American perceptions of burger chains cooling

Americans may be dealing with one of the hottest summers in recent memory, but they’ve cooled in their perceptions of the nation’s three largest burger chains, according to new data from market research agency YouGov and its measure of public perception, BrandIndex.

BrandIndex surveys 5,000 consumers each weekday and calculates a brand’s buzz score by asking, “If you’ve heard anything about this brand in the past two weeks, was it positive or negative?” The firm then subtracts negative responses from positive ones.

Each of the top three burger brands’ buzz scores fell this month from their averages of the past 12 months.

McDonald’s average buzz score for July, which tallied results July 1-20, totaled 12.4, compared with an average score of 16.7 from July 2009 through June 2010. Wendy’s average buzz score fell four points to 24.5 for July of this year, from a prior 12-month average of 28.5. Burger King’s falloff was less severe, dropping to 17.7 in July from an average score of 19.4 in the prior 12 months.

Because the brands’ buzz scores are trending down simultaneously, BrandIndex believes current challenges — from the White House’s “Let’s Move” campaign to media coverage of calorie content or consumer concerns — pose threats to the segment as a whole rather than any specific chain.