Are people excited for McDonald’s to reopen?

Connor IbbetsonData Journalist
June 02, 2020, 1:36 PM GMT+0

The announcement that all 1,000 drive-through restaurants are set to reopen for delivery has given McDonald’s BrandIndex metrics a boost

Last week McDonald’s announced that it planned to reopen all of its drive-through restaurants as the COVID-19 lockdown restrictions continue to be lifted across the UK.

The announcement has proved extremely popular with Brits, promoting an instant reaction in our brand tracking metrics. In the fourdays since the announcement on May 27th, the brand’s Consideration score (whether someone would consider purchasing from the brand in future) has risen steadily among Brits, from 21.6 on the 27th to 27.6 on the 31st of May.

Some 44 branches of McDonalds have already reopened for takeaway fans, and over 950 other locations are to open by June 4th. Following the initial trial McDonald’s had to limit customers to purchases of under £25 due to intense demand, and this is reflected in BrandIndex metrics for the chain.

In the short few days since the anoucement McDonald’s has also seen improvement in both its Word of Mouth (whether someone has talked about the brand with friends and family in the last two weeks) and Buzz (a net measure of whether consumers have heard anything positive or negative about the brand in the last fortnight) scores – indicating Brits are positive about the reopening.

What is most interesting perhaps, as we saw when we looked at the quick service restaurant sector, is that adults who are most worried about catching COVID-19 are hearing just as much positive news about McDonalds reopening as the general public. In fact, rising much more sharply among this group than the general population, from 0.3 to 8.5 in just five days.

When it comes to purchase intent (which brand would be someone’s first choice, in this case for quick service restaurants) those more fearful of the virus are more likely to choose McDonald’s than the general public.

Among those who say they are either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about catching COVID-19 McDonald’s Purchase Intent score is 12.3, compared to 11.8 among the general population. It seems even with the pandemic still ongoing, COVID-19 isn’t going to stop Britons getting their fast food fix after weeks on lockdown.

Learn more about YouGov BrandIndex here

Explore more data & articles