Burger King To Retire 'King' Mascot For Burger-Based Marketing
August 19 2011 - 4:29PM
Dow Jones News
Burger King is straying from its King mascot in order to focus
on its burgers themselves in a new advertising campaign that
launches Saturday.
The move is part of Burger King's effort to reinvent itself
since it was bought by a private-equity firm last year. While the
majestic mascot had been around a while, the King wasn't resonating
enough with customers to satisfy Burger King in this tough economic
and competitive environment.
"We did quite a bit of extensive research, and time and time
again people said the differentiator that makes them love Burger
King is the quality of our food," a spokesman said. "We are a food
company, so we are going to take a food-centric marketing."
Burger King's same-store sales have been on the decline in
recent quarters, while McDonald's Corp.'s (MCD) rose 4.5% in the
U.S. in the second quarter and Wendy's Co.'s (WEN) were up 2.3% in
North America for the second quarter.
While Burger King had hoped that a recent revamp of the King
would be a hit with its target audience--men in their early
20s--recent commercials featuring the character gave off a slightly
creepy vibe instead, with the royal rascal sneaking in to people's
beds and peering through windows.
The new approach, leaving out the King, is the restaurant's
first new marketing effort since it switched advertising agencies
to Dentsu Inc.'s (4324.TO) McGarryBowen in July, replacing MDC
Partners Inc.'s (MDCA) Crispin Porter + Bogusky.
The switch also comes as fast-food chains are under pressure to
nix their cartoonish mascots, in light of a growing
childhood-obesity problem in the U.S.
McDonald's has received a lot of flak over its Ronald McDonald
character lately. While the company has added healthier offerings
to its children's meals and launched promotions encouraging
children to be active, McDonald's said it isn't retiring
Ronald.
McDonald's also reiterated that, for years, Ronald hasn't been
portrayed as eating or promoting food, going along with the theory
that the food is selling the food, not the mascot.
-By Annie Gasparro, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2244;
annie.gasparro@dowjones.com
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