• by Karlene Lukovitz , January 12, 2011

Buzz-wise, Subway led the dining pack last year -- and even slightly outperformed all other types of consumer brands -- while Domino's showed the biggest buzz improvement within the restaurant sector, according to YouGov BrandIndex.

 

BrandIndex, which tracks consumers' perceptions of brands each weekday through online interviewing of a sample representative of the U.S. population, provided Marketing Daily with breakouts for restaurant industry brand buzz performance for last year versus 2009. The buzz scores reflect answers to the question, "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, was it positive or negative?," and range from 100 to -100. (A score of zero indicates equal positive and negative feedback.)

Subway led the list of restaurant brands with the highest 2010 scores, at 41.7, followed fairly closely by Olive Garden, at 36. (Olive Garden also came in #9 among all consumer brands.)

Other Top 10 performers included Outback Steakhouse (28.6), Applebee's (26.9), Dairy Queen (26.8), Wendy's (26.7), Dunkin' Donuts (26.2), Red Lobster (25.3), Pizza Hut (24.9) and Papa John's (24.3).

The top 20 included IHOP (23.3), Chick-Fil-A (22.3), Panera Bread (20.4), Sonic (20.2), Chili's (19.9), The Cheesecake Factory (19.7), Taco Bell (19.5), Domino's (19.4), Burger King (17.8) and Cracker Barrel (17.2).

Looking at restaurant brands showing the biggest improvement in their buzz scores between 2009 and 2010, Domino's was the leader (gaining 6.4 points, for a 2010 score of 19.4), and Starbucks was #2 (gaining 5.2 points, for a score of 12.8).

The top-10 buzz improvement list also includes Golden Corral (up 2.9, to 13.9), Red Robin (up 2.3 to 13.6), Taco Bell (up 1.7 to 19.5), Chipotle (up 1.4 to 8.8), Church's (up 1.4 to 3.0), Hooters (up 1.4 to -0.5), Krispy Kreme (up 1.3 to 11.1) and IHOP (up 1.2 to 23.3).