Burger King: Global Marketing Strategy Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Burger King's marketing strategies, addressing the challenges the company faces. It begins by identifying the key challenges, such as budget constraints and competition, particularly in the realm of social media marketing. The report then delves into the application of marketing concepts, specifically social media marketing and cause marketing, illustrating their impact on Burger King's brand. Furthermore, it outlines the company's current global marketing strategy, encompassing segmentation, targeting, and positioning, as well as the marketing mix. Finally, the report offers strategic recommendations to overcome the identified challenges, focusing on product innovation, franchise management, and market expansion to enhance Burger King's market share and overall performance.

Running head: MARKETING STRATEGY
MARKETING STARTEGY
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MARKETING STRATEGY
Table of Contents
Response to question 1: Challenges faced by Burger King.......................................................2
Response to question 2: Discussion of marketing concepts and its application to the case
study...........................................................................................................................................3
Response to question 3: Current global marketing strategy of Burger King.............................5
Response to question 4: Recommendations of marketing strategies that could be adopted by
Burger King in order to overcome all the problems it is presently faced with..........................6
References..................................................................................................................................8

2MARKETING STRATEGY
Response to question 1: Challenges faced by Burger King
The brand Burger king is currently gaining the attention of media for its collaboration
with McDonalds on the worlds peace day1. However success of companies through gaining
customers attention can be fleeting. Burger king has a much smaller portion of budget as
compared to its competitors that is McDonalds. Therefore there can be different limitations of
the company on grounds of its smaller portions of budget2. There is continuous competition
in the world of social media and there is also no guarantee that whatever is gaining customers
attention today will continue to gain the same in near future and would lead to revenue
growth. The company has a budget that is only one fourth of the advertisement budget of
McDonalds. And due to the same reason the company has adopted social media marketing
strategy. However, this has limited the reach of the company to only those people who are
active on social media and for those who are not, it does not reach them.
There are various advantages provided by social media marketing and similarly there
are various disadvantages also- for instance even small scenarios can hurt the reputation and
goodwill of the company. For instance if any one customer has a bad experience or faces
some problems and thy make a feedback about the same, the reputation of the company will
be hurt badly. The feedback provided by the customers are open for scrutiny by many people
globally Moreover the company is required to spend huge amounts of resources for the same.
Moreover, Social media marketing cannot become successful by its own other forms of
advertisement area equally important3. One of the major limitations of the burger king is its
small promotional budget and competing only with the help of social media to create an
1 Abratt, Russell, and Michael Bendixen. Strategic Marketing: Concepts and Cases. Routledge, 2018.
2 Harrington, Robert J., Michael C. Ottenbacher, and Simon Fauser. "QSR brand value: Marketing mix
dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and Starbucks." International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management 29, no. 1 (2017): 551-570
3 Kaur, Arshdeep, and Dhammika Silva. "Best Growth Strategies." (2017).

3MARKETING STRATEGY
image in the minds of the customers over its competitors is not so easy4. The company is
investing in creating a buzz in order to generate revenue through social media. The company
could have invested the same amount in advertisements in television. For instance it recently
entered into a fight with Mayweather and thereby using its mascot in chains robed. A buzz
was created by all the people in social media such as twitter and Facebook who viewed the
fight5.
The owner of burger king even invested in horse racing and was seen with Bob
Baffert who is one of the best trainers. The horse trained by him became the first winner of
the triple crown and therefore in this way the owner of Burger King, was put into the pop
culture spotlight. There are many futile attempts made by burger king that could have been
used otherwise. For instance it had decided for entering into a peaceful collaboration for one
of its biggest competitors in the market that is McDonalds. However, its attempt failed
because McDonalds was not ready for the same6.
Response to question 2: Discussion of marketing concepts and its
application to the case study.
The two most important marketing concepts related to burger king are- social media
marketing and cause marketing. Social marketing refers to use of social media as a platform
to promote the products and services of a company. It helps the company in reaching new
customers, improving their relationship with existing customers, promotion of their mission,
4Khan, Imran, Han Dongping, and Akhter Wahab. "Does culture matter in effectiveness of social media
marketing strategy? An investigation of brand fan pages." Aslib Journal of Information Management 68, no. 6
(2016): 694-715.
5 Mattila, Max, and Hassan Salman. "Analysing Social Media Marketing on Twitter using Sentiment Analysis."
(2018).
6 Metin, Ismail, and Yildiray Kizgin. "Multinational Fast Food Chains'" Global Think, Local Act Strategy" and
Consumer Preferences in Turkey." International Journal of Marketing Studies 7, no. 1 (2015): 106.

4MARKETING STRATEGY
vision and culture. The social media marketing makes use of data analytics in order to
analyse how far the social media marketing strategy has been successful in influencing the
customers. The strategy is aimed at development of content and messages that is used by
users to share with their co-workers, family members and others. Therefore it can be said that
the social media marketing strategy relies on the word of mouth advertisement technique. It
helps in reaching a larger audience at a time and it also helps in promoting the product
through customer endorsement because they may refer the products and services to people
they know. The company burger king has adopted the strategy of social media marketing for
creating awareness of its products and services and for promotion of the same7.
The social media strategy adopted by the company has proven to be successful
because it has created its reputation in the market against the other competitors such as
McDonalds and showed that it is not necessary that only the biggest contender will win all
the fights. Burger king was one of the smallest contenders as compared to its competitor
McDonalds however through its social media marketing strategy helped it in gaining a good
position in the market. With a budget of about one fourth of that of McDonalds, the company
followed the advice of Allen Adamso of the Landor associates firm of branding. He believed
that the shortcomings of a smaller budget could be overcome by social media strategy and
can be adopted by firms which are smaller because good content that is powerful travels very
fast across a wider audience. It has created buzz in various social media platforms through its
various stunts related to fight between the company and the MayWeather Company8. The
owner of the also decided to enter into a peaceful collaboration with its biggest competitor
McDonalds in order to offer hamburgers with better ingredients. The hamburger created a lot
7 Miller, Candice. "An Analysis of the International Expansion of Burger King." (2016).
8 Robertson, Jan. "Marketing strategies to expand Venues and to attract new clients." (2017).

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of buzz on the social media platforms and therefore helped in generating revenue equal to
$182 billion.
Cause marketing on the other hand is a strategy of corporate social responsibility that
aims at the betterment of the society through better offerings. The campaign is aimed at not
only increasing the profitability of the company but also improving the benefits of the
society9. The company Burger King engaged in such a campaign when it introduced its
McWhopper ham burger in collaboration with McDonalds on the world’s peace day. The
company decided to carry out such a campaign in order to increase the profitability of both
the brands- McDonalds and Burger King and to offer better products and services for the
customers of the hamburger by including six ingredients and it was going to be offered in Pop
up shops of Atlanta. Through the same strategy the company was able to create buzz on
social media and it helped the company in generating revenue of about dollar 182 million.
Response to question 3: Current global marketing strategy of Burger King
The present marketing strategy of the company includes its segmentation, targeting
and positioning and the marketing mix of the company10. Geographic and demographic
segmentation is used by the company in order to meet the changing needs of the customers.
The brand uses a targeting strategy of differentiation in order to cater to the different needs of
the customers accordingly. In order to position itself in the minds of the customers it uses
convenience factors and serviceability factors. The company has a competitive advantage of
its property rights, business lines and by having a parent company that is strong. The
company burger king has the parent company brand international and it helps the company
with infrastructural support and also improves their capabilities and these activities are
9 Minár, Pavol. "Goodvertising as a paradigmatic change in contemporary advertising and corporate
strategy." Communication Today 7, no. 2 (2016): 4-17.
10 Sajid, S. I. "Social media and its role in marketing." (2016).

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helping the company in achieving their objectives and goals11. With the help of its businesses
being carried out in different countries it gains an advantage. These business lines include- it
earns royalties through the fees paid by the franchises on their sales. The company also
provides properties on lease to the franchisees. It also earns revenue from its restaurant
outlets. The property rights of the company include all the trademarks owned by the company
and also registration with the domain names from across the world. The brand equity of the
company also acts a competitive advantage to the company- the company enjoys a high
TOMA or top of mind awareness because of its various innovative and famous products for
instance its whopper, hamburgers and others that helps the company in gaining a higher share
of the market.
The 4P’S strategy used by the company also helps the company in gaining a competitive
advantage. The product strategy of the company includes providing a variety of products and
has continuously made changes to its menu since its formation. It was started with its
hamburgers, French fries, and others and later on many products were added for instance the
breakfast food range was also added. The place strategy of its marketing strategy includes its
distribution system and the presence of its outlets globally. It has about 13000 outlets across
the entire globe. About 66% of its outlets are there in US and are owned and operated
privately. It operates in other locations like Oceania, Europe, Countries from East Asia such
as Singapore, South Korea and various other locations. It carries out its global operations in
the form of three segments. It carries out its activities through subsidiaries, franchising
activities and carries out various agreements with the franchises. Burger king follows the
competitive pricing strategy such that the consumers do not feel that the prices are too high
for them to pay. The company further carries out an analysis of the pricing strategy adopted
11 Solomon, Michael R., Greg W. Marshall, and Elnora W. Stuart. Marketing: real people, real choices. Pearson
Higher Ed, 2017.

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by the competitors in order to understand if the prices charged by them are higher or lower.
Therefore the company carries out psychological pricing and competitive pricing for its
products and services. The promotion techniques used by the company includes the social
media marketing strategy, cause marketing strategy and even strategies for re-organizing its
brand since the company carries out changes in its offerings through continuous innovation
and keep adding items to its menu list. The company carries out cause marketing strategy
through its various charities such as McLamore foundation and others12.
Response to question 4: Recommendations of marketing strategies that
could be adopted by Burger King in order to overcome all the problems it
is presently faced with
Some of the major weaknesses of the company include lower sales in markets that are
considered as mature by the company. The main reason for reduction in the sales is that of
increasing health consciousness of the people13. Therefore the sales in most of the countries
was decreasing. In order to overcome the problem, the burger king can introduce burgers or
other types of food products for the health conscious customer or it can expand its range of
offerings such that the needs of the health conscious people could be met. There is large
number of franchises of the company and therefore it becomes difficult for the company to
handle all the operations properly and as a result conflicts arise. In order to overcome the
same the company is required to improve its communication with the franchisees such that
they can be explained the mission, vision and vales of the company such that they can carry
out the operations accordingly. The company also suffers limited product offerings to the
12Vassallo, Amy Jo, Bridget Kelly, Lelin Zhang, Zhiyong Wang, Sarah Young, and Becky Freeman. "Junk food
marketing on Instagram: content analysis." JMIR public health and surveillance 4, no. 2 (2018): e54.
13 Singh, Taranjot, and Geoffrey Mather. "Generic business strategy-Now and Then." (2017).

8MARKETING STRATEGY
customers therefore the product range needs to be expanded. Therefore the company may fail
to attract customers who are looking for variety or options.
Moreover its products can be easily imitated by other firms. In order to overcome the
same the company needs to innovate some product that cannot easily be imitated by others or
think of some secret recipe such as KFC. The company has opportunities with which it can
expand its operations and therefore increase its market share. The opportunities for the
company include business development and growth opportunities and therefore it includes all
those strategic factors that can help in improving the performance of the organization.
Therefore some of the major opportunities include- market development, diversification and
improvement of quality of services. It can establish more subsidiaries in order to gain more
revenues. In order to gain a competitive advantage, the company can improve the quality of
its services. Presently the company is aiming at marketing penetration and also aims at
innovating new products. The company should now try to change its focus to improving its
competitiveness. It needs to improve the quality of its services and bring variations to the
product in order to gain attention of the customers who are health conscious14.
14 Williams, Jaime, Abigail Lillge, and Richard J. Gentry. To Franchise or Not to Franchise? Is Culver’s
ButterBurger a “Better Burger”?. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals, 2018.

9MARKETING STRATEGY
References
Abratt, Russell, and Michael Bendixen. Strategic Marketing: Concepts and Cases.
Routledge, 2018.
Harrington, Robert J., Michael C. Ottenbacher, and Simon Fauser. "QSR brand value:
Marketing mix dimensions among McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King, Subway and
Starbucks." International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management 29, no. 1
(2017): 551-570.
Kaur, Arshdeep, and Dhammika Silva. "Best Growth Strategies." (2017).
Khan, Imran, Han Dongping, and Akhter Wahab. "Does culture matter in effectiveness of
social media marketing strategy? An investigation of brand fan pages." Aslib Journal of
Information Management 68, no. 6 (2016): 694-715.
Mattila, Max, and Hassan Salman. "Analysing Social Media Marketing on Twitter using
Sentiment Analysis." (2018).
Metin, Ismail, and Yildiray Kizgin. "Multinational Fast Food Chains'" Global Think, Local
Act Strategy" and Consumer Preferences in Turkey." International Journal of Marketing
Studies 7, no. 1 (2015): 106.
Miller, Candice. "An Analysis of the International Expansion of Burger King." (2016).
Minár, Pavol. "Goodvertising as a paradigmatic change in contemporary advertising and
corporate strategy." Communication Today 7, no. 2 (2016): 4-17.
Robertson, Jan. "Marketing strategies to expand Venues and to attract new clients." (2017).
Sajid, S. I. "Social media and its role in marketing." (2016).

10MARKETING STRATEGY
Singh, Taranjot, and Geoffrey Mather. "Generic business strategy-Now and Then." (2017).
Solomon, Michael R., Greg W. Marshall, and Elnora W. Stuart. Marketing: real people, real
choices. Pearson Higher Ed, 2017.
Vassallo, Amy Jo, Bridget Kelly, Lelin Zhang, Zhiyong Wang, Sarah Young, and Becky
Freeman. "Junk food marketing on Instagram: content analysis." JMIR public health and
surveillance 4, no. 2 (2018): e54.
Williams, Jaime, Abigail Lillge, and Richard J. Gentry. To Franchise or Not to Franchise? Is
Culver’s ButterBurger a “Better Burger”?. SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases
Originals, 2018.