The brand war between 2 of the biggest food chains, Burger King and McDonald’s always has some interesting lessons marketers can learn from. Experts even gave the term ‘burger wars’ in the seventies after a series of competitive advertising campaigns launched by the two chains.
Recently, Burger King released a new offer for fast food lovers by selling their Whopper only for a single penny. The condition is that customers should order sitting in a McDonald’s restaurant. By this initiative, Burger King is promoting the relaunch of its app and trolling its rival.
Burger King first teased the campaign with a tweet that read, “brb going to McDonald’s”. This kicked off all kinds of jokes and speculation on social media.
brb going to McDonald’s
— Burger King (@BurgerKing) December 4, 2018
The brand also released an video of customers requesting a Whopper at a McDonald’s drive-through, leading to the confusion of the McDonald’s employees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pg5EmtaSCL4
How does it work?
The Burger King app uses geofencing to determine if the customer qualifies for the promotion. If you’re within 600 feet of a McDonald’s location, you will qualify for their stuff at a fraction of the original prices. After an order is placed, the app will also guide customers to the closest Burger King.
This one-penny Whopper will encourage customers to download the company’s app, calling attention to how restaurants are using their apps to interact with their patrons.
Researches have shown that 80 percent of customers who want to hear from a restaurant say that they want to learn about discounts and special offers. But it doesn’t mean that customers will actually be saving money by ordering online. Ordering food online tends to increase a customer’s spending by 20 percent. For fast food restaurants like Burger King, that number jumps to 26 percent.
This isn’t the first time that Burger King has used a stunt to promote its food. If we consider 2018 alone, the burger brand staged a car fire for Good Samaritan Day, created Whopper doughnuts for National Doughnut Day and launched a sandwich to celebrate the Royal Wedding.
