Target’s Buzz score dropped drastically after the announcement was made that hackers may have gained access to millions of customer’s credit and debit accounts. Buzz score is a way to measure the popularity of a brand that was developed by the site YouGov. Scores range from 100 to -100. The day after the announcement was made, December 20, the score was at an all-time low of -9. A few days later, it fell even lower to -19. To determine the score, customers are asked if they have heard any news about specific companies in a specified period of time, and then they are asked to specify whether that news was positive or negative. Target’s publicity has been overwhelmingly negative since the breach. The Buzz scores of Kmart, Macy’s, and Walmart are actually higher than Target right now.
Impact on business
The breach has created complications for legions of customers. Just days before Christmas, many customers had credit and debit accounts frozen as banks and Target officials struggled to correct fraudulent spending and security breaches. Customers had to wait for new credit and debit cards to arrive in some cases before finishing holiday shopping. Target’s traffic also suffered as wary would-be customers avoided the store and chose other shopping venues.
The breach has now been corrected, but many customers are still avoiding the store after the scare. According to historic trends, it will probably take a few weeks for the store to return to its prior popularity. While the trend is not expected to be permanent, the financial loss during the busiest season is a huge blow to the retailer.