You know you’re getting old when you find yourself saying cliché things like “Where has the time gone?” but it really does feel like just yesterday that we debuted the Brand Passion Index…and in fact, it was a year ago tomorrow that our first BPI on grocery store shopping for Memorial Day hit my blog. Memorial Day is always cause for me to celebrate– my daughter was born on the holiday four years ago, so we’ll be filling up the Weber with coals, barbequing and celebrating all weekend.
So, in honor of the inevitable shopping I have in front of me and the 1-year anniversary of the BPI, I thought it’d be interesting to go back to our roots for this month’s BPI and compare what’s changed in the last year for these five grocery stores: Safeway, Whole Foods, Kroger, Costco and Walmart.
In this graphic, 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 intensity of passion. The solid bubbles represent results for 2011 and the gradients are for 2010.
In looking at the migration of the bubbles in the past year, it’s pretty obvious that when it comes to really intense passion about supermarkets, online consumers are all about all things “W” – Walmart and Whole Foods reigned with high passion levels.
Not surprisingly, consumers continue to have intense passion for Walmart, but with highly negative sentiment. Despite generating 72% of the overall chatter, Walmart still had a staggering 50% of online conversations expressing hate. Verbatim surfaced about the discount giant showed that while it continues to be one of the cheapest options, the service and overall customer experience is terrible.
One of the reasons that I hate Walmart is because they are very NON coupon friendly
In contrast, verbatim about Whole Foods showed that social media consumers love how it provides a gourmet and full experience – not only is there a great selection, but it provides an atmosphere beyond that of simply a supermarket. With 70% of its chatter reflecting love, Whole Foods is where many will be buying their chopped meat for the best burgers.
Absolutely love “Whole Foods”..a gourmet’s heaven of unique and organic specialty foods
And, as people prepare for epic BBQs this weekend, it looks like Costco is still tried and true – consumers are still relying on the massive chain, and not just for the toilet paper or the free samples. With love making up 68% of its overall chatter, Costco’s verbatim showed that the social media universe finds Costco to be a great option for preparing for a weekend of BBQing and grilling.
Costco has the BEST hot dogs ever Period. LOL
Absolute best burgers…the fresh, pre-made burger from Costco are fantastic
Lastly, I found it interesting to see that good ‘ole reliable supermarkets, Safeway and Kroger, have increased their buzz just a bit over the year. They are still in the love zone, but have moved over on the passion intensity and on the polarity scale as well. As you can see, people do talk about loving them.
I am beginning to really love Safeway a bit more
I will be hitting at least 3 of these supermarkets to fill my cart with BBQ goods – who will be getting your business this weekend? Happy Memorial Day to everyone – and check back here next month as we discover passion for watches just in time for Father’s Day!
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.
