The Top 100 Restaurant Chains in America Unveiled by Heardable in New Brand Research

Chili's ranked #1 full service restaurant brand online, followed by Denny's at #2, Olive Garden at #3, Applebee's at #4 and Souplantation at #5.

Today Heardable, Inc., (http://heardable.com), the standard for measuring online brand performance, released the findings of its latest research report that benchmarks the online performance of the top full service restaurant chains in America. Chili's earned the #1 position in a field of strong competitors.

According to the research, Chili's'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 research does not rely on aggregate cookie data, customer opinions or satisfaction with particular brands. Instead, the Heardable brand monitoring platform 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.

So how did Chili's rise to the position of category leader? Three areas of competence caught our attention: 

1) search engine optimization

2) social media participation and fan base

3) mobile optimization

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. Congrats to the restaurant chain and its franchise owners."

The 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

A free 264 page research report profiling the Top 25 Restaurant Chains is available at:

http://heardable-reports.myshopify.com/products/the-top-25-restaurant-chains-in-america 

To learn more about the report, Heardable's methodology or get insights into other brands, contact marketing(at)heardable(dot)com or call 1-888-520-0034.

About Heardable

Heardable is the world's first and only real-time contextual brand analytics platform that measures the online health of brands across hundreds of business categories. With its Growth and Accelerator platform-as-a-service offerings, Heardable helps organizations make smarter, faster business decisions to impact tomorrow's quarterly results. With over 15 million brands profiled and 800 unique online variables capture per brand at various points in time, Heardable's "big brand data" repository can be utilized by any business looking for ways to optimize their online performance, boost brand awareness and increase revenue. Heardable, Inc. is a privately held company based in Southern California with an office in Singapore.

Heardable CEO, Jon Samsel, was recently quoted in Forbes. Contributor, Patrick Hanlon's article, 'How Apple, Dominos, Delta Airlines Rise Despite Slumpy Economy,' discusses how certain brands are making more money in the face of a stumbling economy by taking innovative approaches to marketing and rewarding employees.

Here is a brief excerpt:

Another company creating smiles these days is Delta Airlines.  Having survived plucking Northwest Airlines out of bankruptcy, Delta today is flying high.

Delta spends hundreds of millions each year across the board to promote online services, decrease the number of lost bags, revitalize its JFK terminal, and stay relevant for today’s traveler.

This week Heardable, the analytics standard for measuring online brand performance, released its Top 10 Airlines in North America report, to announce that Delta beat out rivals United and American for the second year in a row.

"Not only have they finished #1 in two consecutive reports profiling the effectiveness of the airline industry,” says Jon Samsel, co-founder and CEO of Heardable, Inc., “but they’ve managed to make their brand synonymous with a quality online experience—which requires a spirit of listening and a knack for delivering."

Read the full article here.

Well done, team Enzoani!

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