The Top 100 Most Loved Eating Out Brands 2019 Who is winning the hearts of UK diners? savanta.com Contents Introduction 03 A warm welcome 04 Why a top 100 league table? 05 The (commercial) power of love 06 Putting the report in context 08 Which brands are the top performers? 09 The top 20 most loved eating out brands of 2019 10 Quick service restaurants 11 Fast casual 12 Coffee shops and cafes 13 Pub restaurants 14 Restaurants 15 Cuisines 16 Observations and analysis 18 The experiential drivers of love 19 Fostering meaningful brand relationships 20 Embracing innovation 22 – The rise of plant-based foods and alternative proteins 22 – Tech: a true sectoral game-changer? 24 The league table in full 25 No. 1 - 100 26 How Savanta can help you 29 Our core areas of service delivery 30 Our BrandVue data engine 31 The team behind the report 32 savanta.com Introduction 04 – A warm welcome 05 – Why a top 100 league table? 06 – The (commercial) power of love 08 – Putting the report in context savanta.com 3 Introduction A warm welcome Welcome to the Top 100 Most Loved Eating H2O Publishing is delighted Out Brands – a recognition and celebration to be collaborating with Savanta on of the most emotively connected dining the Top 100 Most Loved Eating Out Brands. brands in 2019, brought to you by Savanta It’s a valuable exercise in helping explain current turbulence and avoid the bear in partnership with H2O – the leading just why customers love the brands traps – not straying too far from the they do and, of course, who is the most core proposition DNA, or losing the drive foodservice publishers in the UK popular on the high street. for continuous, relevant innovation. Within this report we reveal the provided on how to best nurture brand Such insight in relation to brands is Our league table of loved brands will most loved eating out brands on affinity – across both functional and imperative, as, let’s make no bones about highlight who is ‘winning’ in the brand the high street – with performance emotional dimensions. The underlying it, the current trading environment is a space – and start to explore why they rankings straddling brands from the links between love and commercial tough one. The eating out vertical is being are succeeding as well as flagging restaurant, pub, coffee shop, and performance will also be uncovered. buffeted by macro-economic and sectoral a few lessons learnt along the way. quick service/fast casual verticals. Furthermore, we will drill into what it headwinds (escalating rents, business We hope you enjoy. The consumer insight is drawn from the means for a customer to be ‘in love’ with rates, labour costs) in tandem with falling Tristan O’Hana, opinions of some 100,000 diners, through a brand – helping operators understand, high-street footfall and over-supply. Editorial Director – H2O Publishing Savanta’s market intelligence platform in far more granular detail, the drivers of That said, it’s not impossible to BrandVue Eating Out: the largest and true brand affinity as well as the levers succeed. The rewards are there for most comprehensive brand, audience and to pull in creating and deepening the love. those brands that can ride out the customer tracking engine in the market. All the best and happy reading. Over the following pages fresh, Scott Dodgson, cross-category perspectives will be Account Director – Savanta savanta.com 4 Introduction Why a top So, let’s compare apples with 100 league apples. To this end, we have also compiled a top three of brand love table? across the following sub-sectors: Pub restaurants Restaurants Coffee / cafe That’s easy. Over the last few months we’ve lost count of the number of occasions on which we’ve been asked… ‘So, how is our brand doing?’ followed by… ‘How does that compare to our competitors then…is that good?’ Quick service Fast casual Whilst, it is – of course – important we acknowledge that relative brand restaurants dining performance is only part of proposition success, it is a central plank. Plus, true brand affinity (love) has real bottom-line value – as we’ll validate a little later. Context is all though. Whilst we can draw some conclusions Additionally, we’ve taken a look at ‘cuisine love’. Given – as with the other from the helicopter view of the eating out space, brand associations, territories – analysis of this area provides learnings from which we can draw value perceptions and experiential benchmarks vary wildly by sub-sector. some real insight and direction. Particularly when it comes to true brand love. As an illustration, the Caffè Nero, coffee-shop, grab-and-go occasion is clearly a very different experience to visiting Côte for your anniversary. savanta.com 5 Introduction The (commercial) power of love Given though that the average level Of course, we know – often painfully of love in our league table is around so – that brands can grow without being ten percent, a healthy incremental loved. ‘Buying’ love can be achieved by increase would be a single simply opening more outlets, offering percentage point or more. heavy discounts and/or operating With the (mean) average visitation of in locations where there is minimal any brand within our league table sitting competition. But, critically, is this the at three times a year, a single point most cost-effective investment and is Love’s nice, but it doesn’t increase in brand love would equate it sustainable in the long-term? Recent to a 4.6% uplift in footfall. This is even high-profile brand implosions and estate pay the bills...or does it? more impactful for those high-frequency rationalisation activity may suggest not. sub-categories (i.e. coffee/cafe). The fundamental question is whether At a very basic level, there is a relationship it’s worth trying to be more loved by between the extent to which consumers consumers. Our league table certainly love an eating out brand and their venue confirms that the top spots are held visitation. Analysis of behavioural visit by some very valuable brands, but is patterns (of those propositions featuring there a quantifiable business case for in our top 100), reveals two-fifths of visits moving up the table? The answer is yes. are linked – to some degree – to the love We have undertaken extensive statistical of the brand. With almost a quarter (23%) “ The greater the love, analysis on the data held within our of visits absolutely depending upon BrandVue Eating Out platform, to brand love. the greater the dining uncover the business impact of being Regardless of business size, for those loved. In doing so, we have arrived brands which develop true affection at some enlightening findings – – and ultimately love – customer visit frequency; for a 7% increase helping casual dining operators make frequency increases. The greater the a compelling case for investing in love, the greater the dining frequency; in brand love, there’s an becoming more loved or, at the very least, for a 7% increase in brand love, there’s the avoidance of becoming unloved. an extra visit per customer. extra visit per customer.” savanta.com 6 Introduction Visit frequency vs love How can my brand The strength of the relationship between love and number of visits become more loved? We can see that people love McDonald’s and visit often, while Miller & Carter is a rare treat. While Pret’s customers visit often, they don’t Further analysis of the underlying drivers of brand love reveal some interesting seem to display a great affinity for the sandwich chain. findings which can help marketers and customer experience managers take practical steps to increase footfall – as well as make appropriate investment cases to key decision-makers (and budget holders). 9 McDonald’s Crucially, the drivers of brand love to directly contribute to the bottom are quite different from other, line. Customer experience innovation, 8 more familiar, KPIs – such as NPS without involving capital or pricing, (Net Promoter Score). Research in can yield double-digit growth.* 2018 by Savanta into the drivers of NPS Money can’t buy you love, but investment 7 Costa revealed customers’ brand advocacy is in great service and innovation can. It’s conditioned heavily by rational factors possible to sustain an unloved business, Greggs such as the deliciousness of the food, but progress is slower and expensive 6 the freshness of the ingredients etc. – dependent upon new openings, as well as (too often) discounting. Starbucks Love drivers, on the other hand, are much more emotional — potentially Investing in becoming more loved, 5 because love is something more through innovation, service and Pret Domino’s private and intangible, as well as atmosphere will enrich the business less about defending an opinion. by increasing average customer Annual visit frequency visit frequency Annual 4 This is about contributing to the frequency. For chains, even the smaller Nando’s delivery of a (consistently) positive ones, incremental gains per customer personal experience. Our analysis add up – eventually making a tangible 3 of the key drivers of brand love difference to the bottom line. include prompt and friendly service, Creams Cafe Let’s also not forget, the more as well as restaurant ambience. visitors who experience your great Miller & Carter 2 The significance of this is that our food, the greater the word of mouth. findings empower the marketing and Recommendation is still the number one customer experience teams reason to trial a new eating out venue. 1 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% * Please note, far greater detail on the associated analysis is provided % of people who love the brand later within ‘The experiential drivers of love’ section.