Chains

Understand brand-level performance and visitor trends across regions.

Overview

The Chains section lets users analyze performance at the brand level, across all locations within a chain. Whether you're investigating a brand’s national footprint or how it performs in a specific state or city, the Chains section provides top-level insights, visitor data, and benchmarking tools.

Accessing the Chains Section

There are two ways to access Chains:

• From elsewhere in the platform, such as Dashboard or Places, via a link
• Through direct search within the Chains tab

Search Options

• By chain name: Enter the name of a brand (e.g., “Starbucks”) to view its performance
• By location: Search by country, state, or city to explore chains with a presence in that area

Recent searches also appear in the left-hand panel for easy access.

Understanding Chain Views

Once you select a chain, you can view data either nationwide (e.g., Denny’s USA) or by region (e.g., Denny’s in California). The selected group appears in the header.

Layout Overview

The Chains section layout is made up of three key parts:

1. Header Menu
   Displays the name of the selected chain and its group (e.g., USA or California). From here, you can:
   • Create a report
   • Create a comparison group
2. Map View + Map Card
   Shows the geographic distribution of stores for the selected chain. The map card includes a summary of the brand (e.g., industry category, number of stores).
3. Analytics Section
   All analytical content appears below the map. This includes benchmark metrics, visit trends, visitor demographics, and store-level comparisons. These are detailed in the following sections of this article.

Benchmark Metrics

• Chain Index: Year-over-year change in visits for the chain
• Market Index: Year-over-year change in the broader market (e.g., Restaurants in California)
• Difference: The performance gap between the chain and the market

Chain-Level Analytics

• Forecasted Visits: Projected visit volumes over the coming weeks
• Historical Visits: Past visit trends over a selected time range
• Period-on-Period Comparison: Measures change in visits vs. a previous period
  
  

Comparative Performance Across Stores

• Benchmark Analysis: Compares individual stores in the chain to their local markets using index and difference metrics
• Store Rankings: Ranks stores by visit performance at the national, state, and CBSA levels

Visitor Insights

• Psychographic Profiles: Uses TransUnion data to show the top visitor types and how over- or underrepresented they are compared to the national population
• Demographic Characteristics: Compares chain visitors to the broader population by age, income, and other traits

Conclusion

The Chains section gives a macro-to-micro view of brand performance. Whether you’re tracking a chain’s health, evaluating market fit, or identifying standout stores, this view brings together all the comparative metrics you need for strategic brand analysis.