This report explores the growing full-service restaurant breakfast market, in terms of market sales, major chains, and new items, as well as factors that will drive change in the market in upcoming years. As a result of the focus on full-service breakfast chains, the heart of the report is an exploration of family/midscale offerings. Attitudes toward brunch are likewise covered in Mintel’s proprietary consumer research.

This examination brings up an interesting conundrum—breakfast sales are rising rapidly, yet family/midscale chains show the slowest growth of any restaurant sector. This finding suggests that brand repositioning may be necessary for family/midscale operations to better capitalize on general growth in breakfast sales.

Working with the hypothesis that family/midscale marketing needs to shift from product-specific promotions to experience-based campaigns, Mintel uses party composition data from the Simmons NCS survey results. Mintel has also commissioned an exhaustive proprietary survey on breakfast attitudes. To provide potential for rethinking strategies in operations and marketing, this report explores the breakfast food and dining preferences of 1,100+ respondents who have dined out for breakfast in the last month at a full-service restaurant, and who average more than 3.5 full-service breakfasts and brunches out per month.

Demographic differences in attitudes are explored on the basis of age, gender, and race/ethnicity. Significantly, these three factors collide to make young minority males perhaps the most desirable single group for full-service breakfast. Based on the negative correlation between frequency of dining out for full-service breakfast and interest in nutrition, trends toward healthier eating and potential responses are explored in depth.

In addition, Mintel draws industry analysis from its own Menu Insights database, and sales data for the combined independent and chain markets from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The Market Drivers section points to demographic shifts that are occurring in the U.S., allowing Mintel’s clients to maximize marketing efforts and appeal to growing consumer bases such as minorities and over-55s. The report also offers a lesson on what the full-service breakfast market can learn from the successful limited-service breakfast market, and finally addresses future trends that will affect sales in the next five years.

This is the first time that Mintel has analyzed the full-service breakfast market. Full-service restaurants are defined as any restaurant in which the patron pays after a meal, and orders and receives food while seated from a waiter or waitress. The report focuses on chain restaurants, rather than independents, though the research acquired applies to both sectors.