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Burger King Case Study

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Burger King: Promoting a Food Fight

What are Burger King’s communication objectives for its target audience?
Burger King’s CEO Brad Blum said that he wanted to develop “ground-breaking, next level, results-oriented, and innovative advertising that strongly connects without our core customers.” In response to declining market share to McDonalds and Wendy’s, BK needed a different direction in how it communicates with their customers. They chose an ad agency that can help them to generate buzz via unorthodox methods that their main target audience of younger males can connect with. They were able to reach their objectives.

With its focus on the “super fan,” does BK risk alienating other customers? What are the implications of this?
There is always risk of alienating customers when you do not focus your communications methods to specifically target them. However, in 2003 BK found itself in a situation where they were alienating their main customers by not focusing on them, the “super fan.” Since the “super fan” accounts for more than fifty percent of total sales, it made a lot of sense for BK to attempt to get back into good standing with this segment of the population. People tend to visit restaurants in groups and BK knows this. Therefore, by attracting their biggest fans back to the stores they are in turn also attracting their family and friends whom they share a meal with. By focusing on a more targeted audience to advertise to BK did risk losing some customers in the process, but the net net gained a larger more loyal customer base.

Why is viral or buzz marketing effective? Analyze the design of the Subservient Chicken Web sites message, including content, structure, and format. What can you conclude from this analysis?
How can you not go eat at a restaurant that brings you the subserviant chicken?

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