Mark Kolier’s Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Wendy’s’

With McDonald’s continuing to reign as the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world when it comes to burgers/QSR’s, the contest between Burger King and Wendy’s for second place has suddenly become more interesting. Wendy’s is about to surpass Burger King as the #2 burger chain.

Wendy’s has had its own struggles since the passing of its founder Dave Thomas. Recent improvements in product quality, product presentation (i.e. paper wrapped hamburgers) and in-store offerings have all contributed to recent growth and as marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management Tim Calkins notes it’s “a classic marketing story about brands that stumble and then get their footing back. This is about really understanding your brand, and being true to it.” http://bit.ly/Ar3mWW.

But I think it’s just as likely that the change in order is a situation created more by what Burger King is not doing as opposed to what Wendy’s is doing. After all – what is Burger King’s brand and how is BK being ‘true to it’? There has been much discussion on how Burger King’s desire to focus on young men has backfired and hurt its position. The bizarre ‘King’ campaign was just that – bizarre. The ‘Whopper Freakout’ ads were interesting and showed a little promise (at least I thought so) but they were abandoned as well.

Burger King seems to have forgotten its own USP (unique selling proposition) and POD (point of differentiation). Of the three, only Burger King broils its burgers. When’s the last time you heard anything about that? Of course BK’s problems are substantially more complicated than not having a USP or POD. Just walk into a Burger King restaurant and you will realize what I mean instantly. To me the few restaurants I’ve been in lately are dark, somewhat less than spotlessly clean and bereft of a variety of healthy choices as opposed to McDonald’s and Wendy’s.

As the Ad-Age article concluded ‘Indeed, Wendy’s has benefited from the woes at Burger King, much like Diet Coke benefited from Pepsi’s issues to become the No. 2 soda brand.

Burger King has struggled with management and ownership changes, and analysts have said the chain faltered by focusing too much of its marketing on young men, a demographic hit hard by the recession. Wendy’s seized the moment, made the right changes and zipped into the No. 2 spot.

However, Burger King is determined to rebound. Last year it hired Global CMO Flavia Faugeres (Wendy’s has been sans CMO since June), brought on McGarry-Bowen , and, “to appeal to a broader audience, traded in its King character in favor of food as the star of its advertising. A new brand campaign is also expected this year.’

McGarryBowen is a top notch shop but I think Burger King has quality perception problem that supersedes its identity problem. It won’t be an easy fix but Wendy’s has shown that good comeback stories still exist in the ultra-competitive QSR burger category.

I don’t watch a lot of network television (or television in general) and even less in the summer. When I do watch it is to relax and aside from a couple of favorite shows on cable, I primarily watch sports on networks and local and national cable channels. I do read a few national magazines and am an inveterate reader of newspapers (yes I know SO old school).

Over the weekend when I was flipping through the channels before heading out I saw the network baseball game and golf tournament. For some reason my thoughts drifted to fast food and realized that I had not seen an ad on television for McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s for a long time. Thinking more about it I don’t recall seeing them on page in magazines either or even hearing any of them on the radio. And by the way I watched a good amount of the Primetime Emmy’s last night and did not see one ad for any of them.

The last I recall hearing about any of them was the cheeky McDonald’s ad about the dollar that is hungry and what you can do with it. That might have been earlier this month so it’s likely that I just have not been listening to radio all that much lately.

I asked around to a couple of people if they were familiar with any ad campaigns for any of the big three burger leaders (actually McDonald’s is way far out in here so putting them in the same conversation would thrill Burger King and Wendy’s). Nobody I talked to could name any campaign.

Could the targeting be THAT good? Are the big three running ads in places of which I am not aware? I’m not one to eat in fast food restaurants any more than a handful of times a year. And I understand that I am far from the target audience in age or demographics. But I cannot remember any time where I had no idea of any of the campaigns run by the fast food outlets. Maybe they scale back campaigns in a big way in the summer time and are readying a deluge for the fall? With football season around the corner I could see that.

But what gives here? Am I missing the boat entirely? Are you aware of current ad campaigns run by McDonald’s, Burger King or Wendy’s? Oh and I don’t miss Jared at all thank you very much….