Wendy's continues to lead the top quick-serve burger chains in consumer perception as tracked by BrandIndex, according to a story by MediaPost/Marketing Daily.
Wendy's significantly outperformed Burger King, Carl's Jr., Hardee's and McDonald's on all of the measures tracked: quality, value, satisfaction, reputation and the overall brand health scores derived from those four perception measures. However, the others — and McDonald's in particular — have seen gains in most or all of these measures.
From MediaPost:
A BrandIndex score can range from 100 to -100. Each score is calculated by subtracting negative perception feedback from positive. A zero score signifies an equal amount of positive and negative feedback.Looking at the overall brand health index, McDonald's currently ranks third, below Wendy's and Burger King. However, McDonald's showed a significant upswing over the time frame, rising from just above zero to above 10 and closing the gap with Burger King in particular. BK's highest brand health score was just below 20, while Wendy's' ranged between the mid and high 30s throughout the tracking period.The McDonald's gains "could be due to heavy value-focused advertising, as well as its recent launch of the McCafé concept, which combines both value and quality messaging," observes BrandIndex SVP and Global Managing Director Ted Marzilli.The QSRs' general upswings in overall brand health "are probably due to a combination of brand-specific marketing, advertising and promotional activities, as well as consumers trading down in these challenging economic times from high-end and casual-themed restaurants to less formal and less expensive dining experiences," Marzilli adds.
Overall, however, consumer perceptions of most leading QSR are still relatively poor, although perceptions have improved in the past year.
