Yoshinoya, Maxim's hit hard by social unrest in Hong Kong
Some outlets have been boycotted and vandalised.
A recent YouGov Plan & Track report reveals that brands’ buzz scores, which reflect how consumers discussed brands, fell to a negative for fast food chains like Yoshinoya and Maxim’s-run brands.
Brands under Hong Kong restaurant chain Maxim’s Caterers were “boycotted and vandalised,” following comments made by Annie Wu, the daughter of the chain’s founder, who denounced the recent protest actions led by youngsters. This dragged Starbucks’ buzz score to -45.3 from 73.5; Maxim’s Fast Food fell to -58.5 from 52.6, losing -111.1 points; and Genki Sushi shed 103 points from 41.8 to -61.2.
Japanese fast food chain Yoshinoya posted a social media post “deemed insulting to the police force,” and CEO Marvin Hung was criticised for his involvement in a rally targeted against government. This resulted in local consumers talking negatively about the brand which brought down its buzz score to -56.1 from 55.7.
The negative buzz scores also affected customer scores, which measure how many people have purchased from the brand in the past 30 days. Restaurants have seen the biggest loss of customers amongst business brands since social unrest has plagued Hong Kong in June.
Maxim’s Fast Food shed 10.6 in current customer scores from 27.3 to 16.7. Whilst Starbucks lost eight points from 28.4 to 20.4 and Yoshinoya fell from 22.8 to 12.8.
“It is clear in these circumstances, taking a political stance has reflected poorly on their brand health. What will be interesting to see if or when these brands will recover, as Hong Kong continues to evolve,” YouGov head of data products Ervin Ha said in a statement.
The provisional value of restaurant took a plunge by 11.7% year-on-year to $26.4bn in Q3, according to Census and Statistics Department.
The provisional estimate of the value of total purchases by restaurants also fell by 10.9%YoY to $8.5b in the same period.
Photo Credit: MX Facebook
