The Future Of Casual Dining? Asian Consumers Asian-Americans show promising dining habits for the casual dining sector Casual dining continues to struggle as we head into the second quarter of 2016. That’s especially true for the bar-and-grill segment that dominated the sector for so long, as the 4.1-percent decline in same-store sales at Chili’s last quarter demonstrated. ThinkNow Research has taken a closer look at this sector from a Total Market Research perspective. We were looking for signs of potential demographic trends that could help the casual dining industry regain its footing in the increasingly competitive restaurant industry. In our latest Omnibus Plus+, we interviewed over 1200 respondents with readable base sizes of Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians, and non-Hispanic whites. This blog will focus on Asian respondents. You can download the full report for free by clicking here.
What We Found One of the first bright spots we see in the data for the casual dining sector is the fact that approximately half of Asian adults eat at a casual dining restaurant at least once a week. This is similar to Hispanics and significantly higher than African-Americans:
This is particularly promising as Asians are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. While their numbers do not compete with Hispanics in terms of total size, current immigration trends prove that Asian-Americans are a force to be reckoned with. With this demographic, casual dining brands have an opportunity to create brand loyalty among a group that has already made eating at casual dining restaurants a part of their weekly routine. So the question is, how can these restaurants attract and retain that business? Let’s look at the data to answer that. When we asked respondents, “For what occasions do you go to casual dining restaurants?�, Asians were the most likely segment to patronize casual dining restaurants so that they could spend time with their family:
This bodes well for the casual dining sector because it’s, by nature, family friendly. However, there are opportunities to better cater to the Asian family dining experience. Consider innovations on the menu, cultural cues, and special offers that are executed carefully. Asians are sensitive to being directly marketed to as learned in our Millennial Project. Ultimately, Asian-American Market Research present an ideal growth opportunity for the casual dining industry. With the highest average ticket among Hispanics, AfricanAmericans, and non-Hispanic whites at $52.00 and a high frequency of weekly visits, the data suggest that there’s an opportunity to create lasting relationships here for brands if they are sensitive to the cultural nuances. With immigration trends on their side, Asian-American diners have the potential to help a struggling industry thrive today and into the future.
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About the Author: Roy Eduardo Kokoyachuk
Roy is a Managing Partner at ThinkNow Research. He started his career at Warner Bros. Media Research. A desire to pursue multicultural market research full-time led him to join a full service Hispanic & multicultural market research company, in 2003 as Vice President of Advertising Research. He became Executive Vice President in 2006 and opened an operations center in Tijuana, Mexico and directed the company’s entry into online research. In 2009 he initiated the creation of the first nationally representative opt-in market research panel of U.S. Hispanics CadaCabeza. This panel broke new ground in panel building by focusing on the recruitment of Spanish speaking Hispanics as well as the English speakers typically found on online panels. He co-founded ThinkNow Research to further pursue his passion for multicultural consumer insights.