Expand into Adjacent Categories

A beloved quick service restaurant (QSR) brand recently expanded its product portfolio beyond the restaurant space. The client partnered with W5 to explore opportunities to grow product reach without relying solely on the restaurant footprint and to determine whether the new product channels competed with existing restaurant traffic.

APPROACH

W5 began with a qualitative phase of research to understand key dining occasions, decision drivers, and consumer goals. This included Meal Journaling and Online Discussions to uncover how consumers navigate dining choices across traditional and adjacent categories.

Insights from this exploration informed a robust, custom online survey combining audience profiling, consideration factors, and product development testing. W5 collaborated closely with the client to enable agile survey design, including prioritization of “white space” product concepts. A Key Drivers Analysis was conducted to identify the most influential factors shaping dining decisions across channels.

RESULTS

The research validated consumers weigh a mix of functional and emotional drivers when making dining decisions and clarified how those drivers vary by channel. Key Drivers Analysis revealed which factors held the greatest influence in each channel and quantified their relative importance. W5 also determined the degree to which new adjacent-category products competed with in-restaurant traffic. Finally, the research identified which white space products showed the greatest potential for consumer engagement, offering the client a clear roadmap for product development with minimal internal channel conflict.