GrubHub and Seamless were competitors in the food delivery space before merging in 2013. This article compares the two (very different) brand names.
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In this article we compare two brand names in the restaurant delivery space: GrubHub and Seamless.
Today, GrubHub Inc., based in Chicago, has more than 14 million active diners, and relationships with approximately 80,000 restaurants across the United States and the United Kingdom. While GrubHub and Seamless were competitors for several years, both brands now operate under the same roof due to a merger in 2013.
The business innovation: GrubHub and Seamless let people place restaurant delivery orders directly from a computer or smartphone, eliminating the need for the customer and someone at the restaurant to have an actual phone call. Just tap your order into your smartphone.
So, we have a rare opportunity to look at two brands that provide a very similar service. Even though the companies have merged, both brand names are still in use. Which name has stronger appeal?
We’ll start with a few of the milestones that got the companies to where they are today. Just to be clear, we’re not exploring the merits of the underlying business, just looking at two (very different) brand names.
A few company milestones
In 1999, New York lawyer Jason Finger and an associate founded SeamlessWeb to provide companies with a web-based system for ordering food from restaurants and caterers.
In 2004, Grubhub was founded by Matthew Maloney and Michael Evans, two web developers.
In 2011, SeamlessWeb shortened its name to Seamless.
In 2013, Grubhub and Seamless merged. In terms of equity, Seamless represented 58% of the combined business and GrubHub represented 42%.
In 2014, the organization, then known as GrubHub Seamless, went public. It trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GRUB.”
So, even though Seamless brought more equity to the merger, management wisely chose to favor the GrubHub name, at least with the investment community.
A side by side look at the names
In our view, one of the names is much stronger than the other. The chart below presents a side-by-side comparison of the two brand names.
One more thought
We also note that the word “seamless” contains the word “less,” which strikes us as problematic in a brand name. We don’t know if people would register “less” on a conscious level. But we suspect that when it comes to ordering food, nine out of 10 people typically want “more” and not “less.”
We can certainly understand why management maintains the Seamless brand. We’d wager they don’t want to disturb the loyal customers who know the company as Seamless. (As of this writing, the company is running ads for Seamless on the NYC subways.) At the same time, we wouldn’t be surprised by an announcement that the Seamless brand was being replaced by GrubHub.