BUSINESS ENGLISH ESSAY

How Burger King does manage its bad image? Numerous companies have had to deal with the negative outcomes of inappropriate advertising policies. Some of them had also a bad image because of their internal management system and had to invest in advertisement to bring back the customers. We could use various examples: Nike’s products manufactured by children, Coca-Cola’s violent use of managerial power in Colombia plants, Disneyland’s anti-American boycott during the opening of its French park in 1992, or McDonald’s global image, which is criticized for encouraging obesity even now, after having made different measures in order to promote nutritional awareness. We will study here the case of one of the biggest fast-food industry companies and determine how its advertising policy avoids the common traps McDonald’s fell into. Since its beginnings in 1954, Burger King has experienced an outstanding growth, as stated in High School Operations Research website (1). In order to have an advantage on its competitors, notably Wendy’s ， Kentucky Fried Chicken and McDonald’s, the company has adopted different successful tactics. As we are focussing here on its publicity campaigns, it is relevant to put the emphasis on the comparative advertisements Burger King made to benefit from its main rivals’ weaknesses, well described on a Cambridge University Press webpage (2). In these TV spots (which were shown between 1995 and 1996), the firm compared its own burgers to the opponents’ products. However, most of Burger King advertising programs made between 1980 and 2002 were unsuccessful and did not permit the brand to achieve its targets, which were attempts to build a solid identity the firm lacked of, according to Wikipedia and its annex sources (3). Moreover, these failures, which supported by a major investment, were also creating a competitive disadvantage, of which Wendy’s benefitted from in 1986. Effectively, during this time Wendy’s tried a new motto, “Where’s the beef?” which Burger King answered with: “Where’s herb?” Unfortunately for BG, it did not have the impact it was supposed to have. This specific flop leads us to analyse the current BG strategy towards McDonald’s; instead of fighting a marketing decision with another similar or even opposite marketing decision, BG has simply developed the habit not to strike back Nonetheless, there has been a noticeable exception to that, as explained in the book Marketing Strategy in 1998 (4). As Burger King copied the Big Mac creating the “Big King”, McDonald’s nastily replied with the “Big ‘n Tasty”, which directly imitates the Whopper. In the past, BG tried to expand its segmentation but lost customer awareness, which led to improper advertising campaigns. For instance, their total market share in 1993 was much lower than McDonald’s (6.1 % for BK, 15.6% for Mc Donald’s) because they forgot to put the stress on their main product – the Whopper – in their ads, whereas McDonald’s did, as explained on echeat.com (5). The situation has changed since then, as in 2007 the company produced a series of curious video clips, both for TV and Internet, called “The Whopper freak- out”. In this stylish attempt to generate a long-term relationship with the customer, we can see consumers progressively getting angry as they realize their favourite BG dish – the whopper – is no longer available (6). If Burger King’s adverts were at times detrimental to its turnover, McDonald’s campaigns were known to be controversial but successful. We might wonder: how come a company which is in a scapegoat position and has a global negative image keeps a leading place in the fast-food industry? The common ethical debate which McDonald’s still has to deal with, along with the growing crowd of its detractors, may be more strong and accurate than Burger King’s precisely because of its dominating condition. If so, we could argue BK advertising and sponsorship policies, more prudent and diplomatic, are a potentially responsible choice. However, some attacks and claims made at Mc Donald’s, such as Morgan Spurlock’s 2004 documentary Super Size Me, showing the health risks of a regular fast-food diet, or mcspotlight.org website (7), which provides a huge list of articles illustrating McDonald’s marketing mistakes, could possibly aim at any other fast-food company, Burger King included. The impact of these unsettling attempts is noticeable, as McDonald’s Super Size Option, which permitted the customer to increase the size of his meal, was withdrawn six weeks after the release of the film. Nevertheless, the fast-food giant declared it was not a consequential decision. As for Burger King, a few errors in its advertising campaigns have also been pointed out. For example, the firm has asked under-developed countries’ citizens to taste a Whopper and a Big Mac in order to make an advantageous comparison in a 2008 TV spot. This clip was judged “outrageous” by a member of the Institute of Human Nutrition, as stated on nydailynews.com (8). McDonald’s have often being criticized for its advertising policies towards children, and so did Burger King, as mentioned in a 2006 electronic article published on brandrepublic.com (9). What we might question here is the educative role hold by parents: do they have the responsibility of teaching their children the dangers of fast- foods, or is it this task reserved to the fast-food leaders? McDonald’s initial approach was subtle but clever: while kids were attracted by its outside park and its Happy Meal, their mothers were insidiously dragged to the restaurant. This policy gave the company a significant competitive advantage. Burger King keeps away from certain ethical matters when not making its children policy the centre of attention. As we studied most of all previous marketing policies, let’s turn to what happens nowadays to BK. The company recently used SpongeBob’s franchise to promote its Kids Meals on a TV advert. On one hand, the spot was condemned by specialists because it shown sexual (or, should we write, sexy) content, inappropriate in such a context. On the other hand, as stated in a topical article from the Washington Post (10), BK heads claimed that it was mainly adult-targeted. The problems get more serious when, in order to support the sales of the brand new Texican Whopper (which is, as the name suggests, a combination of Texan and Mexican food), Burger King employs Mexican’s flag in a way judged offending by officials (11). If BK’s campaigns become reprimanded by politics, the impact on sales could be dramatically negative.

As a conclusion, we should consider the role played by the media (Which includes IT communications) in labelling a marketing strategy. It would be easy in this study to evaluate BK policies as being better or worse than McDonald’s or any other competitor. Yet, it is not possible to objectively do so as the general image of a given company is depicted on a subjective basis. Morals and ethics surely reflect the social representation of a brand, but these kinds of value differ depending on individuals’ opinions or cultural orientations.

REFERENCES (1) Article taken from: W. SWART and D. LUCCA. “Simulation Modeling Improves Operations, Planning, and Productivity of Fast Food Restaurants.” Interfaces, 11:6 (1981), 35-47. http://www.hsor.org/case_studies.cfm?name=burger_king

(2) First published on February 1997 in Advertising Age. cambridge.org/resources/0521526256/2392_Wilkinson_ADDITIONAL%20CASE %20STUDIES.pdf

(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_king

(4) Harcourt Brace & Company, 1998. O. C. FERREL, M. D. HARLINE, G. H. LUCAS, D. LUCK, Marketing Strategy; p. 335.

(5) http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=25843

(6) http://www.whopperfreakout.com/index.html

(7) http://www.mcspotlight.org/issues/advertising/index.html

(8) M. TOWNSEND and S. GASKELL, December 2 2008. http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/12/01/2008-12- 01_using_poor_villagers_in_burger_king_tv_s.html

(9) A. DONOHUE, November 15 2006. http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/604647/Burger-King-childrens-ad-ban/

(10) S. GARFINKLE, April 16 2009 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/parenting/2009/04/what_do_you_think_of_the_bur ge.html?wprss=parenting

(11) REUTERS Agency, April 14 2009 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/burger-king-ad-in-spain-angers- mexican-ambassador-1668362.html