Why Does Burger King continue to Follow the Leader?

Sometimes the answer to the question is right in front of you.  When asked recently ‘why does Burger King continue to follow McDonalds’ Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® stated “it’s easy and profitable”. 

Success does leave clues and those clues cannot be denied or ignored according to Johnson.  The larger question of can Burger King ever step-up and lead is another question with a simple answer according to Johnson “only when they are will to focus on the consumers need-set not Wall Streets.”

Once again following the lead of McDonald’s Burger King restaurants have now introduced “the $6 King Box. Available for a limited time only, the $6 King Box consists of a BK entrée, French fries, a soft drink and dessert. The BK King Box entrées guests can choose between are a WHOPPER sandwich, the Crispy Chicken Sandwich, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich and 3- piece Chicken Tenders. The $6 meal also comes with a small order of fries, a small drink and two chocolate chip cookies.”

Chris Finazzo, president, North America, Burger King Corporation stated “We are excited to launch a brand-new offering that allows our guests to treat themselves with our $6 King Box,” says “The new $6 King Box features our most iconic entrees and offers our guests craveable and delicious premium options that outsize the competition.”

In fact, what Burger Kings is doing is trying to help with industry messaging moving the $5 price point to $6 according to Johnson. The price, value, service equilibrium is moving but as the economy slows it is very likely the $5 price point will continue to drive incremental customer traffic for some time according to Johnson. There are other ways to drive unit level top line sales and bottom line profits within the grocerant niche. 

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.