Restaurant Trade Area Research

Hello, welcome back to Restaurant Trade Area Research (RTAR) - thanks for visiting today. And, today, I answer the ultimate question often in the minds of folks who develop markets for Fast Food brands - and that - is - how many folks can I really count on to become users of this restaurant?

First, the basics - obviously, it depends on the number of competitors and the number of restaurants that you have serving a particular zipcode - the fewer the competitors and the more restaurants you have - the higher the penetration. That said, very few FF brands can have more than one store per zipcode or perhaps two stores at the most serving a particular zip. ————- So ——- what is that number?

Generally, it’s between 15-25% for most brands — with more than one restaurant serving a zipcode - up to 40%+.

Restaurant links for you today:

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/07/22/felony-franks-causing-a-red-hot-controversy-in-chicago/?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl5|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.slashfood.com%2F2009%2F07%2F22%2Ffelony-franks-causing-a-red-hot-controversy-in-chicago%2F Felony Franks Causing a Red-Hot Controversy in Chicago

Various `reasons’ can produce a research result for a unit that shows `low home zipcodes’ locally - compared to the full data. As I indicated in Part 1 - some stores can have figures as low as having only 23% or so of their customer base coming from their main two home zipcodes - other stores can be as high as over 50%.  One reason for a low figure might be the stores proximity to an interstate or along a very busy business corridor. Indeed, by have REAL customer data via the MarketView - an owner can establish a particular level as a goal - focusing efforts in the market to establish a minimum home market for all units. 

In Part 2 - I showed that these different levels of `home zipcodes’ in a customer base could mean the difference of having 10,000 available customers to market to versus under 5,000 (meaning available customers in the top two zipcodes to a store - often the one the store is in and the next nearest - most primary areas for homes to the unit). Once again, with the customer data - owners can decide best how to allocate marketing funds.

So, what else can be done with MarketView Customer Base data?

How about taking the known number of customers in a given zipcode and compare that to the census figures for how many live in a zipcode - and - voila - you suddenly have the Penetration Percentage of Customers within a zipcode for a FF unit. And, real research can show differences in these top two zipcodes of units to vary from 6% to over 20%. (The final penetration figure is the number of users as opposed to customers - and yes - the MarketView gives you that by knowing the nunber of customers per order.)

Finally, knowing this real data - via the MarketView - allows for the allocation of funds to achieve an objective; be it - boosting the poorest of penetration stores or targeting the best penetrated stores.

More Restaurant Links for Today:

http://www.slashfood.com/2009/08/25/kfc-double-down-chicken-sandwich-loses-the-bun/?icid=main|htmlws-main|dl4|link5|http%3A%2F%2F  KFC new product an amazing sight — I can see protests by the food police on this one. Must see picture.

http://www.rimag.com/info/CA6670228.html The 400 largest restaurant chains. Lots of sales data too.

http://www.qsrweb.com/article.php?id=15565&na=1&s=2 Popeye’s Chicken sales higher.