Burger King Vs McDonald’s Ads War
This is almost the earliest advertising case in the history of marketing. PepsiCo gained second place in the market with the challenge of Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola is also growing stronger in this competition. But as Roger Enrico (the chief executive officer of PepsiCo) said, the trick is that the “Cola Wars” must be interesting. The most important thing is that they must make people feel fun and never-ending competition. The purpose of the company is to maintain the public’s curiosity: Well, Pepsi’s practice today is like this, so what will Coca-Cola do tomorrow?
In fact, the advertising strategy of competing relationships and mutual attacks between large companies has never stopped. For example, between Microsoft and Apple, Burger King and McDonald’s, Nike and Under Armour, Mercedes and BMW. What’s More, the competition from companies behind the “advertising war” can also show us how the industry has changed.
50 years of “war”
The competition in the fast food industry is very tense. The limitations of fast food itself make it difficult for the fast food industry to have breakthroughs in products or technology. Therefore, constantly imitating rivals and ridiculing each other has become the most common marketing method in this industry.
The Burger King, founded in 1953, and the McDonald’s in 1955 competed for nearly 60 years. They all claim to have the best-selling burgers in the world. Burger King boasted that they could sell 2.1 billion Whoppers a year, and McDonald’s claimed that Big Mac had a sales volume of around 550 million a year.
Big Mac Vs Whopper
In 1968, McDonald’s first launched the Big Mac, in fact, to fight against the Burger King’s Whopper. Burger King immediately realized that it was difficult to compete with the price advantage of McDonald’s 15 cents burger, so they decided to sell a bigger burger at 37 cents. Yes, McDonald’s used to be a chaser. In the early 1960s, when the two companies were born, the Burger King was the one that ran faster.
At that time, it was the period of the rapid growth of the American fast food industry. The slogan of Burger King was quite straightforward: “Bigger better burger” and “It takes two hands.” The number of Burger King’s chain stores in the United States has grown rapidly, but at this time, its rapid expansion has encountered a shortage of funds. McDonald’s quickly overtakes during this time. By the early 1970s, McDonald’s had far more stores than Burger King and became a market leader. Since then, Burger King has continued to “attack” McDonald’s as a challenger. The question is, why should Burger King insist on “attacking” McDonald’s?
One of the most direct reasons is that for the second-ranked Burger King, this kind of advertising has proven to be effective many times. Burger King’s first attack on McDonald’s was actually aimed at McDonald’s most competitive standardized service. Burger King ridiculed McDonald’s as a “highly automated but inflexible” burger machine. But Burger King is a brand that can satisfy the individual taste of customers. Although there is no specific sales data, Burger King’s “Have it your way” Slogan, which was proposed in 1974, has been used until 2014 to change to “Be Your Way”. It can be speculated that this positioning is successful.
Old pattern and new crisis
For the fast food industry, it is difficult to have any products, or technological breakthrough innovation can break the competitive landscape. The space that the fast food industry can develop in terms of market segmentation and price is actually not large. So in the fast food industry, it is often seen that McDonald’s launched a low-priced menu which has the best selling products for $5. Then Wendy’s and Burger King simply launched a lower-priced $4 package. McDonald’s all-day breakfast sold too well. The competitors such as Burger King quickly followed up. In addition to emulation and follow-up on the product, the advertisement can naturally be imitated.
After fighting for more than half a century, McDonald’s is still the undisputed industry hegemon. In 2013, Wendy’s briefly surpassed Burger King and became the second largest fast food company in the United States. In 2014, Burger King’s US domestic sales rose 1.6% to US$8.64 billion, second only to McDonald’s’ US$35.4 billion, and returned to the second place in the US. In the statistics of CHD Expert and Christian Science Monitor, McDonald’s accounted for 34.3% of the total Hamburg market in June 2014, while Burger King (15.4%) was less than half of the former. But it is worth noting that the fast food industry is being affected by the trend of healthy consumption and losing its appeal to young people. The entire industry is still in a self-help operation.
References
CHD Expert (Oct 29, 2014). Proof that the burger is winning in the US . Retrieved fromhttps://www.globalmeatnews.com/Article/2014/10/29/Proof-that-the-burger-is-winning-in-the-US
CHRISTINA MAJASKI (Apr 19, 2019). McDonald’s vs. Burger King: What’s the Difference? Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/111015/mcdonalds-vs-burger-king-comparing-business-models.asp
Wikipedia (April 27, 2019) Cola wars. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cola_wars
5월 1, 2019, Consumer Psychology에 게시되었습니다. 퍼머링크를 북마크하세요. 댓글 6개.
Ewha [Brand Communication] 
I agree with the statement that comparing marketing is increasing these days as more and more products are being made and each product’s quality is almost the same. We can take Samsung and Apple as an example. Apple first made an innovative device and many thought they will be always the pioneering company. Yet, as technology is developing other companies like Huawei and Samsung is giving out similar products. Thus, there are many videos about Galaxy vs iPhone. I believe it is the best way to downsize other competitors while promoting “Ours is way much better.”
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Pepsi and Coca-Cola also had a century of advertising campaigns. PepsiCo has gained the second place in the market with many challenges to Coca-Cola, and Coca-Cola is also growing stronger in this competition. As consumers’ concerns have widened the market, it can be said that this is a win-win result.
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I think comparing marketing could be a good strategy, yet there are better ways to advertise one’s own products without bringing out competitors. In my mind, there will be consequences once you put out an ad comparing you and others. People might think of the other brand since you mentioned their products, despite how hard you try to highlight your strength. So when using this method, the company should be really careful. Otherwise, it would be like throwing money to promote your competitor.
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I also think the similar things that comparing the marketing is one of several creative ideas to promote the brand. Btw, it need to be sure whether the produce is really good enough to be compared to the competitor or not. Otherwise, it would be another kind of suicide.
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On one hand you wouldn’t want companies to get “aggressive” with their campaigns and on the other hand ad wars like that are actually productive. It pushes the brands to think out of the box and keep track with their branding and continuously create a better strategy. I think many brands like Pepsi and Coke, McDonalds and Burger King, Samsung and Apple have gained a lot by having a “worthy” competition.
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In Europe, America and the world, McDonald’s is a well-deserved food and beverage leader. Burger King then, no KFC anything.
When it comes back to mainland China, McDonald’s KFC enters early, the cultivation market is mature, and each has its own loyal customer base.
Burger King entered the mainland of China late, the market cultivation started late, so that in the second and third tier cities, many consumers have always thought it is a cottage brand.
What’s important is that because Burger King entered the night and was small, many employees joined Burger King after McDonald’s resignation for various reasons. They didn’t mean to devalue this group, but in fact, people who dig from various brands, It’s hard to form a team with a heart. This is a fundamental difference between McDonald’s and its own team.
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