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Background of the organization

Burger king is one of the most well-known and established food chains in the world and its
annual revenue is approximately $2 billion. It is also the 2 nd largest hamburger chain around the
globe, only behind Burger King in terms of revenue. The total number of restaurants that
burger king has exceed 12000, spread over 73 countries (Musonera, 2019). There are many
notable products of burger king including the Whopper sandwich, chicken sandwiches, chicken
tenders, and fries. A side choice offered by Burger king includes salads, breakfast items, and
desserts too. The slogan of Burger King is “Just the way you like them” while the vision of the
company is “We proudly serve the best burgers in the world”. The values that Burger king uses
are care, respect, diversity, fairness, and clear accountabilities.

Introduction

Burger King is an American based multinational that supplies hamburger fast foods in about 73
countries across the world. Despite experiencing financial difficulties earlier during its
operations, the company was able to bounce back and is currently operating globally. The
company offers quality hamburgers. However, its foods are not of the same high quality as
those of McDonalds (Musonera, 2019). In addition, Burger King does not have a wide variety of
foods compared to McDonalds; hence it loses part of its competitive edge. The branding
strategy for Burger King is targeted at the younger generation just like that of McDonalds.
However, the quality of branding is lower compared to McDonalds. This is another factor that
makes Burger King lose some competitive advantage to McDonalds.

General Environmental analysis

 Demographic
 Locations include urban residential areas
 Age group of target customers include 18-34 year olds
  Growing population of customers

Socio-cultural

 These days, individuals in life often prefer a balanced lifestyle to protect them from
suffering from any negative diseases.
 Working for long hours usually causes people to eat outside instead of making their
meals themselves (Musonera, 2019)
 Buying power of people are increasing due to economic growth

Technology

Advancement of technology has led to greater efficiency and effectiveness in business

processes of burger king (Musonera, 2019)

Globalization

The government has induced a number of policies to give growth to businesses in the country
which are bringing in many foreign companies into the business (Sun et al., 2020)

Economy

The rising prices of petrol drive up the costs of transportation every year. Other prices of
consumer goods have also increased increased which has led to increase in the cost of
production (Sun et al., 2020)

Porter’s five forces

New entrants

The current players of the industry are quite established and powerful, this includes burger king
and its brand reputation as well which is why the company does not need to pay much
attention to new entrants (Sun et al., 2020). The risk of new entrants is low and burger king is
one of the oldest brands in the market. The reputation of the company as well as its food are
exceptionally trusted by the consumer base which is why it is quite hard for new entrants to
enter into the market. Burger king is a franchise. Any new entrants that want to enter the
market need huge capital and investment if they want tit penetrate the market (Sun et al.,
2020). This also includes considerable investment into technology. Since there are quite a lot of
specialized costs and huge cost of exit which is why it is quite difficult to exit from the market.

Substitutes

In terms of substitutes, there are a lot of choices that the customers have. It is very easy for
customers to choose products from Burger King or KFC and other competitors of Fat Burger.
This is because these companies also produce quite similar products such as fish burger,
chicken burger, beef sandwich, fries, and desserts. Another instance for this is the breakfast
menu. It is easy for consumers to switch from burger king to Burger King breakfast and this
decision can become quite subjective for the customers such as unavailability of parking, too
much customers, too cold in the restaurant and so on. These elements can make the customers
change their mind and substitute their needs for such products (Finne et al., 2017).

Bargaining of suppliers

The number of suppliers of burger king exceeds well over 350. The suppliers are seen as quite
important and integral part of the system of burger king and they will continue to be in the
system with the same level of excellence and high quality marketing communication services.
Burger king is performing well in the supplier diversity drive and a diverse supplier’s portfolio.
Burger King is a global chain which is why it has a globally recognized name and a strong
purchasing power. RSI is a famous purchasing agent and it is partners with Burger King when it
comes to purchasing. The communication link of RSI is quite close with Burger King Corporation
and it also provides packaging material, marketing agencies, and equipment vendors to the firm
(Finne et al., 2017). This streamlines and improves the complete supply chain process of Burger
King.

