Fast food prospers as consumers loosen belts
WHILE the recession continues to claim casualties from a variety of sectors, others are finding that an economic downturn has boosted business. One of the sectors whose BrandIndex scores have notably risen is fast food.
As usual, we have created a “basket” of brands (Burger King, Domino’s, KFC, McDonald’s, Pizza Hut and Wimpy). For comparison, we also have High Street banks (Abbey, Barclays, Co-operative Bank, HSBC, Lloyds TSB and Natwest), and supermarkets (all seventeen on BrandIndex, from Aldi to Iceland to Waitrose.) The first graph shows “buzz”, and the second the overall Index score.
Fast Food brands have seen the greater increase in scores. Over the period shown, both “buzz” and index scores improved by five points. As consumers have had to tighten their belt financially, it appears that they are happy to loosen it for food.
NEW SPEAKER
Meanwhile, in Westminster, politicians showed that it is truly “their” Parliament and not “ours”, by choosing John Bercow for Speaker (polls showed that Ann Widdecombe was the public’s favourite).
There is supposed to be a tradition that the Speaker is unopposed at elections, but this is not strictly true: the past few Conservative speakers have in fact been opposed by Labour and others. Bercow of course has been exposed as a “flipper” who has now repaid significant sums from the tax gains thereby achieved.
If he now turns out to be a lame reformer, siding with MP privilege rather than the public disgust, my guess is that Bercow will find himself with a serious challenge from a populist, as he would make a very good symbol for Parliament v The People. In the current mood, it would not surprise me if such a challenge were successful.
Stephan Shakespeare is co-founder and chief innovation officer of YouGov