For decades, foodservice organizations have examined consumer behavior through day parts, operator segments, and other industry-defined attributes. These long-used metrics speak primarily to the resulting consumer activity: “Where did he go for lunch?” “What did she order for her QSR dinner?”
Although this approach has proven useful in tracking what consumers do, it doesn’t reveal much about why they make those decisions. This, of course, poses a real challenge for marketers; it’s hard to change consumer behavior if you don’t know why they’re behaving that way in the first place.