American families that share meals together are more likely to be happier and healthier, according to research conducted by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA). Mintel’s custom consumer research reveals that the vast majority of families frequently dine together at restaurants. This means the foodservice industry plays an integral role in the lives of American families.

This report explores the factors that shape how families eat at restaurants. Mintel provides valuable insights that can help you make informed decisions in tailoring marketing messages to families, launching new menu items with family appeal, and identifying opportunities as they pertain to American families and dining out. Insights into, along with meaningful analysis and discussion of, the following topics are included:

• Restaurant industry sales and market outlook

• Recessionary factors that contribute to troubled restaurant sales

• Trends in annual spending on food away from home by family consumer units

• Effects of demographic shifts on restaurant usage, with particular focus on the child population and Hispanics

• Discussion of health and wellness trends as they apply to families, along with the subsequent impact on restaurant usage

• Trends for at-home dining by families, and ways restaurants can entice families to dine out

• Menu analysis by daypart, menu item, kids’ meals, price, and marketing claim, underscored with industry examples

• Analysis of family-centric marketing and promotional strategies by leading restaurant operators

• Family restaurant usage by weekday and weekend use; daypart; and restaurant segment

• Family habits and rationales for dining out, with special focus on how the recession has impacted family dining habits

• What parents want to see on kids’ menus, as well as interest in healthy/nutritional meals for both parents and kids.

This report focuses on the dining-out habits of American families and builds on the analysis presented in Mintel’s American Families and Dining Out—U.S., February 2010. For the purposes of this report, the word “family” is defined as any household where children under the age of 18 are present. Households can be headed by single parents or married couples. Throughout the analysis, the word “kids” is used in reference to children aged 1-5 and 6-11, and teens aged 12-17, although distinctions between the two groups are highlighted when discussing particular datasets or demographics.

Unless otherwise stated, value figures throughout this report are at retail selling prices (rsp) excluding sales tax.

Mintel Menu Insights provides flavor, ingredient, preparation, and price trend analysis, drawing from the menus of the 350 largest chain restaurants, as well as 150 independent restaurants, 50 restaurants run by top chefs, and 25 beverage-focused restaurants.

Mintel commissioned exclusive consumer data through Toluna USA to explore parents’ attitudes and behaviors toward family dining. Mintel was responsible for the survey design, data analysis, and reporting.

• Fieldwork was conducted in November 2010 among a sample of 1,241 parents with internet access and children under the age of 18 living in the household.

Mintel selects survey respondents so that they are proportionally balanced to the entire U.S. adult population based on the key demographics of gender, age, household income, and region. Mintel also slightly oversamples—relative to the population—respondents that are Hispanic or black to ensure an adequate representation of these groups in our survey results. Please note that Mintel’s exclusive surveys are conducted online and in English only. Hispanics who are not online and/or who do not speak English are not included in our survey results.

Mintel has also analyzed data from Experian Consumer Research, using the Simmons National Consumer Survey (NCS), the Simmons National Hispanic Consumer Survey (NHCS), and the Teens and Kids surveys.

• The Experian Simmons NCS/NHCS: Spring 2010 Adult Full Year–POP survey was conducted April 2009–June 2010; results are based on a sample of 23,572 adults aged 18+, with results weighted to represent the U.S. adult population.

• The Experian Simmons NCS Teens Spring 2010 Full Year survey was conducted April 2009–June 2010; results are based on a sample of 1,847 teens aged 12-17.

• The Experian Simmons NCS Kids Spring 2010 Full Year survey was conducted April 2009–June 2010; results are based on a sample of 1,986 kids aged 6-11.

While race and Hispanic origin are separate demographic characteristics, Mintel often compares them to each other. Please note that the responses for race (white, black, Asian, Native American, or other race) will overlap those that also are Hispanic, because Hispanics can be of any race.

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VMS tracks competitive advertising content and activity in key industries across a broad spectrum of local and national media. VMS also captures and measures local and national editorial activity related to industries and brands to provide marketers with a unique view of the total media environment in which they compete.

Following is a list of abbreviations used in this report:

The following terms are also used in this report:

Generations are discussed within this report, and they are defined as:

* Also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers

** Previously known as Post-Millennials

In order to provide an inflation-adjusted price value for markets, Mintel uses the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to deflate current prices. The CPI is defined as follows: