Burger King is a multinational fast-food company based in the United States. It comprises of a chain of fast-food restaurants that mainly deal with hamburgers. The headquarters of Burger King Multinational is in Miami -Dade County, Florida. Rubenstein (2017) elaborates that the firm was initially named as The Insta- Burger King in 1953, which at the time operated as a Jacksonville, Florida- based chain of restaurants. After going bankrupt in 1954, it was acquired and rebranded as Burger King. It has changed ownership four times since 1954 and was finally taken public by its third owners after getting into a partnership with Bain Capital, TPG Capital, and Goldman Sachs Capital partners in 2002.
Its products include burgers, poultry, fish, vegetarian substances, and other products. The products of the Burger King also include beverages such as iced tea, sodas, milk, water, smoothies, juice frappes, and coffee. The product mix of Burger King is significantly limited. However, the multinational firm has a product mix that supports its generic strategy through economies of scale,
The pricing strategy of the multinational food chain outlets relies on the generic approach of cost leadership. The pricing mechanism that it uses seeks to minimize the prices and the costs of its products. As a result, it uses market-focused pricing and bundle pricing approaches. According to Rubenstein (2017), the marketing strategy used primarily by the Burger King is market-based pricing. It entails pricing according to existing market situations, including demand and supply. The secondary pricing approach that it uses, the bundle pricing strategy, involves the fact that in the case that the consumers buy the products in bundles rather than as single prices, then the prices are much lower in comparison to individual pricing of products. The price ranges of the Burger King products vary according to the various products sold by the food chain outlets. The range of products varies from four dollars for some products and up to nine dollars for others.
For the promotion of its products, Burger King involves various tactics. The different promotion strategies that it uses comprise of advertising, product promotions, personal selling, and public relations. The advertisement of the company is done through televisions, print media, and online platforms. The organization also uses other promotion strategies, such as vouchers through its websites and online platforms (Caffeinated et al., 2018). The sales personnel also engage in personal selling to promote the products. The staff does this through various strategies, including encouraging the clients to purchase more products other than what they already purchase. Burger King also promotes its brand through the application of community initiatives. Through the Burger King McLemore foundation, it provides educational assistance through the provision of scholarships and the promotion of academic programs.
The distribution strategy entails the element of the market mix that the organization uses to ensure that its products are available to its customers. It involves the chosen method by the company used for engagement and transaction with the clients. The distribution strategy of Burger King relies on the physical presence of its restaurants to facilitate the distribution of its products. The distribution strategy used by the Burger King involves availing the products of the multinational food chain in all its various restaurants
Among the primary distribution methods used by the Burger King include the use of restaurants, mobile applications, and the use of websites to facilitate the distribution of its merchandise to clients (Caffeinated et al., 2018). It has a total of 7, 237 branches across the United States. The Burger King uses physical distribution to ensure the availability of its products in its physical stores worldwide. The mobile applications are mainly used for tokens for receiving products on offer and giveaways, while the websites are used by the customers to make orders for deliveries.
One of the major competitors of Burger King include McDonald’s. The chain of restaurants has approximately 14 200 outlets in the United States. The main products of McDonald’s include hamburgers, chicken products, fish products, pork products, sauces salads, sides, beverages, breakfast items, and desserts
The pricing strategy that McDonald’s uses include the bundle pricing approach and the psychological pricing tactic. With the bundle pricing approach, its sells product bundles at discounted prices, making them cheaper in comparison to the purchase of single products (Ceil, 2017). Psychological pricing is used by the company to make the products look less expensive. It entails strategies such as selling the products in the values of $__.99 rather than rounding them off to the nearest dollar. The psychological pricing drives traffic to the enterprise as a result of the perceived affordability of the products. The price range of the products varies for the various products, with the cheapest products costing approximately four dollars and the higher priced products costing approximately ten dollars.
The distribution strategy of the McDonald’s enterprise involves various outlets, including eateries, stalls, the McDonald’s mobile application, and website applications. The restaurants are responsible for generation of the highest sales and revenues within the enterprise. Kiosks operate for selling limited selections of products. In most cases, the booths are temporary and used in events. The mobile applications provide virtual spaces where the customers can access information regarding the company (Raduzzi & Massey, 2019). Its post mates websites can be used by the customers to place orders online and have deliveries.
Among the tactics used by the company in the promotion of its product include advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing. It uses print media, online media, television, and radio platforms for its advertisements. According to Raduzzi & Massey (2019), sales and promotions are applied to attract customers through the provision of incentives such as discounts and coupons. It uses public relations to increase its sales through engagement in charity initiatives and environmental initiatives.
Another competitor of Burger King is Wendy’s. The hamburger fast-food chain of restaurants is the third-largest after Burger Kings and McDonald’s. It has approximately 6500 outlets in the United States. Despite hamburgers being its main products, it also deals with other products. Its products include burgers, chicken products, sides, salads, beverages, and desserts.
The pricing strategies utilized at Wendy’s include market-based pricing and product-bundle pricing, supported through its generic approach. The market-oriented pricing strategy operates with relations to the conditions of the market and the competitiveness within the market (Kim, 2018). The product bundle pricing entails giving discounts for products bought as combo meals.
The distribution strategy used by the enterprise entails the use of restaurants, kiosks, websites, and mobile applications. The primary distribution strategy used by wendy’s involves the use of restaurants. Kiosks function for occasional and private distributions. Through the websites, the customers manage to place online orders and access information regarding the company. The mobile application is essential in enabling the customers to access vital information on the company.
Through the elaborate promotion strategies, the company manages to communicate with its current and potential customers. According to Brown & Ingene (2019), the promotion strategies used by the company include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations. The advertising strategies take various forms, including television, print media, and social media platforms. Personal selling is used by the workers to communicate with the customers by making advertisements on the various product varieties and choices. It also provides coupons and discounts as a part of its sales and marketing. Its engagement in public relations initiatives is through sponsoring various community initiatives through multiple platforms, including the provision of scholarships.
Various factors guide the success of fast-food restaurants. Among determinant factors for the success of the eateries include customers. To facilitate the success of fast-food restaurants, factors that customers consider include the location of the restaurants, speed of the personnel, and efficiency of the operators.
The success of the eateries highly depend on their locations in areas of high traffics. The customers prefer fast food restaurants located in places that they frequent and places where they are likely to visit for other activities. Customers do not consider fast-food restaurants as destinations where they could travel for several miles to access. By being located in shopping malls and other busy locations, fast food enterprises manage to attract customers who visit places for other businesses (Lopez, 2018). The customers are attracted by the enterprises that channel them into engaging in an impulse purchase. The effectiveness of the location facilitates efficient traffic of the customers who feel that their time is not wasted by traveling to long destinations to access the restaurants.
Fast-food restaurants need to engage in fast business to attract a high number of clients. The restaurants mainly serve individuals who get the food as they proceed with other businesses. The customers served by fast-food restaurants are mostly individuals who do not have the time to stop at the restaurants while they get their services. Due to this reason, the faster the restaurants, the more they are prefeed by the customers. Lopez, (2018) explains that the customers get happier when the restaurants can provide ordered foods faster. The restaurants manage to serve their customers efficiently by setting up and establishing standardized kitchens, and focusing mainly on foods that can cook quickly and efficiently. The customers require that the food outlets that make delivery of food off sites to make speedy deliveries. Through these quick deliveries, the restaurants prevent the possible dissatisfaction of the clients by preventing long waits.
The effectiveness of fast-food restaurants is also a factor that is highly regarded by customers. In the commercial environment, the customers consider efficiency critical. The customers prefer fast food restaurants that provide the required services in efficient ways according to the requirements of the customers. The effectiveness of the restaurants is appreciated by the customers who value equal returns for the value of the money
Various factors form the concerns for the Burger King fast-food chain. Among the elements of concern for the enterprise include that it has experienced a significant drop in the millennial traffic. The contribution of the millennial generation in the success of business enterprises is essential as the millennial generations, in a substantial way, shape the way the companies operate their businesses. While the products of the Burger King fast-food restaurants initially got the earlier generations excited, the millennial generation seems less fascinated by the products. The Burger King enterprise faces the unfortunate factor that, for a significant time, it has failed to appeal to the millennial population. The millennial population seems to prefer the competitors of Burger King. Despite the growth in the number of clients for the Burger King, the figure of its millennial customers dropped. The Burger King gets concerned about the best ways and measures that they could use to attract the millennial population to like the products of the same restaurants that were earlier liked and preferred by previous generations.
Another concern of the Burger King is that it has been slow to update its image. From late 2018, the enterprise has shown concerns about its brand-new futuristic design plans. The Burger King referred the envisioned futuristic projects as the Burger King of tomorrow. The determination of these plans was in response to the perceived drop in sales of the multinational fast food restaurant. They included various factors, including the adjustment of the locations. The restaurants focused on the establishment of overhauling drive-throughs to provide two lanes for the fast-food restaurant outlets. The other plan focused on the introduction of outdoor digital menus integrated with mobile applications. Another factor proposed by fast-food restaurants includes the introduction of self-service kiosks to increase the efficiency in customer service. The enterprise has failed to implement the elements envisioned in the plan. As technology changes fast, the enterprise must engage in a fast move to update its technologies factors to keep up with the changing technologies.
Following the marker strategy of the market, the recommendations for fast food outlets entail measures focused on facilitating the penetration of the brand into the market. The penetration strategies include factors that involve a significant degree of product innovation. Among the necessary elements that should be taken into consideration include the adjustment of the approach used by the institution to facilitate its competitiveness among the recommended changes to be made by the enterprise to enable its success. The proposed recommendations include the diversification and the widening of the products. It would be necessary to address the limitations of the current product mix. The other proposal entails the increase of the quality of services that the enterprise provides. The final recommendation is that the enterprise should focus on the products in a way that addresses the healthy lifestyles and trends of its customers by incorporating health benefits to the products.
With $100 million being used in the budgeting of the Burger King, the best approach to spending the money would be to channel it onto the promotion strategies of the enterprise. The promotion strategies would mainly be those that target the millennial population. The end goal would be to attract the delicate millennial customers as it would be essential in the determination of the company’s future. The company would engage in ineffective research to ensure that the necessary measures are established by the company to attract millennial consumers. The enterprise would then engage in promotion strategies that match the lifestyles of the millennials to attract them to the enterprise.
