NetBase Report Names Ben & Jerry’s, Wingstop and Applebee’s as Social Media’s Most Beloved Restaurant Brands

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NetBase, a global leader in enterprise social analytics today released its first NetBase Restaurant Report, which examines top trends and overall performance of 100 leading restaurant brands across social channels. The report looked at more than 740 million restaurant-related posts globally to determine how successful the world’s leading restaurant brands are in engaging with customers online and what other brands can learn from their best practices.

“Social listening can also help you establish relationships with super fans and influencers in their space, so you have a built in group of testers for early products or new campaign ideas, or a group to help share your message if issues arise.”

Read the full NetBase Restaurant Report online at http://pages.netbase.com/AR-2016-Top100Restaurants.html.

“It’s clear from the NetBase Restaurant Report that companies who listen to their customers – whether it be critical customer service feedback, ideas for new recipes or excitement over a recent promotion – reap the benefits of real-time feedback and higher quality social interactions, which can ultimately lead to more sales,” said Paige Leidig, chief marketing officer at NetBase. “Social listening can also help you establish relationships with super fans and influencers in their space, so you have a built in group of testers for early products or new campaign ideas, or a group to help share your message if issues arise.”

The NetBase Restaurant Report is based on monitoring restaurant brand conversations across Twitter and Facebook between January 2015 and December 2015, and measuring volume of conversation, awareness (as a measure of earned impressions), reach (a measure of owned impressions), net sentiment, and brand passion. The brands were broken into the following categories: quick service, fast casual and casual dining restaurants. There were more than 740 total posts analyzed during that time, with a net sentiment of 70 percent, representing a largely positive attitude towards the restaurant industry.

Key findings from the report include:

• Quality over quantity wins again: Brands with smaller conversation volume can reap higher benefits in terms of net sentiment, as exemplified with Ben & Jerry’s having a lower overall volume of conversation, but driving a positive 85 percent net sentiment related to ice cream giveaways. (Compared to Starbucks, who saw high volume, but net sentiment of 59 percent)
• What are restaurants doing right? Customers had positive things to say about menu choice and the value of their meals, but cleanliness and order accuracy drove the most negative discussions
• Least liked restaurant brand: Chuck E. Cheese’s had one of the lowest (three percent) net sentiment scores across all 100 restaurants analyzed
• The top three discussed brands as compared to yearly revenue: Ben & Jerry’s, Chipotle and Krispy Kreme
• The most well-loved brands according to social media: Ben & Jerry’s, Wingstop and Applebee’s
• The most beloved quick-serve brands: Ben & Jerry’s, Krispy Kreme, Tim Hortons
• The most beloved fast casual brands: Wingstop, Domino’s Pizza and Panera Bread
• The most beloved casual dining brands: Applebee’s, Olive Garden and Cheesecake Factory
• Which segment has the most ground to make up? Casual dining restaurants have the lowest reach and awareness of the three restaurant types, which could be the reason why these restaurants are going to new lengths for promotional campaigns

After analyzing the top restaurant brands, NetBase leveraged its findings to create a social media best practices guide available for download here: http://pages.netbase.com/EB-2016RestaurantGuide.html.

Report Overview

The NetBase Restaurant Report is based on brand conversations across Twitter and Facebook between January 2015 and December 2015.

Using NetBase patented technology, the report measures consumer emotions, behaviors and usage towards the industry and represented brands. NetBase maps a category using three dimensions:

• Volume – measuring the number of earned and owned mentions and conversations;
• Passion Intensity – indicating how strong consumers feel about a brand or company based on a scale of 0-100; and
• Net Sentiment – measuring the overall direction of how consumers feel about a brand’s marketing, customer service and products on a scale of -100 to +100.

These three dimensions form the NetBase Brand Passion Index™, which signals the brand health and tracks a brand’s movement over time, ultimately reflecting whether a brand is winning the hearts of the consumers. By better understanding what consumers truly want and their emotional investment, brands can turn social conversations into powerful marketing tools that truly satisfy consumer passions.

About NetBase

NetBase is the award-winning social analytics platform that global companies use to run brands, build businesses, and connect with consumers every second. Its platform processes millions of social media posts daily for actionable business insights for marketing, research, customer service, sales, PR, and product innovation. NetBase is a trusted partner to American Airlines, Arby’s, Coca-Cola, Ogilvy, T-Mobile, Universal Music Group Nashville, Walmart, and YUM! Brands. Learn more at www.netbase.com or @NetBase. See your brand’s social movement in real-time with NetBase LIVE Pulse™.