The COVID-19 pandemic pressured some dine-in restaurants to shut their doors briefly while others have totally shut operations. With empty dining rooms, restaurants are relying on pickup and shipping orders more than ever. YouGov BrandIndex, which tracks how media and news activities have an effect on customer brand understanding and purchase behaviours, shows the impact the pandemic has had on some of the brands in the restaurant and dining sector in the UAE.

The information displays intent to buy from a restaurant (whether dining out or food delivery) has plummeted amidst the pandemic, with the range of UAE residents who are very likely or probably to buy from restaurant chains in the upcoming two weeks seeing a decline ever since the virus first hit the country in early February. The decline is more distinguished at the end of March, when the government issued a declaration urging residents to remain at home unless certainly necessary, and continues in April.

Even though some restaurants opened up for delivery, the intent to buy remained low, possibly due to people staying home and following social distancing. In fact, compared to 2019, the intent to buy has dropped by 20 percentage points, from 75% to 55% in the 18th week of the year (end of April).

Even though, at an overall sector level, people are much less probably to purchase from restaurants amidst the ongoing COVID crisis, some brands have seen an extend in Buzz or Impression.

KFC is one such brand which has generated a lot of effective noise recently. KFCs effective Buzz rating (whether one has heard something POSITIVE about a brand in the previous two weeks) has considered an increase of 12.3 points, from +27.5 on 3rd February 2020 to +39.8 on 3rd May 2020.

The effective Buzz around KFC has similarly accelerated the robust common Impression perceptions of the brand and for the same time duration KFCs positive Impression (whether one has a positive influence of a brand) noticed a rise of over 10 points, altering from +33.1 to +43.5.

Even present day client level for the brand appears to be steady throughout this time period, from 33.1 at the beginning of February to 33.5 at the starting of May.

This could be as a result of the launch of contactless delivery service by KFC and the customized communication around it. To guarantee their clients of their safety requirements and dedication to serve them, the brand launched a social campaign in March, asking clients to Stay Safe. Stay Home. and encouraging them to order online.

In addition to this messaging, they provided free shipping without any extra charges.

The brands well timed efforts in response to the Covid outbreak in the country seem to have resonated with residents and helped it continue to be relevant in their minds amidst the pandemic. YouGov will proceed to track the extent of the success of these measures in the weeks to come.