Bargaining power of customers

The salad bar was added to the menu of Bugler King just for the sake of the customers because
it has a healthier image in the minds of the consumers. This increases the buying power of the
customers. The health trend has forced Burger King to shift itself to the healthier food direction
as well (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017).

Inter-firm rivalry

The biggest rival of Burger King is Burger King as well as the Yum brands. The market share of
Burger King is currently 21.9% while Burger King maintains a market share of about 44% which
is almost double of Burger King in terms of percentage. Recently, Burger King has been
expanding into several countries and opening new branches into the existing ones like China
and India. On the other hand, Burger King has only expanded into a handful of international
countries. This shows why Burger King is ahead of Burger King by almost twice the market size
(Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017).

SWOT analysis

Strengths

The Burger King’s Company focuses on the clients’ health and overall well-being. The company
only uses ingredients that have passed its strict high standards. The Burger King’s Company
complies with all the policies of the United States Department of Agriculture in terms of
healthiness of the food ingredients and the food itself (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). The
company ensures that ingredients used in the production of goods and services are not spoiled
or expired. The use of expired or spoiled food ingredients may cause the customers to suffer
from food poisoning. Consequently, the customers can file a case in court for the food
poisoning incidents. Such cases will cause a huge dent the image of the Burger King’s Company
(Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017). The company goes out of its way to protect its image. A
damaged image will translate to a decline in the demand for the company’s products and
services. A decline in the demand for the company’s products and services will cause a drop in
the company’s revenues. A reduction in the company’s revenues will translate to a reduction in
the company’s net profits.

Valos et al., (2017) reiterated the Burger King’s Company invests in properties around the world
and offers franchises. The establishment of Burger King’s Company restaurants around the
world shows that many investors believe that the infusion of their hard-earned cash into the
Burger King’s Company will be a profitable decision. The spread of Burger King’s Company
restaurants indicate the investors are comfortable with their capital investment decision to
have one or more franchises of the Burger King’s Company restaurant (Valos et al., 2017).

The Burger King’s Company has a long list of real estate portfolios. The company is willing and
able to purchase properties in different countries around the world. The purchase of such
properties would be useful in terms of improving the company’s balance sheet presentation.
The investors would be happy to see that the Burger King’s Company’s properties have
increased through the years. An increase in the Burger King’s Company’s properties shows
there is also an increase in the company’s stockholders’ equity accounts (Valos et al., 2017).

The Burger King’s Company has patents over very popular food items. The food items include
Big Mc, Chicken Nuggets. Patents are defined as the government’s right given to an inventor or
new product developer to craft the Burger King’s Company products. The copyright prevents
the competitors and new entrants to the restaurant, food, and beverage competitors to
produce the same products or even use the same product name such as “Big Mac”. The Burger
King’s Company has one of the world’s most recognized logos (Porcu et al., 2019). The
Company’s logo is a huge “M” sign. Any person seeing the “M” logo can easily state that it
means a Burger King’s restaurant is located nearby where the “M” sign can be easily seen from
afar.

Weaknesses

Porcu et al., (2019) reiterated the Burger King’s Company has its weaknesses. First, the Burger
King’s Company uses advertising strategies focused on inviting the children to visit the nearest
Burger King’s restaurant. The Burger King’s Company implements a low pricing strategy to
capture the competitors’ current clients. Clients would easily transfer their preference to
Burger King’s products because the prices of their food items are low. Consequently, the
competitors are forced to reduce their prices to levels matching or even nearing the Burger
King’s food pricing levels (Musonera, 2019).
Third, the Burger King’s Company lacks the penchant to innovate its products. The company
continues to sell the same old Burger King’s products. The products include hamburgers, French
fries, coffee, chocolate, beverage, Big Mac, and others. The people will generally prefer a
change in the food menu to avoid boredom (Musonera, 2019).

