Earlier this week, Burger King introduced the “Satisfries”, which is meant to be a healthier alternative to their regular fries. While this new product was welcomed by customers and proved to be an effective positioning strategy, the marketing of the fries was a failure.
Burger King decided to reposition the competition by creating the perception that their fries are healthier than the fries at any of their competitors. The marketing team then decided to “rebrand” the company temporarily by changing its name to Fries King. A new logo was introduced online, and many locations even replaced the physical logo with the Fries King name. This was clearly a bold move to “get in the mind of the consumer”, as explained by Ries and Trout. However, this strategy quickly backfired as consumers were confused and assumed the change was permanent. The company also encouraged Twitter followers to use the hashtag #WTFF (What the French Fry), unaware that this hashtag was already used to comment on angry or outrageous stories. This lack of internet research proved to be costly for the company. To prevent this confusion from occurring, Burger King should have released television ads and gained consumer awareness before making an enormous rebranding stunt. Ultimately, the decision to reposition was excellent, but the execution was not.
Check out this video of a confused drive-thru consumer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERR66d4Xomc
Here are some Twitter users expressing their anger and confusion:
Burger King confirms changing it's name to Fries King. Killing myself.
— Doriano Magliano (@DorianoMagliano) October 3, 2013
Wait, Burger King is now FriesKing? Fire the marketing guy.
— Burnsy (@MinnesotaBurns) October 3, 2013
Additional information found here:
http://business.time.com/2013/10/02/the-web-hates-burger-kings-fake-name-change/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2013/09/26/what-burger-king-got-wrong-with-low-fat-french-fry/
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/02/burger-king-fries-king/2909423/