The pizza industry isn’t going to become less saturated anytime soon. Consider how many restaurants in the US serve pizza; it is impossible to be totally unique from all others.
Although the COVID-19 did shutter many businesses permanently, restaurants still face a high level of competition. This is especially true in metropolitan areas, where thousands of similar restaurants are vying for the attention of the same customers.
As a restaurant concept in a large city, how do you stand out?
By using up-to-date restaurant data, you can learn to differentiate yourself from your competitors and stay on top of emerging trends in a highly saturated marketplace (aka big cities).
In big cities and metropolitan areas, restaurants are competing against thousands of other businesses, including large chains, mom-and-pop shops, and independent chains. Looking at comprehensive restaurant data gives you insight into who you are going up against, and what your competitors offer. If you’re a restaurant in a metropolitan area like New York City or Los Angeles, you’re going to want to know who also offers similar menu items.
Brizo FoodMetrics has data on 59,000+ food and beverage establishments in the New York City Metropolitan area (which includes Newark and Jersey City). The most popular cuisine in this area is American and Italian, while Dunkin’ Donuts and Starbucks lead with the most locations out of all the chain restaurants.
Los Angeles boasts around 53,000 restaurants, according to Brizo FoodMetrics. American and Mexican are the two most popular cuisines here, with fried foods and comfort foods as the most commonly offered options at restaurants in the city. Starbucks and Subway have the most locations out of large chains here, but there are more independent establishments than chain establishments in Los Angeles.
Even with this broad level of data, you can see how it would be difficult to open an American-Italian restaurant serving comfort food in New York. In Los Angeles, there is seemingly a Starbucks on every corner; how is your independent coffee shop going to draw in customers?
New York and Los Angeles are just two examples of big cities that Brizo offers data on. In addition to these locations, Brizo FoodMetrics platform offers data on metropolitan areas like Chicago, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Toronto, Philadelphia, and San Francisco.
Now that you have access to this restaurant data and understand what you’re going up against, you can learn how to differentiate yourself from both chains and independent establishments in big cities. You won’t necessarily need to consider how many restaurants in the U.S. you’ll be competing against, but more so who is located in your zip code and neighborhood.
Take a moment to self-reflect. What type of establishment are you, and what do you offer? What cuisine category do you fall into, and who is your target market? What do you think makes your restaurant unique?
You can certainly do your own research and due diligence on the restaurants you’re going up against in your city. However, this is not the most efficient way to go about it. Accessing restaurant data can give you instant access to who you are competing against in your city.
When using restaurant data to see how you can differentiate yourself from other establishments in the geographical area, look at restaurants that offer the same cuisines and similar menu offerings. From this point, start to compare your restaurant against these competitors.
If you are a new business trying to enter the pizza industry in New York, take note of the menu offerings at establishments nearby. Chances are at least one pizza place in your vicinity offers a vegan option, but do any offer a keto choice? Maybe nearby pizza places cater to late-night eaters looking for a bite after the bars, but are any of them kid and family-friendly? Even if your menu offerings are similar,
After doing your due diligence on competitors in your city, you should be able to see what your restaurant has that others don’t. Whatever differentiates you from others is what you need to highlight as your strengths. These strengths and unique aspects should be marketed to customers via social media, advertisements, and website copy.
After conducting research, if nothing seems to set your restaurant apart from other similar establishments in your city, at least you now know what you need to work on. If profits are slumping, business is slow, and the customer return rate is low, these indicators may point to the fact that nothing differentiates your restaurant business from others. This is your opportunity to analyze what other businesses are doing to draw in customers, and how you can do this yourself.
What if you could instantly gain access to information on all of your competitors in the city? This is exactly what up-to-date and precise restaurant data can do for operators and owners. Using Brizo FoodMetric’s data platform, your business can scope out your competitors’ market share and identify what amenities and menu items local restaurants are missing. With data on 1.2 million eating & drinking establishments, 600,000 menus, and over 200 million menu items, Brizo’s platform ensures that you are always up to date on what your competitors are doing, and how you can do it better.
