Going out to dinner — by eating at home

Restaurant-branded food is continuing to be popular, even as people are able to return to dine-in restaurant settings. Research from RaboBank shows that consumers, despite being able to return to restaurants and other eat-in settings, are showing increasing levels of interest in restaurant-branded food that is sold in supermarkets and food retailers.

Restaurant-branded food became popular during the harshest months of the COVID-19 pandemic, driven by restaurants’ needs to adapt in the face of a rapidly changing — and often seemingly deteriorating — industry. Consumers, faced with lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, were unable to eat in at their favourite restaurants and the arrival of restaurant-branded foods was a popular workaround.

Surprisingly though, despite businesses reopening, these kinds of branded food have remained popular in a sign that consumers are happy with the convenience and quality that these products offer. Businesses are obviously benefiting from this approach also as it means that they are able to reach a wide swathe of consumers who are willing to try their food.

The trend shows no signs of slowing down either, presenting a unique opportunity for businesses to further increase their target markets. Previous attempts to institute such branding opportunities have fared much more poorly but with the adaptations that businesses adopted for the pandemic it seems that the branded restaurant meal bought from a supermarket is likely here to stay.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/NDABCREATIVITY