Abstract
This articles illustrates the Burger King marketing strategy, and explains all key marketing mix components by applying 7-P marketing mix framework. Strategic management and marketing students, teachers, researchers and industry practitioners may gain in-depth insights into Burger King’s marketing strategy by reading this article.
1. Introduction
In 2023, Burger King is ranked as world’s 9th largest fast food restaurant. This Burger King marketing mix case study discusses all key marketing decisions that Burger King is taking to handle the competition, and secure position in list of world’s biggest fast food restaurants.
To get basic overview about the Burger King company, click here.
Here, we present the Burger King marketing mix 7ps:
2. Burger King marketing strategy 2023
2.1. Burger King marketing mix product
2.1.1. Burger King product strategy
Burger King Product strategy focuses on quality, taste, variety, localization and inclusiveness:
• Main menu items are burgers, chicken and fish. Beverages and fries are value-added items. Veggies and salads category target vegans, and diet conscious customers.
• The dessert category includes milkshakes, ice-creams and Oreo shakes. Burger King combo-packs give tough competition to McDonalds and Wendy’s.
• Popular products- flame-grilled burgers, tender chicken and king savers.
• Products offered for both- veg and non-veg customers from different age groups.
Burger King adopts localization strategy. Its menu serves the regional tastes and preferences (e.g. Halal and Kosher restaurant outlets in some areas).
2.1.2. Burger King product mix
Burger King offers a large menu, containing different items like:
• Burgers
• Chicken
• Fish
• Potato fries
• Beverages (including milkshakes)
• Salads and veggies
• Sweets and desserts
• Ice-creams and cookies
• Value meals and kid meals
2.1.3. Burger King segmentation, targeting and positioning
Burger Kings divides the market based on geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral segmentation.
| Burger King segmentation | Burger King target market | Burger King positioning |
| Geographic Demographic Psychographic Behavioral | Young (15 to 35 years old) men and women (particular focus on men) from developed and developing countries, typically purchase fast food 9 to 16 times a month | Positioning line- “You Rule!” (Tasty and high quality, yet affordable burgers available in clean surroundings) |
2.1.4. Burger King unique selling proposition
Burger King USP lies in its low cost leadership combined with differentiation initiatives. BK offers a wide variety of flame grilled burgers (differentiation) in affordable prices (cost leadership).
BK daily serves more than 15.7 million customers all around the world. The ‘burgers’ make most significant contribution with over a billion yearly sales.
2.1.5. Product success and failures
Failed products: Halloween Whopper, flame broiled meat loaf, dinner baskets. In 2022, Burger King launched Whopper melt. As per Washington Post, whoppers were sweet, spongy, and tasted bad.
Successful products: Signature burger- The Whooper (BK sells 2.1 billion whoopers every year). Other most popular items include- fries, impossible whooper, whopper Jr, and chicken garden salad.
Recently Burger King partnered with ‘Impossible foods’ to launch plant-based meat. Although, its ‘Impossible whooper’ gave tough competition to plant based competitors like Beyond Meat, but the Burger King sales growth (0.6%) fell short of Wall Street estimate (3.1%)
Read: Beyond Meat SWOT analysis
2.1.6. Key lesson
• Introduce new products after a thorough market research, and deliver what you promised!
• A new product failure can damage the brand image, particularly when the reason is brand’s failure to fulfil its ‘quality’ promise.
2.2. Burger King marketing mix price
2.2.1. Market oriented pricing
Burger King sets its prices by considering multiple factors, like- current market environment, demand-supply trends, and competitors’ prices.
2.2.2. Bundle pricing
By considering the market conditions and demand patterns, Burger King bundles the hot selling items together. Bundles are more affordable then buying things separately.
2.2.3. Psychological pricing
Burger King carefully considers the customers’ psychology while setting prices. The prices are high enough to build the customers’ trust over product quality, and low enough to maintain the ‘affordability’ element.
2.2.4. Price discrimination
Burger King adopts the price discrimination strategy. It charges different prices at different locations by considering the consumers’ average purchasing power. This strategy expands the Burger King’s reach to market. Its prices start from $1, and go up to $30.
In 2019, Burger King set the new world record by introducing the world’s most expensive burger at $185.
2.2.5. Burger King and McDonalds- price comparison
Here is the price comparison of McDonalds and Burger King:
| McDonalds | Burger King | ||
| Cheese burger | $2.09 | Cheese burger | $2.29 |
| Big Mac | $4.79 | Whooper | $5.49 |
| Crispy chicken sandwich | $4.79 | Crispy chicken sandwich | $6.54 |
Apparently, Burger King seems more expensive, but overall comparison including the size suggests that both offer same value for money. Burger King products are larger in size, and have higher meat portion than McDonalds.
Read detailed comparison of McDonald’s vs burger king marketing strategy by Business Insider.
2.2.6. Current challenges
Rising operational cost is making it tough for Burger King to maintain it’s positioning as an ‘affordable brand’. Recently, Burger King faced backlash for rising its prices twice in a single year. In 2023, BK announced it will further increase prices of 79 menu items by 2%.
2.2.7. Key lesson
Keep your pricing strategy consistent with brand image. BK is struggling to maintain its image as affordable brand, as it is forced to increase its prices in response to rising cost pressure.
2.3. Burger King place strategy
2.3.1. Distribution strategy
Burger King adopts franchising strategy to expand into new markets. The company leases or owns the building and land, and franchisees invest in décor, seating, signage and equipment. Other than franchise restaurants, company has its own outlets as well.
