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For over a decade, Burger King has experienced mismanagement of relevance challenge by a series of “new” owners. Menus were not suitable for large, important segments such as women, families and the health conscious. At one point it was all about the young male and their burgers, but even this group was attracted to new fries/burgers/shakes concepts with attractive personalities and/or local connections. The experience was inconsistent and at times disappointing. The advertising and the “King” symbol was ineffective and even strange even to the young male. For many in the broad market that needed to be served, Burger King was simply irrelevant.
As recounted by Jordan Melnick in QSR, CEO Steve Wilborg, who was hired in 2010, may have finally gotten it right. In April of 2012 Burger King announced a four-prong initiative to make the brand relevant to more than the young male burger crowd. In particular, they:
Expanded their menu to include “Garden Fresh” salads, mango smoothies, chicken wraps, crispy chicken strips and mocha frappes among other new offerings, thereby broadening the potential customer base.
Improved the consistency of the experience by turning the franchisees into partners rather than the adversaries they had become. In particular, Burger King set up a restaurant council, a marketing council and a people council consisting of franchisee and company representatives.
Developed a new marketing program under the tag “Exciting things are happening at Burger King” that included a set of “A-list” celebrities to help communicate the new Burger King with humor that resonated with the broader target market.
Allocated funds to location renovation with a new look and feel that included digital menu-boards, new uniforms and fresh packaging.
The effort to dig itself out of a relevance hole looks promising. It addresses the major relevance issues —understanding who is the target segment and their changing tastes, making sure the offering is what they are looking to buy, communicating in a way that fosters relationships, and adding energy through innovation. Other established brands that face similar relevance challenges could learn from Burger King’s efforts.
*Disclosure: SHG® has worked/continues to work with Burger King® and multiple Burger King® franchisees.
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RT @JeffreySummers: How Burger King Is Attacking Their Relevance Problem – #BetterIdeas http://t.co/yIROcHVT9Q
How Burger King Is Attacking Their Relevance Problem – #BetterIdeas http://t.co/yIROcHVT9Q
Thank you for the nice write-up, but I agree with Zane. BK’s menu, decor, & messaging have been tired and outdated for awhile. It sounds like they’re at least catching up with a bunch of me-too updates, but I don’t see anything addressing their largest issue: customer experience.
I haven’t been to a BK in a very long time and an updated menu won’t change that fact. Whatever happened to the smile and positivity of “have it your way?” Until they rediscover that missing piece, they will continue to fade away.
Agreed. Let’s see what the People Council does that was noted in the 2nd point. But you know I think this is the most important step. Employee engagement is critical if ANY of these are to work.
We’ll probably agree to disagree, as we sometimes do. Sometimes, it’s vocabulary and nuance we disagree about.
These are all good things that BK is doing. They are crisp, concise, easy to enumerate and articulate to investors and boardroom members. I can see a fantastic PowerPoint presentation from their points.
But when I saw Patti’s tweet and your tweet about Burger King’s rush to relevance, I had only one thought: Do they care? Not about their business. Do they care about me, as a customer? My sense, even after reading this, is the answer is…’no’. That disinterest, even boredom, was communicated so clearly so consistently at every BK I visited.
My sense too is management cares about the same for their employees. Caring for customers starts with caring for your employees. You can’t diss your employees and then expect them to care about customers. No matter how many draconian rules and micro-managers you inflict.
Now. Of the 4 items, only 1 could possibly address this issue. That’s number 2, making store owners into partners not adversaries. That’s a huge step, if it’s genuine.
Adding smoothies and salad-bars is a yawning, me-too step. Given their investment in building a brand on dietary excess, it’s hard to imagine customers thinking “I’d love a healthy smoothie…Yes, let’s get one at BK.’
Digital menu boards are cool, until the consumer experiences the service behind those boards. I’m imagining they will turn into collateral material for customer vigilantes.
What’s exciting at BK will be told by customers and employees. Give them something exciting to talk about and they will. Otherwise, it’s a canned message easily ignored by jaded consumers.
Agreed. Let’s see what the People Council does that was noted in the 2nd point. But you know I think this is the most important step. Employee engagement is critical if ANY of these are to work. Brick-and-Mortar improvements are routinely necessary, but my first question on any re-imaging work is, “What are doing to improve Hospitality?”