QSRs are shifting toward 'smarter' value-led strategies as price sensitivity heightens

The future winners will not simply be the cheapest or the biggest expanders.

With visits growing just 1% in 2025 despite price-led sales increases, QSR brands are shifting toward 'smarter' data-led value strategies and promotions to compete in a more price-sensitive and crowded market.

Ahead of her talk at the QSR Media UK Redcat Conference & Awards 2026, Maria Vanifatova, CEO of Meaningful Vision, shared how QSRs should tackle a price-sensitive nation through more than blanket discounting.

Looking back over the past 12 months, what has been the biggest shift in the QSR operating environment, and how has it changed the way brands operate?

Consumers are becoming more price-sensitive and increasingly selective about where and when they spend. In this environment, fast food is relatively well-positioned, benefiting from trade-down from more expensive casual dining and pubs. However, even within fastfood, traffic is not meaningfully growing. Sales are rising largely due to inflation, while visit numbers remain broadly flat.

Compared with restaurants and pubs, where traffic continues to decline, fast-food is proving more resilient (+1% in Visits in 2025 according to meaningful Vision data). But that resilience is being driven primarily by new openings rather than stronger like-for-like demand. At the same time, competitive boundaries have blurred across QSR, casual dining, delivery, and even retail, so brands are increasingly competing for the same occasions rather than only against their traditional category peers.

As a result, the way brands operate is changing. Winning operators are moving away from intuition and broad category assumptions, and instead focusing on occasion-led strategy, value architecture, meal deals, LTOs, daypart targeting, and data-led competitor tracking. Promotions and meal deals are no longer tactical add-ons; they have become core commercial tools for protecting traffic and shaping value perception. 

What new challenges are beginning to emerge, and which existing pressures are likely to persist? How do you propose they tackle these challenges?

The new challenges emerging are the intensifying competition between brands and the growing cross-channel complexity. Store expansion is continuing, with new entrants, including major US brands, entering the market. However, these openings are long-term investments in a market where demand is not growing at the same pace. This creates a real risk that brands interpret rollout as momentum, even while underlying like-for-like demand weakens.

The pressures likely to persist are equally clear. Inflation may now be shaped not only by labour and food costs, but also by oil prices, which affect the entire supply and distribution chain. At the same time, value sensitivity and channel competition remain significant. Our Meaningful Vision data shows that foodservice price inflation continues to outpace retail and had already exceeded 8% in March 2026, with delivery pricing rising faster still, while consumers continue to weigh affordability, convenience, and experience more carefully.

To respond effectively, brands need to shift from blanket discounting to smarter value architecture. They need a clearer role for innovation, promotions, meal deals, and LTOs within the proposition, alongside sharper occasion-led and daypart-led targeting. Just as importantly, they need to assess performance through a like-for-like lens rather than relying solely on top-line growth, and to invest more consistently in loyalty and differentiation, particularly in categories such as pizza where price competition is especially intense. 

Intuition remains valuable, but in today's environment, it must be anchored in data, drawing on both internal performance metrics and external market intelligence to close the gaps and maintain a genuine competitive edge.

What investments are brands prioritising, and what performance indicators are becoming most important?

Brands are prioritising loyalty, digital channels for both sales and advertising, menu innovation, and sharper value propositions. Mobile apps are becoming a key promotional battleground, loyalty is no longer optional, and more brands, including those that historically avoided combo mechanics, are introducing meal deals and bundled offers.

At the same time, brands are investing more deliberately in menu architecture. More operators are launching value bundles, daypart-specific offers such as breakfast and lunch deals, and social-media-led innovations such as matcha, ube, and Dubai chocolate.

Drinks are also becoming more important, particularly as a source of premium “small indulgence” products such as matcha, specialty coffee, and seasonal beverages, which many consumers are still willing to pay more for despite broader efforts to save. This suggests that investment is taking place at both ends of the menu: entry-price value and premium excitement.

The most important performance indicators are shifting accordingly. Rather than focusing only on top-line traffic or sales, brands increasingly need to track like-for-like traffic, growth by daypart, occasion, and channel, the effectiveness of promotions and meal deals, and the strength of loyalty engagement. That is where we make a real impact with our clients.

Where are you seeing the biggest gap between brand ambitions and operational realities?

The biggest gap is between brands’ growth ambitions and the reality of flat underlying demand. Many operators continue to talk about expansion, innovation, and category momentum, but much of the market’s apparent growth is being driven by new openings, more offers, and greater promotional intensity rather than by stronger like-for-like demand.

There is also a clear gap between the ambition to build distinctive brands and the operational reality of competing in an increasingly tactical market shaped by price, deals, and convenience. Brands aspire to deliver experience and differentiation, yet many are operating in an environment where consumers are cutting back on evening occasions, scrutinising price points more closely, and responding strongly to functional value cues. This tension is particularly visible in mid-market dining, which is being squeezed between retail, delivery, and premium fast-casual formats.

Looking ahead to the next 12 to 24 months, what will separate the brands that continue gaining share from those that fall behind?

The brands that continue gaining share will be the ones that combine value clarity, operational precision, and genuine differentiation. The future winners will not simply be the cheapest or the biggest expanders. They will be the operators that know exactly which locations, dayparts, occasions, and channels are worth investing in, and that can align pricing, promotion, menu, and loyalty around those demand pockets. 

They will also be the brands that understand that value is no longer just about low price. In your writing, value increasingly means a combination of affordability, relevance, innovation, convenience, and emotional appeal. That is why meal deals and LTOs matter, why loyalty matters, why premium fast-food and fast-casual are growing, and why even in a pressured market, consumers still pay up for products that feel distinctive or culturally relevant. 

In an environment this competitive and this complex, sustained success will belong to those brands that treat consumer and market intelligence as a strategic asset, not an operational afterthought. 

Hear more from Meaningful Vision at the upcoming QSR Media UK Redcat Conference & Awards 2026 to be held at the Park Plaza Victoria London, UK. For more information about the conference, visit this link.