Consumer Conversations about Chick-fil-A, Wendy's and In-N-Out Heat Up, While Coffee Chains Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts Freeze Out

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - November 16, 2017) - For the most part, the most popular quick-service restaurants (QSR) Americans know today have been around for decades. However, the ever-changing consumer trends in the QSR sector have created a demand for innovative, fresh brand marketing approaches to stay relevant and engaging with consumers. To help QSR brand marketers better understand what consumers are saying in both their online and offline worlds, Engagement Labs has released its latest TotalSocial^® rankings of the top-performing QSR brands in the U.S.

The report looks at how each QSR has performed in social conversations over the past six months, compared to the Company's previous ranking of the top QSR brands in March 2017. According to Engagement Labs' report, Chipotle, Taco Bell, Wendy's and In-N-Out all made their debut into the top 10 ranking -- pushing down coffee leaders Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts.

The analysis, which is unique in that it combines offline (face-to-face) and online (social media) consumer conversations, is based on Engagement Labs' proprietary TotalSocial data, which continuously measures the most important drivers of brand performance in terms of social media and word of mouth conversations.

Chick-fil-A continued its strong performance in the six month update ranking and jumped up to the top spot, knocking off Starbucks from the top as it dropped down to fourth. Over the past six months, Chick-fil-A has improved its sentiment as well as continuing to boast strong volume scores -- demonstrating that consumers are talking about the brand more often and more positively. Recently, Chick-fil-A has made an effort to stay away from controversial stances, all the while expanding into major cities without compromising its customer service, resulting in a more positive consumer conversation around the brand.

"An interesting trend we've seen in the past six months is the declining consumer conversations around both of the leading coffeehouse brands, Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts," said Ed Keller, CEO of Engagement Labs. "In the case of Dunkin' Donuts, the company saw a decline in its sentiment scores, which is a concern because our predictive analytics show that sentiment is an important driver of future sales. Meanwhile, Starbucks dropped in the ranking due to a decline in its brand sharing scores, demonstrating that consumers are sharing less of the coffee chain's content online, while also talking less about its marketing or advertising in offline conversations."