Opportunities

Saenko et al., (2016) theorized the company’s superior performance is the result of a successful
fit between strategy and the environment. The community needs low priced food to fill their
hunger fangs. In response, Burger King creates high quality products to fill the community’s
needs, wants, and caprices.

In addition, the company’s main technique is to analyze the competitors. The Burger King
Company does not fear the entry of new competitors because it is difficult to outmatch the
Burger King Company’s established high quality products sold at low prices. The suppliers are
willing to supply Burger King with highest quality ingredients and other company needs at
reasonable prices (Saenko et al., 2016).

The Burger King Company does not fear product substitution because the substitutes are sold
at higher prices; the clients will prefer lower priced goods and services. Realistically other
traditional restaurant competitors offer their products higher prices than Burger King.

Musonera, (2019) proposed The Burger King’s Company has its set of opportunities. First, the
Burger King’s Company can effortlessly adapt to the food needs of the community where the
company has established its strategically located branches. The company can introduce
products that are very popular in the competitors’ restaurants. For example, the China branch
of Burger King’s can introduce the popular food menus being sold to the competing Chinese
restaurants or food outlets (Musonera, 2019). Naumovska and Blazeska, (2016) theorized the
Burger King’s Company can introduce new marketing strategies to increase its revenues. The
company can set up websites in each city, community, or state. With the Burger King’s website,
the clients can easily order a hamburger or coffee with just the click of the mouse.
In addition, the company can distribute leaflets or promotional brochures to communities
indicating the cell phone text numbers. The clients can easily order a Burger King’s Big Mac just
by sending a cell phone text message to the local community’s Burger King’s branch (Blakeman,
2018).

Threats

In terms of threats, Blakeman, (2018) insists the company can easily hurdle the encroaching
new competitors because the new entrants cannot easily win the away the established client
base of the Burger King brand. Further, the supplier threats can easily be resolved by contacting
other suppliers to offer reasonably priced ingredients and other products. Likewise, the threat
of substitute products can be easily answered by offering different product choices within the
Burger King’s restaurant. For example, the Starbucks coffee is price three times higher than a
cup of Burger King’s coffee (Blakeman, 2018). Economics tells us the as prices go up, the
demand for the products decreases. Thus, Burger King’s will always better alternative compared
to Starbucks coffee because there are more middle income and low income people than rich
people. The restaurant and food industry is composed of strategic groups. Burger King’s
countless branches around the world are one strategic group that constantly wins most of the
current and prospective client’s food preference (Blakeman, 2018). The members of Burger
King’s Company’s strategic group can easily resolve its immediate competitor situation. The
company has been successful in implementing one universal marketing strategy to capture the
new clients and communities food preferences. Currently, the company is at its maturity stage
in the product life cycle environment (Naumovska and Blazeska, 2016). The people from around
the world have accepted Burger King’s as a mature company that serves their quality food
needs at low prices for more than 50 years. Likewise, the macroeconomic environment,
political environment, global environment, legal environment and social environment continues
to be very favorable to the setting up of a new Burger King’s branch as well as the continued
profitability of each currently established Burger King’s brand (Blakeman, 2017).
Segmentation
Market segmentation refers to a marketing practice where organizations divide their target
markets into smaller units – or segments – and apply different marketing strategies depending
on the nature of each segment. Market segments are demographic, geographic, psychographic,
transaction or functional (Musonera, 2019). Over the years, Burger King’s has become famous
for targeting families with their ‘happy meals’. Its lower-priced menu means Burger King’s
franchises appeal more to larger families than smaller ones.

The traditionally cheaper prices of food at Burger King’s signify that it targets a larger spectrum
of customers than other fast food restaurants in the United States and across the world. In
addition, most Burger King’s franchises are located in suburbs and downtown areas of crowded
cities across the globe, which takes them closer to a large number of middle-class citizens (Sun
et al., 2020). Burger King’s has been accused in the past of specifically targeting children with its
promotional material. The use of colorful advertising and targeted messages has raised
concerns in America over business ethics and the regulation of advertising among large
corporations (Sun et al., 2020).

