Positioning Strategies of McDonald’s and Burger King
For more than fifty years, McDonald’s and Burger King have been operating in the fast-food industry. Both are the ultimate bestsellers and represent one of the most iconic and vital business rivalries in American history. In fact, Burger King, with its Whopper, and McDonald’s with Big Mac, are the two best-selling burgers of all time when it comes to the menu. Both of them have managed to employ strategies that have become their main success factors. Let’s discuss McDonald’s and Burger King to understand how they could utilize these positioning strategies that showed their effectiveness and power.
Let’s begin by discussing the segmentation strategy of McDonald’s.
To identify the target market of McDonald’s, let’s watch and discuss the following commercial by the company.
The commercial features a man visiting a McDonald’s drive-thru and ordering different products from the menu during the night. He keeps coming back first, ordering an egg McMuffin with pickles which does not go unnoticed by the employee.
We see the man waking up and yawning but still determined to order food from the restaurant during the video. At the end of the commercial, the man thinks that the fruit and yogurt parfait is the last thing he was going to buy, he is surprised by his pregnant wife with another order. However, we see him driving to the nearest McDonald’s drive-thru with a big and hearty smile.
From the commercial, it becomes clear that McDonald’s focuses on people belonging to the Sharers segment.
Target Market: Sharers
Lifestyle and Values:
Sharers enjoy every moment of life and can even find enjoyment in ordinary everyday tasks. They are quite adventurous people who love challenges, risks, and change. Sharers go to work both for a career and money; however, money is not a success factor for them. They enjoy staying at home and cooking for the whole family.
This segment is inspired by the glamour they see in magazines and movies, which are their favorite leisure activities. Sharers pay attention to the quality of the products they buy and would always go for what’s organic and environmentally friendly.
They enjoy standing out from the crowd by taking good care of themselves, being knowledgeable, and buying high-end brands whenever possible.
Attitude to Shopping:
Sharers are brand oriented people who try their best to purchase premium brands whenever possible.
They always seek to explore new brands and would switch brands out of curiosity. Shopping is another favorite pastime for Sharers, and they love visiting shopping centers together with family. They also look out for special offers that would help them buy their desired item.
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Let’s mention some qualities of Sharers.
- Family – the most important thing in their life. They sacrifice everything for their loved ones.
- These people are very outgoing and kind. They just can’t live without relationships and communications, that’s why almost every broker or mediator belongs to Sharers.
- Even if their wages aren’t big, they are brand oriented and always try to buy products of high quality. Although, if the offer is profitable, they will look and try new brands.
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Marketing Strategy of McDonald’s.
One of the critical factors for McDonald’s market dominance is its focus on customer satisfaction. All the employees of the company need to serve customers with a smile. They prioritize cost, speed, and quality in order to make customers happy.
In fact, Ray Kroc, a fast-food tycoon, offered refunds to customers who had to wait more than five minutes for their order. Regarding the fast service of the company, the McDonald’s brothers managed to apply factory line assembly to a commercial kitchen, which reduced the serving time from 20 minutes to 30 seconds.
Another competitive advantage that McDonald’s managed to gain is its brand equity. To help the firm boost its foreign business exposure, McDonald’s has employed substantial branding strategies by ties & sponsorships with renowned organizations such as FIFA and the Olympics.
Other than that, to be able to survive in the competitive market, McDonald’s does franchising in different locations of the world to live up the expectations of different target groups.
There is the McDrive for those in a rush and need to order directly from the counter. Also, McDonald’s has McCafe, which is targeting the younger generation.
McDonald’s also employs social media marketing strategies through Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The company came up with the idea of using Instagram stories throughout the day, each with a popular product.
Additionally, McDonald’s has also upped its game throughout powerful branding tactics. It came up with an online shop with its branded goods like jumpers, umbrellas, or notepads.
Problem Removal
McDonald’s prioritizes customers’ wants and needs; that’s why it strives to be their favorite place to eat and drink. Customers are the most crucial part of the company. That’s why McDonald’s menus and recipes are specially crafted to satisfy consumer preferences.
This brand aims to create a fun and safe environment for its target markets where they will be able to enjoy good food at affordable prices.
Additionally, the company aims to provide people fresh and quality food, so it adopted a strategy of “burger cooked when you order” this way, ensuring customer delights.
Social Approval
McDonald’s applies different tactics and strategies to gain social acceptance. In this quest, the company managed to give back and do some fundraising through Ronald McDonald House Charities. Some countries give back by donating a certain percentage of the sales of products.
A good example is America that donates a part of the sales of every Happy Meal to Ronald McDonald House Charities. Regarding environmental protection, McDonald’s plans to utilize $100 million for recycled construction materials for remodeling its restaurants.