2.3.2. Number of locations
Burger King has 19,789 restaurants around the world. Out of 19,789, 19739 are franchises, and 50 are company owned restaurants.
Following graph shows the constant growth in the Burger King locations around the world:
Source: Statista
2.3.3. Distribution channels
Burger King uses multiple online and offline distribution channels, including:
• Franchises and company owned outlets
• Mobile app
• Online delivery (in partnership with Food Panda, Deliveroo and Uber Eats etc.)
2.3.4. New innovations
Burger King has invested on augmented reality to make its mobile app more engaging and innovative:
2.3.5. Key lesson
Burger King expands the market reach by- 1) investing on new technologies, 2) finding new partners, 3) using price discrimination and psychological pricing as a tool to explore new markets, and penetrate deeper in existing markets.
2.4. Burger King promotion strategy
2.4.1. Burger King Promotion Mix
Burger King uses both- traditional and digital marketing strategies to promote itself:
Key components of Burger King Promotion-Mix are:
• Advertising
• Digital marketing
• Sales promotion
• Public relations
2.4.2. Burger King advertising strategy
Burger King adopts a blend of humorous and emotional advertising strategy.
Example- emotional advertising
During pandemic, Burger King encouraged its customers to purchase from McDonalds to support the staff. It sparked a positive e-WOM, and build positive brand image.
Example- humorous advertising
In 2017, Burger King launched a ‘scary clown night’ campaign. It started offering free whoopers to anyone who come dressed as a clown. The campaign drove the Burger King sales by 15% around the world.
2.4.3. Burger King digital marketing strategy
Burger King has strong presence over social media. BK uses social media as a tool to engage audience, and build brand awareness. The company handles more than 1.9 million followers over Twitter and Instagram.
Burger King digital marketing strategy includes- online promotions, digital advertising, social media contests, mobile apps, online ordering, and online loyalty programs that fuel the business growth. Burger King digital marketing strategy is a core component of company success.
2.4.4. Sales promotion and personal selling
Burger King offers discounts, coupons and deals to drive the sales. The restaurant staff uses personal selling tactics by encouraging the guests to order new menu additions.
2.4.5. Comparative analysis- McDonalds vs burger king marketing strategy
• McDonalds and Burger King adopt different marketing strategies. McDonalds’ advertisements mainly focus on its products and customers. Whereas, Burger King focuses on comparing and teasing its competitors.
• Burger King’s teasing of McDonalds not only boosts its sales, but also reflects the brand personality. The key of using humorous advertising rightly is to-“poke the bear without hitting below the belt”.
• McDonalds has 10 times more marketing budget than Burger King, but cannot always compete with the Burger King’s marketing innovations.
2.4.6. Key lesson
• Burger King adopts a well-integrated promotion strategy, including online and offline advertising and promotional techniques.
• Burger King blends humor and emotions in its advertising-a balance that makes its marketing efforts successful, even with limited budget.
2.5. Burger King people strategy
Burger King invests heavily on training and development of its customer service staff to boost the efficiency and enhance service quality. Its e-learning efforts train the employees online through videos.
2.6. Burger King process strategy
Following diagram shows the Burger King Process-Flow:
Source: Creately.com
Burger King has recently announced to deploy the automated robotic system to boost process efficiency, and enhance customer satisfaction.
2.7. Burger King physical evidence
Burger King frequently experiments with the new store designs and layouts to offer a pleasant instore experience. Some examples are-20/20 Garden Grill concept and ‘whooperish aesthetic theme’. Both gained high popularity among customers. It also invests heavily on new technologies to create an exciting in-store experience.
Based on Burger King case study analysis, our article suggests Burger King to revise its marketing strategies to handle the fierce competition from Wendy’s and McDonalds
You may find reading ‘Burger King: Developing a marketing mix for growth case study’ interesting, as this case study also advises the Burger King management to revisit its marketing mix
3. Recommendations
Burger King marketing strategy analysis is based to propose following recommendations:
• Carefully introduce new products that could deliver the promised value (high quality in low prices)
• Introduce more plant based options and healthy products in menu
• Invest on automation to cut costs and avoid increasing prices
• Expand in new markets by finding new online partners
• Carefully use the humorous advertising tactics to avoid damaging the brand image
• Use emotional and humorous advertising in a way that may reflect the brand personality
• Make sure all marketing-mix components are well-integrated with each other, and consistently deliver the same brand message.
4. Conclusion
Burger King handles the growing competition by adopting innovative marketing strategies. Its marketing mix is defined by- wide variety, affordable prices, multiple distribution channels and well-integrated promotion mix.
Read Burger King SWOT analysis to know more about Burger King’s internal and external business environment.
5. References
Carman, T. (2022, March 11). Burger King’s Whopper Melts are sweet, spongy, sorry substitutes for the patty melt. Washington Post.
Lucas, A. (2020, February 10). The Impossible Whopper wasn’t enough to lift Burger King sales. CNBC.
Jiang, I. (2020, February 21). I ate similar meals at McDonald’s and Burger King to see which would do it better, and the smaller chain beat out the bigger one by a hair. Business Insider.
김재헌. (2023, March 10). Burger King under fire for series of price hikes. Koreatimes.
Burger King restaurants globally 2022 | Statista. (2023, March 27). Statista.
Burger wars: How Burger King’s rivalry with McDonald’s reverberates through adland. (2022, May 17). Marketing Dive.
Burger King Process Flowchart [classic] | Creately. (n.d.).
Harvard Business Publishing Education. (n.d.-b).
