... The Source for Personal Independence ...


Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel Top Best Casual Lists, Hooters Bottoms Out

YouGovPolimetrix’s BrandIndex for October found that Cracker Barrel and Olive Garden were ranked at the top of casual restaurants for value while Hooters and Buffalo Wild Wings battled it out for last place.

BrandIndex tracks more than 1,000 consumer brands, gathering opinions on seven brand-health indicators on a daily basis from 5,000 U.S. adults drawn from an online panel of more than 1 million. The seven indicators are also rolled up into an overall brand-health index score.

The "value" score reflects consumer responses to the question: "Does it give good value for what you pay?" This question is one of the most powerful brand-health indicators, particularly in the current economy and the focus for analyzing this indicator for October, says BrandIndex SVP and general manager Ted Marzilli. Any BrandIndex score over zero represents a positive perception, and any score under zero represents a negative perception.

The average value score for the 29 casual dining restaurants tracked was 10.8 last month, according to Marzilli. Olive Garden and Cracker Barrel came out on top, with scores of 39.9 and 32.9, respectively.

Olive Garden is a "perennial top-scorer" on value because of its salads and large portions, says Marzilli. Cracker Barrel, which showed the highest value-index gain among all casuals for the month (+6.2), seems to be benefiting from its first advertising campaign in about a decade.

Applebee's came in a close third at 32.3, but it also showed the largest decline (-5.7) on the value index during October. Other chains ranked among the highest on value included Denny's (26.6), Pizza Hut (24.6) and Chili's (23.5), which had the second-highest value index gain last month (+4.6). Chains ranked above average on value included The Cheesecake Factory (19.8), TGI Friday's (18.9), Ruby Tuesday's (15), Golden Corral (13.4), Red Lobster (12.7) and Bob Evans (12.6).

Macaroni Grill also came in barely above average at 10.9, but saw the second-biggest value index loss for the month (-5) and was at its lowest value index point thus far this year. Those ranked below average included Red Robin (9.3), Carrabba's (6.2), Famous Dave's (5.9), Fuddruckers (5.3), Sizzler (5.3), California Pizza Kitchen (5.2), HomeTown Buffet (4.2), On the Border (3.2), Luby's (2.1) and Landry's Seafood House (1.6). Barely in the positive column, with indices below +1, were Houlihan's, Pei Wei Asian Diner, and Benihana. Hooters was by far the lowest-ranked on value, with a -14.3, followed by Buffalo Wild Wings (-1) and Bahama Breeze (-0.4). (Bahama Breeze and Red Lobster are owned by the same parent company as Olive Garden--Darden Restaurants.)

return to this month's issue



Home | News | Subscribe | Biz Radio | Media Kit | About Us

Marketing leaders seek out information from other marketing managers to better manage their enterprises. Marketing executives focus on getting and keeping their organizations profitable. By providing information on finance, marketing, staffing, employees, technology and sales to marketing leaders this website provides a unique platform for information exchange. Marketing leaders are in need of information to increase productivity and raise profits.

This website's award-winning staff distills information from a variety of sources to create a digest of marketing strategies that work for other marketing managers. Offering marketing managers and owners the best in terms of information and suggestions, this website is designed to be an easy, short read.

Marketing managers seek solutions to everyday problems that affect their bottom-line. The best sources of these solutions are other marketing managers who have encountered and solved these obstacles.

By continuously reading this website, marketing managers can learn much to improve their small enterprises. Other managers with larger companies can also benefit.

Functionality and brevity are important to marketing managers, owners and that is what this website's editorial is based on. Marketing managers know this website will often be ahead of national media in identifying trends and potential obstacles to marketing success.