Social Listening - Wendy's

The brand I chose for this blog post is Wendy’s. I am interested in the brand because I always see funny things they post online, especially on Twitter. I have noticed that this company is quite active on social media, they respond to a lot of the comments/replies they get and I am a big fan of their food. People say all types of things about this company. One thing I notice a lot of people are talking about on Wendy’s social media is comparing them to their competitors such as McDonald’s and Burger King. Another thing I notice people talking about is food/sauces they want Wendy’s to bring back. Wendy’s value propositions include, “Quality is our recipe”, “Do the right thing”, “Give something back”, etc. As I mentioned before, people are commenting/posting on Wendy’s social media about their competitors, for example, @shawnsportscards said, “Should I go to Wendy’s or McDonald’s”. Another thing I mentioned previously that people are talking about is things that they want Wendy’s to bring back, @jackhelrigel says, “Bring back the bacon pretzel pub”. Something I hadn’t mentioned before was a lot of people are talking about the famous four for four (one of my personal favorites), @papishow_4 said, “4 for 4 are $5 now this is false advertising”. Below I will include images of specific comments/replies that I am referring to. Wendy’s promotes all types of their food on their social media. Some things that they have been promoting recently on Instagram include the four for four, the baconator, frostys, baked potatoes, chicken nuggets, french fries, etc. They also have a lot of posts that don’t even have anything to do with the food, in these posts they are promoting the brand. I will also include a screenshot of some of these brand-promoting posts that I am talking about below. Wendy’s marketing through social media is unique. The captions, the responses, the interesting posts, etc. are an effort of remarkability and I would say they are doing a good job with that. Wendy's definitely uses social media’s best practices. The textbook talks about different ways to use social media for marketing. Wendy’s uses all of the ways mentioned and one is especially evident in their social media. The textbook states a way of using social media for marketing as, “To participate in those conversations by commenting on other people’s blogs.” (Scott 87), this is a common trend in Wendy’s social media and oftentimes it is something unique, something you wouldn’t expect a company’s social media to say. A marketing challenge Wendy’s is facing is its competition. Being a fast-food chain they have many many competitors. They use their social media as a way to stand out from the competition. They also use marketing techniques like deals, such as the four for four, which is not something you see at many other fast-food chains. I would say they are succeeding in what they are trying to accomplish because a lot of people I know talk about Wendy’s, especially about their social media presence. They do a very good job of engaging their customers. Someone that we talked about in class is ways to listen to your customers. You can tell Wendy’s reads the comment they get on their social media because of how often you see them respond to these comments directly. Wendy’s also prints a URL on the back of their receipts for comments to give feedback on their experience which is another way that they listen to their customers and I am sure there are many more things that they do to get information about what the customers are thinking and feeling. As I have mentioned before Wendy’s often responds to their customers in unique ways. In one post @XXsupernatorXX said, “Can you start selling garlic baguettes” and Wendy’s responded, “I’ll think about it.”, showing that they are listening to their customers' requests and responding in a funny and engaging way. I like the way that Wendy’s responds to their customers. I think that it draws more attention to their brand and makes them unique because not a lot of other restaurants would respond to the things that Wendy’s responds to or in the way Wendy’s responds. This is a good decision from the company and they should continue responding in unique and what some would say remarkable ways. If I were the brand manager I might not respond in this way just because I wouldn’t think that it would have gotten the reaction that it did. I feel that this is acceptable because of the type of restaurant that it is, if it were a more upscale restaurant I could see this being frowned upon. I learned many things from this assignment. One thing I learned is that marketing is much more than advertisements. There are so many ways to market a brand/product that I would have never even thought about before looking into it. Another thing I learned is how often customers make requests about the menu to restaurants. I knew that customers did this, but I didn’t think that I would see it as often as I did. Another thing I learned is that I want Wendy’s now! :)