The effect of the Whole Foods boycott -- BrandIndex featured in Mashable

As Whole Foods Boycott Grows on Facebook, Brand Perception Drops

As the Whole Foods Boycott on Facebook continues to swell — the group now has over 27,000

members — we’re finding out that CEO John Mackey’s statements in The Wall Street Journal are affecting more than just angry Facebookers, but consumers in general.

According to YouGov’s BrandIndex, which tracks the daily consumer

perception of brands, consumer opinion towards Whole Foods has been falling fast on the Web since the editorial

appeared.

YouGov scores brands from 100 to -100, with zero being neutral, based

on

daily interviews from respondents, and they track the change in the score to show a rise or decline in overall brand perception.

Their buzz chart is a reflection of how buzz perception changes over time. They ask consumers, “If you’ve heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, was it positive or negative?” Their results indicate that Whole Foods had a buzz score of 22.8 on August 12th, and that score fell to 13.6 by August 20th. That’s almost a 10 point drop in just over a week.

The reputation chart is scored in the same manner, but asks respondents, “Would you be proud or embarrassed to work for this brand?” According to their research, the reputation score is suffering even more. On August 12th Whole Foods had a 33.3 score, but by the 20th they were down to 20.3.

Can the results be trusted? Well, according to the firm, “YouGov’s BrandIndex interviews 5,000 people each weekday from a representative US population sample, more than 1.2 million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from an online panel of more than 1MM individuals. Margin of error is a very accurate +/- 2%.”

While we take no sides on the issue, it’s hard not to attribute at least some of the drop in consumer perception to the vocal Facebook group that has emerged in the aftermath of the CEO’s Wall Street Journal op-ed. Should YouGov’s research be as accurate as it claims to be, then Whole Foods definitely needs to be concerned about this social media backlash that’s negatively impacting consumer opinion.

BrandIndex's research on burger QSR's basis of Mediapost article

Consumer Perceptions Of QSRs Improving

Consumer perceptions of most leading quick-serve burger chains are relatively poor, but perceptions have improved in the past year, according to tracking data from BrandIndex.

BrandIndex analyzed consumer scores over the past 12 months for Burger King, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, McDonald's and Wendy's.

Wendy's has continued to significantly outperform the others 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.

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.

The quality, value and satisfaction scores were most influential in driving the brand health gains.

All of the brands increased their quality scores, "which could be due either to perceived improvements in quality or to a reevaluation of what constitutes quality" during the past 12 months, notes Marzilli.

Wendy's quality scores varied between 30-plus and nearly 40, and BK was second with scores hovering around 10 to 15. But McDonald's -- which according to Marzilli was the clear #5 brand on quality 21 months ago -- has now achieved parity with Hardee's and Carl's Jr. (All three improved from negative numbers to slightly above zero over the past year.)

Value scores have also been trending modestly higher for these QSRs -- perhaps reflecting perceptions of improved quality, more value-priced meals and promotions, or a combination of these factors.

Wendy's' value scores remained roughly at 40 for the full period, BK's rose from about 20 to 25, McDonald's' rose from about 15 to 20, and Carl's and Hardee's fluctuated between zero and a high approaching 5.

For McDonald's, the improvements in quality and value perceptions appear to have had a significant impact on satisfaction -- a metric, points out Marzilli, that is often viewed as a leading indicator of sales. The uptrend started in late 2008 and continued into this year, but surged again in recent months to the point where McD's satisfaction levels are now on par with BK's. (Both currently show satisfaction scores at just below 30.)

Wendy's' satisfaction levels fluctuated little over the 12 months, hovering around the mid 40's. The satisfaction scores for Hardee's and Carl's have remained around 5, plus or minus a few points.

BrandIndex measures perceptions about brand reputation with the question: "Would you be proud or embarrassed to work for the brand in a similar role to the job you currently hold or more recently held?"

On this metric, even Wendy's started out at zero a year ago, while the other four all had negative scores. (McDonald's was lowest, at about -23.) However, all showed marked upswings on this measure during the past year -- with Wendy's now at around 10 and the others still negative, but considerably less negative (ranging between -14 and -6). This, suggests Marzilli, most likely reflects high unemployment rates.

ZDNet covers BrandIndex's BlackBerry value perception research

Perceived value of BlackBerry brand drops among adults 18-34, rises for age 35-49; Tour 9630 to blame

RIM’s BlackBerry family of mobile devices has undergone dramatic consumer perception shifts in the past two weeks, according to market research agency YouGov’s BrandIndex.

Since mid-July, BlackBerry’s value perception of adults aged 18 to 34 has tanked, while simultaneously rising among adults aged 35 to 49.

The results coincide with the introduction of the popular BlackBerry Tour 9630 smartphone.

The question asked of people polled was, “Does it give good value for what you pay?”

Specifically, value perception among adults aged 18 to 34 dropped from a peak value score of 21.5 on July 7th to a score of 7.9 on August 4th, according to the figures.

