07 May 2015

Survey reveals need for healthier restaurant menus

Submitted by: Acentric Marketing Research
Survey reveals need for healthier restaurant menus

A new study reveals a surprisingly high level of interest in healthier restaurant menus amongst South African customers, with over three quarters expressing a need for healthier menu options. The study was conducted by Acentric, a South African research consultancy and is based on a nationally representative sample of South African restaurant customers. The study was weighted to be representative of South African’s middle and upper income groups, in terms of age, gender, ethnic group and household income distribution.

“Approximately 86% of customers want healthier menu options. Most restaurants seem to provide few, if any, healthier options, other than the obligatory salad or two.” says Craig Kolb, MD of Acentric.Major areas of concern include triglycerides, cholesterol, gluten/grain, sugar and fat content. “Even salads may contain sugar or gluten in dressings or constituents such croutons.” says Kolb.

“Approximately 11% wanted to avoid gluten in their food, yet most menu items contain gluten. This concern is even more pervasive in certain customer segments. Simply offering variations without bread, bread rolls, toast or wraps would go a long way towards alleviating this concern. Additionally offering gluten-free sauces and additives would help reassure customers.” says Kolb.

The study measured 17 different brand associations, one of which was the ‘healthy food’ association. Certain brands do a better job than others when positioning themselves as having ‘healthy food’.

“Cape Town Fish Market and Kaui are mentioned far more often than expected given their prominence in the market; scoring 100 and 93 respectively in terms of the brand performance in memory index. The index grades performance independent of prominence. They are strongly positioned in the area of health from the customers’ point of view. In some cases poor performance may be due to poor communication with customers rather than poor performance in objective terms. In other cases brand management may lack knowledge of what customers see as healthy. Loading a dish with large quantities of carbohydrates such as pasta or bread, or topping salads with slabs of feta cheese won’t always be perceived as healthy. A large number brands scored 0, which is disappointing.” says Kolb.

A detailed report titled "South African Restaurant Brands Report 2015" is available from:

http://www.acentric.co.za/reports/sa-restaurant-brands-report-2015.html

Technical note

The survey was conducted using an ISO certified online-panel of 363 restaurant customers yielding a margin of error of +-5.1% at 95% confidence level. Respondents were weighted to approximately represent middle and upper income customers in terms of age, gender, race and ethnic groupCustomers had to earn more than R5,000 per month to participate.

Published in Health and Medicine

Acentric is an online marketing-research consultancy owned and operated by marketing-research specialist Craig Kolb. Acentric specialises in quantitative research and offers online surveys (ISO 26362:2009 certified panel) with advanced analysis and reporting.