For those of you who ate an overload of turkey in celebration of Thanksgiving this past week, you are probably sick of turkey soup, turkey pot pie, turkey sandwiches, turkey anything. And if you’ve also been in the throes of shopping (psst, check out the Holiday Mood Meter to see which retailers are delivering consumer happiness this season!), I’m sure you’re opting for easy meals not including turkey these days. So this week’s Brand Passion Index looks at a meal that is equal parts easy, comforting and delicious: burgers! We looked at these burger brands: Big Mac (McDonald’s), Whopper (Burger King), White Castle, In-N-Out, Five Guys, Wendy’s and Sonic.
In the graphic above, the amount of chatter about a brand is indicated by the size of the bubble, while the placement of the bubble shows the sentiment and the intensity of passion.
Also to note: we are looking at the burger, specifically – not the chain as a whole.
Wendy’s generated the largest share of buzz among the seven brands, with 36% of the overall chatter, but received a median Passion Intensity score of 40 and the second lowest Net Sentiment score of 55. I was a bit surprised to see Wendy’s leading the pack with that much buzz – until I looked at the verbatim. Online consumers raved about the bacon-centric burgers offered by Wendy’s, particularly one named the baconator (not sure what that means, or that I even want to know). As we learned during a Demo Day all about bacon, bacon makes everything better – looks like Wendy’s is onto something! Despite the enthusiasm for bacon, though, online consumers also complained about the greasiness of Wendy’s burgers.
Wendys baconator is the best burger handsdown. #fact
Wendys bacon cheese burgers, are the best bacon cheese burgers.
wendys burgers are so greasy
Good grief the new Wendys burgers are flavorless and greasy. All I can taste is fake butter.
Sonic emerged as the love winner, with Five Guys hot on its heels. Known for its drive-in environment, Sonic generated a Net Sentiment of 66 and a Passion Intensity score of 50. Online consumers gushed about how the chain has the “best” burgers, surprising me that there was much more chatter about the burger being the “best”, rather than being the “most loved”. Check out some verbatim:
I just had the best burger ever from Sonics. I almost died on that last bite.
the sonic burger is so good i can’t even put it into words right now
Sonic burgers never disappoint!!!! 
And Five Guys was just barely edged out for most loved brand by Sonic, but still generated a Net Sentiment of 69 as well as a Passion Intensity of 44. Having recently seen both a Five Guys and an In-N-Out move into my neighborhood and the ensuing huge lines that seem to be a staple at both locations, I was surprised that those numbers weren’t higher – but that might just be a matter of time! Here’s what online consumers had to say about Five Guys’ burgers:
Five Guys is an interesting concept, well executed
But Five Guys also has free extra cheese and extra bacon.
So who satisfies your burger cravings? Let me know!
Lisa Joy Rosner
The Brand Passion Index, other cool ConsumerBase insights, and thoughts on understanding the social media universe from Lisa Joy Rosner, NetBase CMO.
