Consumer Casual Restaurant Dining Trends, A SurveyMonkey Audience Case Study (April 2012)

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Case Study – Restaurants Understanding consumer dining and spending habits •  Brinker International (EAT) •  Cheesecake Factory (CAKE) •  Darden Restaurants (DRI)

April 2012

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Objectives

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Project objective tips

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• Keep scope narrow - Makes survey creation simpler, quicker - Makes data analysis actionable

• Keep objectives focused -  Focus on key data needs, not “nice to have” info - Work backwards

•  Write/create your presentation first and figure out what questions you need to ask to fill in the gaps

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End objectives

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•  We surveyed 1,000 consumers to understand how often consumers eat out at restaurants and how much they typically spend -  Consumers eat out about [X] times per month on average -  Consumers report spending about [$X] per visit

•  The most popular of the casual dining restaurants we noted in the survey (Olive Garden, Chili’s, Cheesecake Factory, Ruby Tuesday, Outback and Applebee’s) were: -  [X, Y, Z]

•  The most frequently reported “Other” restaurants mentioned with unaided brand recall were: -  [X, Y]

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Project Summary

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Audience project summary

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• Survey population: 1,000 consumers • Targeting criteria

-  Age: 18+ - Geography: all US - Gender: 50% male / 50% females

• Targeting goals -  Seeking 900-1,000 restaurant diners, expecting that a

large majority of consumers surveyed dine out at a restaurant in a typical month

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Respondent Summary

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Project respondent makeup

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Survey Questions

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Survey question examples

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Survey question examples (cont’d)

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Survey Data

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How frequently are people eating out?

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• Consumers report eating out between 3-4 times per month on average

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How much are they spending?

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• We did not ask how many people were typically present when consumers eat out since we wanted to understand average ticket (receipt) values

•  The weighted average reported was about $35

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Which were the top restaurants?

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•  The Olive Garden (~26%) and Applebee’s (~24%) were the top restaurants, but followed closely the other major brand names

•  This was a US representation, so many consumers may not have certain restaurants in their area

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Which restaurant’s show up in “Other”?

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•  A large number of respondents chose to add additional restaurants

•  This provides interesting unaided brand/experience recall data

•  Not surprisingly, popular restaurants like Red Robin and Red Lobster show up in the “Other” category

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Conclusions

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Key conclusions

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•  Consumers report eating out about 3-4 times per month on average

•  Consumers report spending about $35 per restaurant visit for dinner

•  The most popular of the casual dining restaurants we noted in the survey (Olive Garden, Chili’s, Cheesecake Factory, Ruby Tuesday, Outback and Applebee’s) was -  Olive Garden (~26% of respondents had visited in the past month),

closely followed by Applebee’s (~26% of respondents had visited in the past month)

•  The most frequently reported “Other” restaurants mentioned with unaided brand recall were Red Lobster & Red Robin -  Other included Texas Roadhouse, Cracker Barrel and Buffalo Wild

Wings