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Recent research reveals that customers' perceptions of McDonald's continues to plummet, while Burger King brand perception is on the rise. Wendy's perception is also in decline.
August 25, 2014
Recent research reveals that customers' perceptions of McDonald's continues to plummet, while Burger King brand perception is on the rise. Wendy's perception is also in decline.
YouGov BrandIndex surveyed 18,000 fast food eaters, asking them if they had heard anything – positive or negative -- about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth. Scores range from 100 to -100 and are compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback. Margin of error was +/- 3.5 percent.
While perception of the big three burger chains has been moving recently in different directions, driven by news, menu items and other factors, one thing still remains relatively unimpacted:
Here’s how each of the chains has seen their perception directions changing lately:
Burger King went from a 9 at the beginning of August to a current 13 score. Burger King reached its 2014 high among recent (last 90 days) fast food eaters at 30% on August 11th.
McDonald’s saw its fast food eater perception levels fall from 13 in mid-May to its current 2 score, their lowest levels in four years. Documented problems include falling out of favor with millennials, complaints about customer service, as well as highly-publicized protests over labor conditions and wages.
Despite negative customer perceptions, more than 50% of recent fast food eaters say they have patronized the brand in the last 30 days, beating Burger King or Wendy’s scores by a wide margin.
Wendy’s Buzz score has dropped from 21 to 15 over the past two weeks.
