Burger King Case Study

Key Success Factors
Within the fast food industry there are three key success factors that must be considered in order to obtain a competitive advantage in a generally saturated environment. It includes: 1) differentiation, providing 2) high value and 3) convenience.
1) As the fast food industry is becoming increasingly saturated on a global scale, it is especially important for competitors to differentiate in order to avoid directly competing with industry leaders such as McDonald’s. Many competitors such as Burger King and Wendy’s have traditionally competed directly with McDonald’s by offering similar product offerings and price-points. It is important to note that McDonald’s has already established its presence globally and utilized an

Furthermore, as of 2014, Burger King has has a total of 3802 stores in operation and represents 10.5% of McDonald’s total stores of 36,258 (Statistica). Based on these figures, it is evident that Burger King does not possess a competitive advantage and is attributed to the fact that Burger King has not effectively address the identified three key success factors of differentiation, value and convenience.
Although Burger King has a differentiated menu-offering (flame broil burgers) and attempted to capitalize on the growing trend of healthy foods as evident in the introduction of “satisfries”, which was launched in 2013 to offer consumers a healthy alternative to French fries that contained 40% less fat and 30% fewer calories than McDonald’s (Passport – Canada), Burger King has not effectively developed and communicated a differentiated brand that resonates with the modern values and beliefs of current consumers. This is further evident as Burger King’s revenue has remained relatively stagnant from 2010 to 2014 in global sales per year

Although menu-offerings for franchised fast food restaurants should be consistently similar across regions, there should still be some sort product offering specific to regions to promote global connection. For example, within Canada, as Tim Horton’s is the leading fast food chain with a market share of 30.5% which also represents a significant portion of consumers who prefer Tim Horton’s coffee, Burger King should offer Tim Horton’s coffee as opposed to Seattle’s best coffee in its outlets to market specifically to the Canadian region. Alternatively in Asia, there is a growing trend for specialty cold drinks such as iced coffee (GCQ Mage) and due to this evidence, Burger King should consider modifying its drinks selection to not only account for this trend, but to further differentiate and obtain a sustainable competitive