Dove chocolate will be feeling the love this Valentine’s Day as the brand overcame two-time favorite Ferrero Rocher as America’s most loved chocolate brand according to analytics company NetBase which released the results of Brand Passion Index.
The company’s three-year analysis of chocolate uses social media data from 2013, 2014, and 2015 and natural language processing technology to identify the consumers’ emotions and opinions about several popular chocolate brands.
“Social analytics allow us to identify changes in brand perceptions over time,” said Bruun-Jensen, chief marketing officer for NetBase. “Having instant access to this kind of comparison allows brands to do everything from track the effectiveness of one campaign over another to evaluating how their brand performs at different points in the year. This kind of analysis is key in driving informed business decisions across a variety of departments.”
Dove ranked high in the love category for the past three years and was a consumer favorite for dark chocolate. However, this year the brand overcame Ferrero Rocher most loved title with both net sentiment and brand Passion scores of 92, according to NetBase. Ferrero Rocher came in second in all three metrics with 49,309 mentions, a net sentiment score of 91 and a passion Intensity score of 80.
According to the data, Godiva, Neuhaus, and Ghirardelli were the least talked about brands this year. But Lindt, a least-talked-about brand in 2013 and 2014, broke ground this year with 15,015 mentions, a 47 percent increase since 2013.