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Heardable Unveils The Top 100 Restaurant Chains for Digital Branding

07/16/2012 – LOS ANGELES – Heardable, Inc., a social media monitoring service that measures online brand performance, today released a research report profiling the online strengths (and weaknesses) of The Top 100 Restaurant Chains in America.

 

According to the report, Chili’s earned the top position in a field of strong competitors.  According to the research, Chili’s brand health score of 636 out of 1,000 possible points beat its nearest competitor, Denny’s, by 6 points, or 0.94%, and surpassed third place Olive Garden by 10 points, or 1.57%. The gap between Chili’s and lowest-ranked Macaroni Grill was 151 points, or 23.74%.

 

Heardable brand monitoring is a technology platform which studies how effective each brand performs according to 800+ online marketing metrics and best practices. Brands are examined and benchmarked based on measurable performance data, rather than estimates or opinions.

 

Heardable suggests Chili’s rise to the position of category leader was due in part to their ongoing efforts for:

 

• Search Engine Optimization (SEO:  creating web pages so that search engines like Google and Bing can easily index the website.)
• Social Media Participation (Creating, endorsing and actively managing company social media pages. restaurants often use social media special offers and menu alerts to keep their fan base interested and sharing.)
• Mobile Optimization (Restaurants are improving their performance on mobile devices as users are finding their favorite establishments on hand-held devices.)

 

In addition to chilis.com, Chili’s maintains a strong social media presence in Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, along with testing location-based channels such as FourSquare and mobile (mobile coupons, mobile advertising to boost ordering via smartphones, and charity awareness via mobile bar codes printed on menus).

 

“Chili’s has utilized the essential online branding tools of community management, customer service and content outreach to emerge as a leader in the full service restaurant category,” said Gunther Sonnenfeld, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Heardable, Inc. “Chili’s understands that the value of its service product extends far beyond calorie counts, specialty food items and discounts — it sees its business value in the direct relationships it builds with its customer base, and it shows.

 

Heardable's Top 100 Restaurant Chains

 

1. Chili’s

2. Denny’s

3. Olive Garden

4. Applebee’s

5. Souplantation

6. Yard House

7. Texas Roadhouse

8. Red Robin

9. BJ’s Restaurant

10. California Pizza Kitchen

11. Bob Evans

12. Red Lobster

13. Outback Steakhouse

14. Benihana

15. Carrabba’s Italian Grill

16. Morton’s

17. Joe’s Crab Shack

18. The Cheesecake Factory

19. Capital Grille

20. McCormick & Schmicks

21. Bennigan’s

22. Logans Roadhouse

23. Smokey Bones

24. Fazolies

25. Macaroni Grill

26. Houlihan’s

27. FATZ

28. Sizzler

29. IHOP

30. Buffalo Wild Wings

31. Ruth’s Chris Steak House

32. Steak N Shake

33 T.G.I. Friday’s

34. Hooters

35. Brick House Tavern + Tap

36. Friendly’s

37. Bertuccis

38. Earls

39. Buca Di Beppo

40. Maggiano’s Little Italy

41. Ruby Tuesday

42. Bonefish Grill

43. Waffle House

44. P.F. Chang’s

45. Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse

46. Golden Corral

47. Fuddruckers

48. Cracker Barrel

49. Elephant Bar

50. Carrows Restaurant

51. Swensen’s

52. The Melting Pot

53. First Watch

54. Roy’s

55. Bubba Gump Shrimp Co

56. Elmer’s Restaurants

57. Famous Dave’s BBQ

58. Lone Star Steakhouse

59. Coco’s Bakery

60. Acapulco

61. Marie Callender’s

62. Village Inn

63. Perkins Family Restaurant

64. Rainforest Cafe

65. Tony Romas

66. O-Charley’s

67. Mimi’s Cafe

68. Chart House Restaurant

69. Bravo Cucina Italiana

70. Huddle House

71. Redstone American Grill

72. Quaker Steak & Lube

73. Max & Ermas

74. Claim Jumper

75. Ra Sushi

76. Big Boy

77. East Side Mario’s

78. Biaggi’s Ristorante Italiano

79. Black Angus

80. Saltgrass Steak House

81. Le Peep

82. Shanes Rib Shack

83. Rock Bottom

84. El Torito

85. McGrath’s Fish House

86. Don Pablos

87. Country Kitchen

88. Bakers Square

89. Cheddars

90. Copelands

91. Mitchell’s Fish Market

92. Vic & Anthony’s

93. Ponderosa Steakhouse

94. Shari’s Restaurant

95. J. Alexander’s

96. Black-eyed Pea

97. Johnny Rockets

98. Ground Round

99. Shoney’s

100. Rusty Pelican

 

Heardable has made the free 264 page research report profiling the Top 25 Restaurant Chains is available online. 

 

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