Consumers responding to ‘fast-food diets’

According to data from two consumer research firms, BrandIndex and Ace Metrix, Taco Bell and Subway, as well as other restaurant brands like KFC and Applebee’s, which are also pitching healthfulness, have garnered the attention of new demographic groups and elicited favorable perceptions with their new ads.

“Overall, people are improving their opinions of quick service at a faster rate,” said Ted Marzilli, senior vice president of New York-based firm BrandIndex. “They’re still not ready or comfortable advocating to their family to eat at a QSR; there’s still a bit of a stigma.

“The more QSRs can do to take that stigma away, the better they’ll do,” he said. “Quality and healthful initiatives will help, as long as they’re credible.”

Nation’s Restaurant News