Women in the driving seat

Eating out decision making is often down to gender

The problem with men is that they don't care that much. Blokes are not too bothered about anything really and will put up with most things. Women on the other hand are very different.

This could be seen as stating the obvious.

But it's a truism that many in the food and drink business would do well to be reminded of from time to time.

There is ample evidence that female consumers have been, and will continue to be, pivotal in driving and directing the UK eating-out market. One reason is that they do 'give a damn' about what they eat, where they eat and how they are served.

The latest consumer research shows that women eat out more than men, are more critical and more demanding ' particularly when it comes to health ' and are generally more aware of what's going on in the marketplace.

They are more brand literate than their male counterparts and more likely to use casual dining restaurants and coffee shops, both growing sectors of the market. Men prefer pubs, bakery shops and fast food.

Crucially, women are more likely to make the important decision of where to eat out. They have the power and are using it.

The picture being painted is of female consumers at the cutting edge of change, leading new tastes and fashions, with male customers slower to alter their ways.

Yes, it is a generalisation, but it is one that has major implications for how eating-out chains ' restaurants, cafes, bars and pubs - market themselves and develop their offerings.

Casual dining restaurants are now rivaling pub restaurants as the most popular eating out destination ' and it's a trend being led by women. The growth in coffee shops has likewise been a largely female phenomenon. Latest research by the Peach Factory consultancy shows that 27% of adult women will use a coffee shop at least once a month compared to only 18% of men.

Women also like the coffee shop experience much more, rating the two brands in the survey, Starbucks and Costa, almost 20 percentage points higher than men did for 'experience'.

Women appreciate different environments ' not always, but often. Frankie & Benny's, the Italian restaurant chain, for example, gets one of the highest satisfaction marks among women, with 82% of female customers rating it 'good' or 'excellent' for experience.

For men that figure fell to 63%. That's still good, but it seems men reckon they will have a better time at the pub, with Toby, Beefeater and Brewers Fayre all getting higher marks from the blokes.

And then there's health. While having healthy options on the menu is not the most important factor for either men or women when choosing where to eat out, it is however significantly more important for women. The figures show that 76% of women think it important, including 41% who rate it 'very' or 'absolutely' important, compared to a mere 56% of men.

Also, 59% of female customers compared to just 33% of male consumers would be 'extremely' or 'very' interested in seeing even more healthy options added to pub and restaurant menus this year. Likewise, 47% of women compared to 26% of men would be similarly interested in more healthy drinks options.

It's the same sort of split on the environment, with 39% of women and only 22% of men saying they would be either 'very' or 'extremely' interested in more emphasis being placed by restaurants and pubs on 'green' issues.

The importance of health and the environment as issues for the eating and drinking-out industry will probably lie not so much in the overall number of adults demanding more or better choice, but in the number of women wanting more to be done.

You can pick statistics across the board. Women are much more likely to have enjoyed their eating out experience than men, even at the pub, but they are also more demanding ' being more likely to expect standards to improve more.

Cleaner restaurants came top of the wish-list of improvements for 2007 for both men and women, but with 77% of women against 64% of men giving the issue the highest priority.

As one female board member of a quoted chain put it this week: 'Women take pride in things being right.

'If someone's visiting my house, it has to be presentable. It has to be clean and tidy. Our restaurant staff to have that same pride.'

It's even an issue picked up by Wetherspoons. Thanks to Andrew Pring, editor of the Morning Advertiser trade newspaper, for spotting a letter in the Wetherspoons house magazine by someone complaining of tables being left dirty and uncleared. The response of chairman Tim Martin was to reassure the customer that the issue was now one of the company's top priorities.

That complaint may or may not have come from a woman, but it demonstrates that softer, feminine issues are increasingly coming to the fore. Would a man have noticed or been bothered? Perhaps not.

Women do care and would have noticed, and the reason that the industry might need the occasional reminder is not just because of the increasingly influential role women are playing in the market, but the fact that, as another survey highlighted at the end of last year, the boardrooms of restaurant and pub groups have so very few female directors in them.

At last count, 41% of companies had no female board members and another 23% had only one. That's the final, but perhaps most vital statistic.

first published in M&C Report, May 2007