NEW YORK -- Subway Restaurants is America's top-rated quick-service restaurant brand, according to the recently released 2012 Harris Poll EquiTrend study. This is the eighth year in a row that Subway has ranked highest in this category.
"Subway's consistently high ranking in the Harris Poll EquiTrend study clearly indicates that consumers are graduating from just saying they're interested in better nutrition choices in restaurants to actually changing their purchase behavior," said Mary Bouchard, vice president of consumer goods, retail and restaurant research at Harris Interactive.
"For some time, the media spotlight on obesity, diabetes and heart disease, and the importance of making better meal choices away from home, has driven growth in the range and number of lower calorie/better nutrition dishes being offered in all types of restaurants. These study results show just how strongly Subway's positioning around fast and healthy meal choices is resonating with consumers," she said.
Dairy Queen continues to follow behind Subway for the second year, with Wendy's also holding its third-place position. Coming in fourth, study newcomer Five Guy's Burgers & Fries is not far behind these two brands, with strong performance on several brand-equity metrics. Chick-fil-A, also an EquiTrend newcomer, ranks fifth, followed by McDonald's and Burger King respectively, rounding out those brands above the category average.
For the first time in the eight years the Harris Poll EquiTrend has been measuring brand equity for Retail Pizza brands, Pizza Hut has not taken the top slot. For 2012, Papa John's is the Harris Poll EquiTrend Pizza Brand of the Year. While many consumers are not as familiar with Papa John's as with Pizza Hut or Domino's, the brand's quality scores have been strong for many years. But 2012 marks the first year that consumers say they are more likely to purchase pizza from Papa John's than from Pizza Hut.
Study newcomer Einstein Bagels displaced the perennially popular Dunkin Donuts to become the 2012 Brand of the Year in the new category, Coffee & Quick Service Restaurants. While Einstein Bagels is not as well known as Dunkin Donuts, it edges out Dunkin Donuts on two key attributes of brand equity: quality and purchase consideration.
The Harris Poll EquiTrend study breaks down Casual Dining Restaurants into two categories: American and Italian. For the second year in a row, Panera Bread Restaurant ranks as the top American Casual Dining Restaurant, while Maggiano's Little Italy Restaurant took the lead as top-rated Italian Casual Dining Restaurant, edging out Olive Garden.
Other Casual American Restaurants ranking above average included Longhorn Steakhouse, which moves into second after a significant improvement in brand equity this year. Bonefish Grill ranks third in 2012, followed by Outback Steakhouse, Applebee's and IHOP.
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Harris Poll EquiTrend is a leading brand equity tracking study conducted by Harris Interactive that measures and compares brand health for more than 1,500 brands. The study was conducted online from Jan. 31 through Feb. 20, 2012 and analyzes the responses of more than 38,500 consumers on key measures of brand health--including how well the public knows a brand, how positively they think of the brand and their consideration to do business with or donate to a brand. Each brand is rated 1,000 times among respondents who are familiar with the brand. Harris Interactive has conducted its Harris Poll EquiTrend study regularly since 1989. The Equity Score has been validated against financial performance by Georgetown University.
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