Meanwhile, value perception among adults aged 35 to 39 rose from a low value score of 7.5 on July 21st to a score of 18 on August 14th.

Why the change? Ted Marzilli, global managing director of YouGov’s BrandIndex, looked at historical data and offered his thoughts:

“Pricing does matter. When carriers run promotions, we do see reaction, particularly among the younger age bracket. Younger people are more in tune with what’s coming out and price. With BlackBerry, Verizon lowered the price of Blackberrys to $99 [in late July], except for the Tour.

For 35 to 49 year-olds, for the value to go up, perhaps the new Tour was perceived as more valuable. The Tour could be charged to an expense account, and the new features drive up the price.

For the younger bracket, the Tour wasn’t necessarily targeted to them, so perhaps they perceive the introduction of the Tour as a mark against the brand. A negative halo effect, if you want to describe it as that.”

Marzilli noted that there was a big surge in BlackBerry perceived value in January through March 2009.That coincides perfectly with Verizon’s “Buy One, Get One” promotion for the BlackBerry Storm, Curve, Global and Pearl phones.

“BlackBerry had a pretty good run in February and March and settled after that,” Marzilli said. “Carriers, with bigger marketing spends, sometimes have a bigger impact than the manufacturers themselves.”

YouGov’s BrandIndex interviews 5,000 people each weekday from a representative U.S. population sample drawn from an online panel of more than 1 million individuals about their perception of the attention, buzz, quality, value, satisfaction, recommendation, reputation and impression of brands to estimate the overall health of a brand. Margin of error for the survey is +/- 2 percent.

BrandIndex's consumer perception of Palm Pre's strange ad campaign in Ad Age

Creepy? Annoying? Or Creepy and Annoying?

The Thinking Behind Modernista's Baffling Palm Pre Ads

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Gary Koepke, co-founder and executive creative director at Modernista, loves that you're creeped out by his ads for Sprint's Palm Pre.

In the past few weeks, the Boston-based ad shop's TV spots have been unsettling potential consumers. The campaign features actress Tamara Hope speaking directly to the camera in near-robotic tones and sharing strange observations about traffic lights, jugglers and reincarnation.

The ads have prompted a blogger outcry that's already yielded one popular YouTube parody and an exorcism-themed sketch on G4's "Attack of the Show," with a fair helping of Tweets to boot. (Sample tweets: @hardheadedwoman "Palm Pre commercial -- annoying, creepy or annoying and creepy?"; @brekee "Why is the Palm Pre lady so creepy?"; and @maggieallyse "Those creepy palm pre commercials make me NOT want to buy it.")

Not exactly what you'd call a home run. But hey, at least people are talking about it, right? The Twittersphere even addresses this aspect of the campaign. (@davidsaxe "Did Palm Pre accomplish its goal with this creepy spot because we're talking about it? ... or did they just not know?")

Creepy can be a good thing
"We weren't trying to creep people out, but one thing I have learned now in this digital age is people can be as rude as they want as long as they don't have to look you in the face," Mr. Koepke said. "The Pre is probably being talked about more than other phones right now because of the marketing and advertising, and that's a good thing. Could the ads work harder to show exactly how the phone works? Yes, but we knew it would be polarizing people to have a woman not shout at them and tell an interesting story."

It's the how-it-works part of the Palm Pre push that Modernista has been holding back on in favor of more visually stimulating ads, while Sprint and its agency of record, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, tout the seamless integration of applications such as Facebook.

"It's a very different look and feel for this sector," Mr. Koepke said, comparing the humanized feel of Palm Pre's ads to its competitors. "There's nobody involved in an iPhone ad, and 'Your life is on BlackBerry' -- isn't that great? Instead of having a life? We wanted a middle ground between those two places -- what about the people who want a really great smartphone?"

Thus far, the ads have made only small waves in stealing buzz and value perception from No. 1 smartphone BlackBerry (the iPhone is No. 2 domestically), according to YouGov's Brand Index, which interviews 5,000 people each weekday and conducts more than 1.2 million interviews a year to monitor how consumers perceive brands.

The Pre showed a small spike in buzz among adults 18 to 34 around July 9, when the ads featuring Ms. Hope first started airing, rising from the 10 to 15 range on the buzz scale against BlackBerry's dip from 30 to 25 during the same period. (The index has a scale of +100 or -100, depending on whether the feedback was positive or negative. All the figures are on a positive scale.)

Value advantage
But perceived value is still BlackBerry's advantage, particularly among adults 35 to 49, where BlackBerry's value index skyrocketed on the wings of a new Tour of its 9630 smartphones and deals with Verizon. Its score went to nearly 20 where Palm's zigzagged in the 3 to 5 range as awareness of the Modernista TV ads stabilized.

Sales for the product may also be stabilizing, to 25,000 phones a week, down from 50,000 upon launch in June, according to Pali Research analyst Walter Piecyk.

Perhaps that's why the phone's technical utility will be driving the next phase of the Pre's marketing, beginning this week through a series of key branded-entertainment partnerships.