I Want A BIG Serving Of Unicorns-Rose Petals And Pixie Dust Please
It’s Monday AM, I’ve consumed cup of Joe #1?and I’m ready to go.
Spike Jones at Brains on Fire writes an interesting article on Chick-Fil-A. I’ve personally never eaten at?or even seen a Chick-Fil-A restaurant so I can’t possibly post on the topic of how good they are. But they have annual sales over 2 billion so things can’t be bad huh?
I can say that the name itself is really confusing to me. Anyone know where they came up with the name?
Anyways Spike goes on to tout the things that make them great. And here’s part of the rub. Spike, like many word of mouth marketing companies?promote this research called the “Net Promoter Score“. Here’s what?the Net Promoter Score is:
To calculate your company’s Net Promoter Score (NPS), take the percentage of customers who are promoters (those who are highly likely to recommend your company or products), and subtract the percentage who are detractors (those who are less likely to recommend your company or products). The equation below is how to calculate a company’s NPS.
% of Promoters – % of Detractors = Net Promoter Score (NPS)
Now we’ve been conducting statistical research for over 15 years. Both quantitative and qualitative. Stuff with meat on the bones. Why these word of mouth marketing companies are backing this very simplistic,?voodoo math is beyond me. It’s literally one question. That my friend is not?information (or lack of)?I want to bank on. But a lot of the word of mouth marketing people like Spike (who calls?Chick-Fil-A’s score “Rockstar Status”)?are really behind it? I’m really surprised that anyone could get behind a 1 question analysis.
Now I’m not saying the Net Promoter Score is all bad. I think it would make a great additional question to a more in-depth research initiative. It could help support a finding or be part of a finding. But it can’t alone BE the finding.
Read what other “non word of mouth” people have to say here:
http://www.crm-guru.com/net-promoter-score-good-tool-or-too-simple.php
http://customerexperiencematrix.blogspot.com/2007/07/more-attacks-on-net-promoter-score.html
http://www.atypon-link.com/AMA/doi/pdf/10.1509/jmkg.71.3.39
Then Spike goes on to say that Chick-Fil-A had 333,689 mentions in blogs. So I searched the next crappiest competitor, Burger King: 609,000 mentions,?and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC): 2.7 million mentions?so Chick-Fil-A is no big thing when it comes to blog mentions (by the way a lot of those mentions could be negative). Again it seems like these new?word of mouth marketing people use blogs as a crutch for measuring?performance.
Then Spike was kind enough to mention that there were 1120 YouTube videos on Chick-Fil-A,?although he neglected to say that a majority of those videos are from the Chick-Fil-A Bowl Game. I did the same search on YouTube?for KFC and found 12,300 videos (not all good for sure) which is considerably more. He then touts the 8300 flickr photos (KFC has 35,000).
The funniest number he reports is the amount of tweets on twitter. Apparently there?has been?”numerous”?tweets but what Spike neglects to say is that this number includes any tweet with the word “chick” in it. Like the many tweets that said “I was watching this chick flick”. Imagine how many tweets that have the word “chick” in it?
So according to Spike Jones at Brains on Fire it seems to have a good company?you need a lot of blog mentions (whether they are good or bad), a ton of tweets with any part of your name in the actual tweet, a?bunch of flickr photos, some YouTube videos (preferably of a big bowl game you sponsor)?and a good Net Promoter Score, one equivalent to “Rockstar Status”.
That’s a?BIG serving of unicorns, rose petals?and pixie dust. Suddenly I feel like frolicking.
Here’s what I have to say, anyone pushing the Net promoter Score and or the amount of blog mentions to conclude how good a company?is, is… well,?scary. I do not and will not ever recommend the Net Promoter Score as the only research to be conducted.
What Chick-Fil-A does right is apparently serve good quality fast food. So there’s the hook. They have a good product and apparently deliver great service. It’s a nice alternative to KFC and their fat pill. Bingo. You don’t need some fantasy land Net Promoter Score or blog mentions?for that do you?
Sounds like they’ve done some really good branding over the years and are dedicated to their brand identity of the best quality chicken in their space.
I love Monday mornings!
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August 11th, 2008 at 9:21 am
Well, I can’t reference and special formula but as far as fast food chains go I will say Chick-Fil-A is one of the best and classiest ones out there according to consistant experiences I have had over the years. On my bookshelf I have two autographed books by the founder, S. Truett Cathy; It’s Better to Build Boys than Men and Eat Mor Chikin – Inspire More People – Doing Business the Chik-Fil-A way. Both books are very inspirational and reflect the values of the founder and I’m impressed on how the company has always been consistant to those values.
Wheras “flipping burgers” at McDonalds is often a something that is made fun of working a Chik-fil-a is something special in the fast food industry. All the workers dress sharp and look clean and professional, The sponsor a great scholarship program and the food is high quality. In addition to their signature chicken sandwhiches they have great waffle fries, lemonade and recently they came out with a killer coffee carmel milkshake that will make your knees buckle!
August 11th, 2008 at 9:26 am
I’m sure they’re great. I’ve never even seen one. You know how they came up with their name?
August 11th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Spike says:
Scott, you?re so funny.
I merely wanted to point out how many people were talking about them. Do you need a dictionary? Fictitious means ?fake,? a term I?m sure you?re very familiar with.
As for sales:
?Fast food chain Chick-fil-A is boasting of another strong year in 2007, saying sales were up 16 percent.
The privately held, Atlanta-based chain also said this year will feature an ?aggressive? launch of several new menu items.
Chick-fil-A, which did not report a net income figure, said sales hit $2.64 billion last year. Same-store sales, a key measure of retail strength that looks at revenue gains in stores that have been open for at least 12 months, rose about 8.5 percent.?
-Source: Triangle Business Journal.
Hey Spike,
Those are real numbers you can sink your teeth into, not the Net Promoter Score, or bogus tweets, blog mentions, flickr photos and YouTube vids. But none of those numbers represent any type of word of mouth marketing.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I highly suggest “Stumbling on Happiness” by Daniel Gilbert. He has a great section on how our brains interpret the standards we set on “facts.” It’s interesting to see the research on how people perceive statistics and studies and what those numbers say. It’s not the same old, “figures lie and liars figure,” but more how an individual responds to numbers, given their perspective and prejudices.
This is why I hate numbers. I hate this current movement of justification by numbers, because it’s just another layer of crap.
August 11th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Well, my experience has been that when we conduct research the client always benefits somehow. Maybe they learn things they didn’t know (like how people perceive their brand) or the client confirms things they thought they knew.
It’s what you do after the research that matters. But having solid information can’t be a bad thing.
August 11th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Research, not statistics. Research can be both qualitative and quantitative. And, basing *all* your decisions *only* on statistics will lead you astray.