Burger King wants its health-conscious customers to feel less guilty when gobbling up its French fries. As a result, Burger King has released a new product, the “Satisfries,” featuring at offering 40% less fattened 30% fewer calories than the McDonald’s fries. While Burger King is extracting fats out of its fries, the stock has generated fat returns. The shares are increased for 18% so far in 2013, outpacing the 7% gain for fast-food colossus McDonald’s, according to the forth quadrant report.

Miami-based Burger King runs the second-largest fast food chain stores with locations in 80 countries, right after the King of fast food chain, McDonald’s. As the competition among fast food restaurants grows fierce, According to the article “Brand Positioning” by Ries and Trout, a company that pretends that the market leader does not exist is likely to fall. By acknowledging and linking itself to the No.1 Company, McDonald’s, yet emphasize its difference – the healthier fries, customers can more easily relate Burger King to McDonald’s. Therefore, a “substitution effect” is created, in that customers who favor healthy fries will choose to purchase “Satisfries.”

Burger King’s Promotion of “Satisfries”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajesfE2ZGDY

Reference:

http://www.bnn.ca/News/2013/10/4/Burger-King-tries-to-fatten-margins-with-skinny-fries.aspx

Picture Resource:

http://www.brandeating.com/2013/09/news-burger-king-new-satisfries.html

Starbucks, one of the largest coffeehouse in the world, has filed a trademark as “Fizzio” for its trials of launching carbonated drinks.

From analyzing such a case by Porter’s Five Forces, Starbucks’ action can be categorized as a differentiation of products due to increasing rivals. The saturating coffee market will bring about the pressure of close competition from rivals; the competition among Blenz, Tim Hortons, and etc. will be markedly fierce. Furthermore, a large number of firms also slows down market growth, in that firms are having a hard time fighting for market share.To prevent from being stifled once the market of coffee-related drinks becomes saturated, Starbucks utilize its unique and powerful brand identity and opened up many new opportunities.

However, such a seemingly beneficial proposal is hard to put into action. In terms of value proposition, people regard Starbucks as a brand of coffee, and it would be hard for them to link that conception to carbonated drinks. While Starbucks wants to diversify its value proposition to step into a relatively unsaturated/undeveloped market,its strong value proposition has branded in customers’ mind. In order to expand the market, Starbucks may have to put extra effort into marketing its new products.