’s maintains the proper equilibrium with Price, Service, and Value.

Regular readers of the blog know that there are many reasons that McDonald’s has maintained it number one ranking as the most Aspirational brand in the United States as noted in Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant ScoreCards rankings. However while the food industry trade publications gloss over many important facts one key element continues to be the fact that 42,900 Million US consumers continue to receive food assistants as of May 2017.

Families with children receiving food assistance would like nothing more for their child to visit McDonald’s and has a kid’s meal with a toy and fruit.  A visit to McDonald’s may not seem like a treat or splurging too many but to nearly 43 million Americans today that continues to be the case. McDonald’s is has been and will continue to maintain leadership within the fine family food space.

Since 2008, chain restaurants have experienced -14.8 percent same-store traffic growth. Furthermore, throughout 2016, total food and drinking places saw over 2 percent higher sales than chain restaurants, according to Black Box Intelligence’s Market Share report. Essentially, chains are losing their customers to other independent restaurants and thus are suffering the decrease in traffic. We note with the exception of McDonald’s.

The undercurrents of a weak economy continue to haunt many restaurant chains in a new study from RetailMeNot Google Survey found:

1.       Four-fifths of customers say they are likely to visit a new restaurant for a discount, and nearly haf of all customers say they’d return to a restaurant even after a first poor impression if they were offered a deal.”

2.       Families are more concerned about cost saving than solo diners.

3.       Two-fifths of diners (40%) are most likely to search for deals when they are dining with the kids.

4.      Three in 10 consumers (31%) look for discounts when they are dining alone.

5.      When consumers seek out dining discounts, they tend to have certain types of foods in mind Pizza, Mexican, and Italian 39% of consumer want to see more deals available for those and 36% want more deals on burgers at restaurants.

6.      53% of consumers have at least one food and dining app on their phone.

7.      24% have restaurant review apps on their phone and use them.

8.      21% say they have a specific restaurant app on their phone

9.       20% have a third-party app on their phone.

10.   38% of consumers surveyed are willing to travel over 10 miles for a restaurant discount.

Is your brand Aspirational? Are you pricing your company, meals, or menu out of reach of most consumers?  Are your customer counts declining? Have your customers migrated to new non-traditional fresh food outlets simply for price?

Do your marketing tactics look more like yesterday that tomorrow?  Visit www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information or contact: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us Remember success does leave clues and we just may the clue you need to propel your continued success.