You don’t often see a major corporation spending millions of dollars to tell the public it screwed up. But that’s exactly what Burger King has been doing—and the result is a boom in business. At the same time their most powerful competitor has been suffering from a series of self-inflicted setbacks.
Burger King premiered an ad during the Oscars broadcast this year in which President Tom Curtis acknowledged badly made Whoppers, poor service, and tired restaurants. He said BK “used to be King” until the food “just fell off.”
Curtis had previously released a cell phone number he said was his for customers to call with complaints. Thousands did. He said he listened and he’s making changes—improving the Whopper recipe, introducing boxes for the burgers to keep them from getting crushed in the bag, upgrading restaurants, even getting rid of the king mascot and announcing, “There’s a new king and it’s you”
Last week, BK released its Q2 numbers, showing an 8.5 percent sales growth, its fifth straight quarter of sales increases (yes, they’d been working on improvements long before the ad came out). And these latest numbers lifted BK back into the number two position among Burger chains after six years at number three behind Wendy’s.
Which still leaves them far behind the leader, McDonald’s, but things aren’t so good over at the golden arches these days.
McDonald’s also released Q2 numbers last week, showing only 0.8 percent sales growth. Even worse, that was boosted by increased check sizes with actual sales falling. CEO Chris Kempczinski admitted they goofed, blaming poor execution as the company introduced new products such as a line of beverages, and changing up their value offerings. The result, he said was longer service times and a decrease in consumer satisfaction.
Much of McDonald’s trouble was attributed to its pulling back on low-cost digital offers while adding a three dollar “everyday afforable price” menu customers didn’t respond well to. Kempczinski admitted that “ended up being a bad trade: putting in an EDAP program that didn’t deliver and taking away a lot of digital offers and the buy one, add one program.”
Kempczinski you may recall, has had some personal experience with execution issues. When he released a video of him trying the company’s new Arch Burger, he was roasted for his on-camera skills, especially his tepid reaction after taking a bite. Last week he fired and replaced the president of McDonald’s USA.
On the next Culinary Characters Unlocked podcast dropping tomorrow, two chefs who are best friends and offer the best advice for cooking at home. Wherever you get your podcasts:
YOUTUBE
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCT4Zovt2BsSuh98FvyEwcFA
APPLE PODCASTS
SPOTIFY
AMAZON MUSIC
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/28353fc5-11df-4a3e-8481-f989eb4aeaab/culinary-characters-unlocked
CASTBOX
https://castbox.fm/channel/Culinary-Characters-Unlocked-id6566109?country=us
PODBEAN
https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/k2n6g-31b0b8/Culinary-Characters-Unlocked-Podcast
Eat well,
David
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