Londoners - always out and about

They typically eat out on more different days of the week too than the rest of the country. This is not just about the working week, it’s also driven by Sundays, when London, perhaps surprisingly to some, has the highest proportion of people eating out.

It also is the region with the highest number of different day-parts when people eat out—it’s a round-the-clock habit too. A key difference in the capital is the high proportion of eating out at breakfast and mid-morning—plus a greater propensity to eat out later in the evening.

The big challenge for operators, particularly the leading chains, in the capital is increasing brand promiscuity among the public, see Brand-to-brand combat

Rising to the occasion
The May BrandTrack survey asked about the kind of occasions for which consumers used particular brands. Unsurprisingly, the leading occasions are meals with partner or spouse, meals with friends and meals with family. In general pub restaurants have a higher proportion of their business from families, with high street casual dining chains having a higher proportion of eating out with friends.

Casual eating-out is also becoming a part of other out of home activities, such as shopping. Typically one in eight customers of brands use them when out shopping, and one in 12 use them before or after another activity such as going to the cinema—though this is as much as one in eight for brands such as Nando’s, Chiquitos and Las Iguanas.

For people wanting a ‘quick bite’ the dominant choice is coffee and sandwich retailers and, of course, the quick service brands.

A meal with children is mentioned by an average of 10% of brand users, but predictably this is a more polarised occasion, ranging from one in five brand users of Pizza Hut and McDonalds, down to less than 5% in the coffee brands. The research tackles the question of the importance of family eating in more depth. That data is available to BrandTrack subscribers.