Today is Cinco de Mayo, a day to commemorate a huge victory for the Mexican army against the French in the 19th century and a day to celebrate Mexican heritage and pride. However, it is also a great day (or excuse) to indulge in burritos, tequila, chips and of course – my favorite – guacamole.
If you and your coworkers are anything like the NetBase team, I am sure many will be heading out for a Mexican food and drinks for this Thursday’s happy hour, so I thought it would be the perfect time to see what the Insight Workbench could surface about these popular food chains: Chipotle, Chevy’s, Baja Fresh, Qdoba, Taco Bell, El Torito and Del Taco.
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 both the sentiment and passion intensity.
Workbench revealed that when it comes to a Mexican fiesta, Chipotle has won the hearts and stomachs of many social media users; the chain lauded for its huge and tasty burritos generated 42% of the overall chatter and a love score of 65. This certainly rang true for our office – we have a Chipotle right around the corner and you can catch NetBasers there more often than not.
Chipotle is my favorite food group
My burrito from chipotle was great and was bout the size of 5 midgets
Chipotles Mexican grill has the greatest burritos ever made
Taco Bell, a NetBase customer, dominated the overall conversation, with 55% of the chatter, and online consumers raved about the great 5 layer tacos and even greater prices found at the Mexican fast food giant.
Double decker tacos at taco bell are sooo good and there under a dollar
This 5 layer burrito from taco bell is Awesome!!
AAHHHHH I sure do wish I had a nice beefy 5 layer burrito from taco bell!!!
I’m really craving a couple of 5 layer burritos from Taco Bell
And while El Torito had less than 1% of the overall chatter, I identify with the still-impressive love score of 64 that it inspired. I don’t get there often since I’ve been blessed with a master chef of a husband, but I’m a total sucker for the pepito Caesar dressing, and it seems I’m not alone.
El Torito is so charming it makes the sun itself smile
So where will you be headed with sombrero in place and Corona in hand? Have a happy Cinco de Mayo, and let me know how you’ll be celebrating this year – everyone who comments today gets a FREE Taco Bell gift card from yours truly 
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.
Not surprised Del Taco had a much smaller circle, but surprised that it’s not as far right as Taco Bell. Maybe next year you can add Rubio’s to the mix?
The only one (of these options) in my area is Taco Bell… which I love. Didn’t see Taco Time on the survey. I can’t hardly pass one by when we travel without stopping for a crisp meat burrito. Fortunately, we have some fantastic local Mexican Restaurants… looking forward to a chimichanga today.
Happy Cinco de Mayo from all of your friends at Allied Home Mortgage. Will be celebrating with great food and music at On The Border! Great, light-hearted, and fun post, thank you!
Happy Cinco de Mayo! I actually just came back from Del Taco to celebrate. Interesting that Taco Bell has most of the conversation but Chipotle seems to score a little higher on the love scale. Looking at this and other charts, I wonder if it’s inevitable that larger brands find it more difficult to score as highly as the smaller brands with less chatter?