Message Strategy
Let’s discuss the following Instagram post by McDonald’s to understand its message strategy.
This Instagram post is a vanilla ice-cream cone with burger boxes in the background. The caption is quite simple, which indicates how people experience paradise with a sweet bite of McDonald’s ice cream. The colors of the picture communicate the positivity of the brand.
All these tactics identify that McDonald’s represents the Innocent brand archetype. This archetype stands for purity, simplicity, and goodness. Innocent’s motto is “Free to be you and me,” which represents certainty.
Let’s move on to discuss the segmentation strategy of Burger King.
To understand who Burger King mainly wants to target, let’s watch the following commercial by the company.
The commercial features an Asian man about to eat a triple whopper at Burger King restaurant. When he sits down to finally start eating, he realizes that he forgot to order soda.
While he leaves to order, another man notices the triple whopper and starts crawling like a snake towards the table. We see him devour the whole burger one at a time. Meanwhile, the man that left for his soda stands there surprised.
According to the commercial, we can conclude that the company chose to target people who belong to the Floaters segment.
Target Market: Floaters
Lifestyle and Values:
These people enjoy taking care of their family by cooking, cleaning, or getting the best for their loved ones, even when on a low budget. Floaters are the type of people who don’t care much about themselves and are willing to keep a warm atmosphere for their family members. They don’t pay attention to their appearance and buy clothes for comfort rather than for style.
Floaters love security and control; that’s why they would rather be controlled than take responsibilities. They work for money and not for the career. People from this segment respect traditional values and prefer lasting relationships.
Attitude to Shopping:
Floaters are practical people and bargain hunters when it comes to shopping. They mostly buy down-market brands and always seek special offers and discounts. For them, it’s quantity over quality. Floaters are also the last ones to adopt a new brand.
Marketing Strategy of Burger King
Burger King’s marketing strategy focuses mainly on advertising to promote its products. Its popular product is the burger, but it also serves a wide range of foods that include chicken and fish, sides, salads, beverages, and desserts. Other than advertising, these products are being promoted through sales promotions, personal selling, and public relations.
The advertising of the company is conducted online, TV, and print media. However, in 2019, Burger King was able to step up its game through creative campaigns and mobile platforms. What they did was offer customers a monthly $5 fee for one daily coffee brew.
At the same time, the company does its marketing by tolling competitors. For example, this coffee subscription was marketed as the price you pay for one Starbucks cappuccino. Similarly, in Brazil, Burger King mobile app users could virtually set fire to its competitors’ advertisements.
Furthermore, in 2015, the company came up with the idea to combine everyone’s favorite dishes from McDonald’s and Burger King to create McWopper but was declined by McDonald’s. While the company challenged itself for a good cause, it still was the winner.
In any case, if McDonald’s rejected the proposal, Burger King could scold its competitor for refusing a charitable cause. In contrast, in case of acceptance, Burger King would still win since it was the one who led the initiative.
Problem Removal
The biggest goal for Burger King is to serve quality food. Additionally, they aim to provide quick service, reasonable prices, and all these in attractive and clean surroundings. The brand empowers its guests to customize their meals according to their preferences and individual lifestyles.
In the meantime, all these meals are introduced with detailed nutritional information to satisfy customers. Furthermore, the brand supports and invests in its people, be it a customer, employee, or supplier. This is done through the creation of a bold, accountable, meritocratic, empowered, and fun.
Social Approval
When it comes to social acceptance and approval, Burger King puts a lot of work into reviewing laws on animal welfare and environmental impact. This is reflected in their efforts to find ways and work with suppliers that will allow them to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
It even created a new menu item to reduce the harmful environmental impact of beef. What they did was to come up with a new diet for cows, which would cause them to produce less methane. This would decrease daily methane emissions by 33%. The beef with reduced methane is incorporated into the brands’ popular product which is the whopper,
Message Strategy
Now it’s time to go through an Instagram post by Burger King to understand what message strategy they chose.
This Instagram post is a photo of Connor McGregor with the all-time famous Burger King crown and spicy chicken sandwich in his hands. The caption describes the taste of the new product, which, according to Burger King, is “hot, juicy and packs one hell of a punch.”
The caption is identified with the man’s profession, which is boxing. In a sense, the company shows its courage and strength to compete in the fast-food industry.
The post and all discussed details identify Burger King as a representative of the Hero brand archetype. This archetype is about proving its worth through courageous and difficult action. The motto of the Hero Archetype is “Where there is a will, there is a way!” which stands for the company’s goal to achieve mastery by improving the world.
To sum up, this post analyzed and identified two of the most popular fast food companies’ positioning and marketing strategies. You can find more similar posts on the main page of our website.
