News

A good summer for McDonald's and Chipotle, not so good for Arby's and KFC

August 5, 2016

McDonald's is clearly winning the traffic game this summer, while Chipotle is showing signs of a healthy rebound from its E.coli-based fall from grace, according to the insights firm, Sense360.

The company tapped into a panel of more than 2 million diners, while using the data on more than 150 million consumer trips each month to compile a monthly view of how various restaurant chains are faring in their ultra-competitive marketplace. Visits are measured directly and then quantified as a percentage of all visits recorded at quick-service chains. Frequency of visitation is calculated as an indexed score, that rates each chain by how often specific individuals visit. 

Other noteworthy trends found over the past two months included what appears to be a nice summer bounce for Sonic, with an equally disappointing drop for brands like Arby's and KFC, as far as customer visits and loyalty data is concerned. 

Here are some of the brands that got good news from Sense360's data analysis: 

• McDonald's reigned over the QSR segment both months in most categories.
• Subway ranked second and Starbucks came in third for the category.
• Combined, the top 10 QSR brands this summer drew more than 60 percent of all QSR market visits. 
• Chipotle re-entered the top 10 in national visit share, coming in ninth with 2.7 percent and saw substantial improvements in brand loyalty and visitation frequency. 
• Sonic sailed up to third in visitation frequency. 

Here are some of the brands that got less encouraging news from the Sense360 data: 

• Arby's performed below expectations, falling outside the top 10 in market share and slipping to 56th in customer loyalty, while failing to achieve a top 60 slot for visitation frequency or brand draw. 
• KFC dropped out of the top 10 in market share, while also dropping in brand loyalty and failing to the make the top 60 in visit frequency and brand draw.