Not only was McDonald’s the largest fast food brand in 2016, it was also ranked ninth largest in the world out of all brands ahead of other well known brands such as IBM, Marlboro, Coca-Cola and Disney. In 2015, McDonald’s was also one of the leading advertisers United States, with an advertising spend of just over 802 billion U.S. dollars. Subway's parent company, Doctor's Associates, spent around 285 million U.S. dollars less than McDonald's on advertising in the same year. The ad spend of Starbucks was even less at around 89 million U.S. dollars.
Fast food is undoubtedly popular in the United States with over 126 million people admitting to visiting a quick service restaurant in the spring of 2016. Customer satisfaction with limited-service establishments was high in 2016, achieving an American customer satisfaction index score of 79 out of 100. However, almost all the five market leaders scored below this average, with the exclusion of Subway, which scored 80 out of 100. McDonald's ranked the lowest of the 17 restaurants measured, with a score of 69. Although, that did not stop almost 60 million Americans visiting the restaurant for lunch in the first half of 2016.
