News

In-N-Out, Chick-fil-A ranked most authentic restaurant brands

September 30, 2013

Brand strategy/design firm Lippincott has released a report, "Welcome to the Human Era," examining the brands that garner the strongest connections with their customers.

The report asserts that brand-building today can no longer be led by messaging and advertising alone, but rather requires both "story" and "experience" to work together to drive brand favorability. Key characteristics among Human Era brand leaders are that they:

• Have a deep cultural trait of customer empathy
• Talk and act like people
• Are open, real and even flawed
• Aren't boring
• Care intensely about the little things
• Empower individuals to be the brand

"Making an authentic connection today is a tall order, and few brands actually get beyond the messaging," said John Marshall, senior partner and global director of Strategy for Lippincott. "But when studying the leaders, what's clear is that their success came from so much more than their ads and social media strategy; it came from their culture, their decision-making approaches, their employee behaviors and often the little things that often don't even cost that much."

The top brands in the restaurant in the Human Era Index are:

• In-N-Out Burger, with a score of 8.3. The West Coast chain has "defied fast food conventions to provide customers with trusted quality since 1949," the report said. Its score was almost double the scores of McDonald's and Burger King.
• Chick-fil-A ranked second and was identified for its "emphasis on quality and integrity, as a family-run business that still remains closed on Sundays," the report said.

Lippincott analyzed its BrandView database of more than 1,000 global brands. It determined the Human Era Index from an equal weighting of the three character traits of authenticity, empathy and vitality. The composite score is calculated on a range of 1-10, with a high of 9.4 and a low of 1.0.

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