Who Is Your Real Competition? Obvious Answers Can Be Misleading

Taking a Closer Look at the QSR Marketplace

When you think about competition, chances are you picture the brands closest to you in category. If you’re Subway, you probably worry most about Jersey Mike’s, Firehouse Subs, or Jimmy John’s. If you’re Little Caesars, you probably think about Pizza Hut or Domino’s. 

But the reality can be very different. 

Competition Is Broader than Categories 

Brands don’t only compete with their direct category peers. As Byron Sharp demonstrated in How Brands Grow, they compete with whoever has the highest mental availability (top of mind) and physical availability (ease of access). In food delivery, your customers have a whole marketplace at their fingertips — and that changes how competition plays out. 

What Our Data Shows 

Our recent analysis of QSR browsing and ordering behaviour in the US makes this clear. 

Take Subway: 

• Of those who browse Subway in food-delivery apps, 53% don’t place an order at all. 

• 21% choose Subway. 

• The rest, 26%, order from another QSR. 

And here’s the kicker: those who leave Subway don’t necessarily go to another sandwich shop. The top share stealers are McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King, or Little Caesars. 

The same story shows up with Little Caesars: 

• Of customers who browse Little Caesars but don’t buy, only 13% order from other pizza chains. 

• The rest? Once again, McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Burger King are the top competitors to scoop them up. 

Market Leaders Win Twice 

The biggest players don’t just capture more customers — they also win on frequency. McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King dominate delivery apps in terms of customer base (with McDonald’s way ahead of the pack). When you look at how often each of those brands’ customers order per month, the same brands come out on top again, generating a higher order frequency than smaller competitors. 

That means smaller brands get hit from both sides: 

• Fewer customers overall 

• Lower frequency per customer 

When people are deciding what to order and don’t have a strong preference, they often default to the most familiar and accessible options, reinforcing this pattern.

Two Kinds of Competitors 

What this tells us is that brands face two distinct competitive sets: 

1. Perceptual competitors — the peers you think about most often (for Subway, that’s Jersey Mike’s, Firehouse Subs, etc.). 

2. Behavioural competitors — the brands actually stealing your orders in the moment (McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Burger King). 

Most marketing strategies only focus on the first set. But the second one is just as — if not more — important. 

Why This Matters 

If you only benchmark yourself against other sandwich shops or pizza chains, you’re missing the real picture. Your customers are weighing you against the market leaders, and those leaders are winning by being more available, more familiar, and more frequently chosen. 

The question is: do you have the data to see who’s really stealing your share? 

Data and insights for this article were contributed by Kate Jacobs, Insight Analyst at RealityMine. Source: April-July 2025. MFour data.