How Brands’ Pull has been Affected by the Pandemic and What Marketers Can Learn

December 14, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic changed consumer habits and behavior drastically, which had a big effect on the pull that businesses such as restaurants, gyms, stores and coffee shops have on their customers. Some brands actually fared better during the pandemic in terms of increasing their loyal customer base, while others struggled to get customers going the distance to visit them. To see which brands kept their pull strong (or didn’t) throughout challenges such as social distancing, a shift to digital habits and more, my company used location intelligence data to look at which brands’ customers were willing to go to great lengths to visit in Q2 2021 and compared it to how those consumers were shopping, eating, getting their coffees and working out in Q2 2019.

Here is what we found out about brand pull over a year into the pandemic and what brands can learn about marketing to consumers from the findings:

QSR: Chick-Fil-A fans reign: Chick-Fil-A has the most dedicated fans and the brand has pulled off keeping customers interested in making in-store visits as, in Q2 2021, people were traveling a median 13.43 miles to get their fried chicken fix, almost double the distance of the next most popular fast food chain.

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