Upwardly mobile?

To provide a flavour of these results, we focus here on the status of the 24 restaurant brands we measure, in the eyes of their own customers. On average one in five customers strongly agree that the brand they use is on the way up—but that’s ranges from as low as 9%, to a high of 38%. We will spare the blushes of the brand for whom under one in ten of its own customers believes it to be on the way up, but our leader board is headed up by two of the more upscale brands, Brown’s and Loch Fyne, closely followed—perhaps unsurprisingly—by Jamie’s Italian.

That’s the situation among all diners. But this is a dynamic issue, and arguably the best position is to be seen to be on the up by your younger diners—your future business.

On this measure, Jamie’s Italian is the leader among brands’ under-35 diners. Over four in ten of its young adult diners strongly agree it is a brand on the way up. Close behind are Las Iguanas and Nando’s, but a special mention is due here for TGI Friday’s—a brand that surely would not have appeared in this top five a decade ago, and a tribute to the turn-round work done at the brand.

There is no doubt that when we look at the five most dynamic brands among 18-34 users, there are three key brand attributes that are disproportionately associated with these brands: exciting, cool, and fun.

Peach BrandTrack provides indepth analysis of the top 55 eating out brands in the UK–and is used by a string of leading operators to benchmark brand performance. It’s both scientific and exhaustive. Here are some of the other highlights of the latest survey carried out among 5,000 consumers in October 2012.

Restaurant brands on the way up
As perceived by brand's own customers
1 Browns 38%
2 Loch Fyne 37%
3 Jamie's Italian 35%
4= Las Iguanas 28%
4= Nando's 28%

Restaurant brands on the way up among 18-34 users of each brand
As perceived by brand's own customers
1 Jamie's Italian 42%
2 Las Iguanas 36%
3 Nando's 35%
4= TGI Friday's 30%
4= Wagamama 30%

Coolest brands
% of users describing brand as cool
1 Las Iguanas 45%
2 YO! Sushi 44%
3= TGI Friday's 43%
3= Browns 43%
5 Giraffe 40%
6 Wagamama 39%
7 Nando's 33%
8 All Bar One 32%
9= Chiquito's 31%
9= Gourmet Burger Kitchen 31%

Healthiest brands
% describing the brand as healthy
1 YO! Sushi 51%
2 Loch Fyne 49%
3 Subway 42%
4 Wagamama 41%
5 Pret a Manger 32%
6 Eat 27%
7 Giraffe 26%
8 Harvester 23%
9= Nando's 22%
10 Zizzi 22%

Source: Peach BrandTrack, October 2012. Sample 4,860, source Toluna.