Targeting
Market targeting is the next step after market segmentation. A market segment is a set of
potential buyers with common characteristics that an organization chooses to serve. There are
three aspects to consider when choosing a target market. The first is the size of the market, and
its potential for growth. The second is the market’s structural attractiveness. The final
consideration to make is the business’ objectives and resources (Bruhn and Schnebelen, 2017).

When targeting a market, there are three options an organization may opt for. The first is
undifferentiated marketing, where a company may choose to target its product to the entire
market, regardless of geographical or demographic differences. Burger King’s initial marketing
strategy was in this form, although customer needs are now considered in the manufacture of
salads, caffeine free soda and other considerations (Blakeman, 2018).
Positioning
Once a company decides to target select market segments, the next step is to occupy a unique
position within the customer’s mind. This means that the customer has to have a different and
unique perception towards a company’s product.

As Bruhn and Schnebelen, (2017) explain, “Positioning is not what you do to a product; it is
what you do to the mind of a prospect.” In essence, market positioning answers the
organization’s question of ‘who’ they want to be. A good example of how to position a product
is the case of Burger king and the The Whopper. Most male consumers regarded the burger as
a girly and feminine product, and naturally they felt left out and did not feel obliged to
purchase that product. In response, Burger king introduced the branded whopper burger,
designed to appeal to male consumers. Market positioning is used to reach out to a particular
audience in a crowded market place.

Blakeman, (2018) states categorically that Burger King’s has always wanted to be identified as a
family-oriented and family friendly. It has, therefore, marketed itself in a way that draws
families and family-oriented customers towards it. They developed this identity, as explained by
Dylan, even before they developed their product. It is also noteworthy to mention that Burger
King’s does not only market itself as a family-oriented fast food chain of restaurants, but also as
a reasonably low-priced fast food restaurant that offers meals that taste fantastic (Blakeman,
2018).

Alignment with core competencies

Core competencies are the capabilities of a firm that are quite critical to its success and
achievement of competitive advantage. These include technical matters, reliable processes,
close relationship with customers, and relationship with suppliers. That is why when Burger
King develops its strategic options, it must make sure that it has considered all factors in the
core competencies (Naumovska and Blazeska, 2016).

Alignment with strategic goals

Burger King should develop numerous strategic options to make sure that it stays in line with
the primary strategic goals and core aims of the marketing goals of Burger King. While the
strategic options will give the company an edge, it will not deviate from the primary objective
either (Blakeman, 2018).

Customer service

Burger King is in the big league of the fast food industry which means that its customers do
have a choice of switching to other players of the industry as well. This is where a competitive
advantage through customer service can be created. The deliverables must be marketed in such
a way that Burger King can achieve a certain level of differentiation in all of its core elements.
References

Blakeman, R., 2018. Integrated marketing communication: creative strategy from idea to

implementation. Rowman & Littlefield.

Bruhn, M. and Schnebelen, S., 2017. Integrated marketing communication–from an

instrumental to a customer-centric perspective. European Journal of Marketing.

Finne, Å. and Grönroos, C., 2017. Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing

communication. European Journal of Marketing.

Musonera, E., 2019. Merger of Burger King and Tim Hortons: analysis of marketing strategies in
the quick service restaurants. International Journal of Strategic Business Alliances, 6(4), pp.267-
283.

Naumovska, L. and Blazeska, D., 2016. Public relation based model of integrated marketing
communications. UTMS Journal of Economics, 7(2), pp.175-186.

Porcu, L., Del Barrio-Garcia, S. and Kitchen, P.J., 2017. Measuring integrated marketing
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Porcu, L., del Barrio-Garcia, S., Alcántara-Pilar, J.M. and Crespo-Almendros, E., 2019. Analyzing
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Sun, Y., Zhong, Z., Sun, L. and Wang, Y., 2020. The Impacts and Solutions of Marketing
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Valos, M.J., Maplestone, V.L., Polonsky, M.J. and Ewing, M., 2017. Integrating social media
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