To celebrate Burger King’s five years in Japan, they introduced the Black Burger. This is a burger that has black buns, black cheese and black sauce. It has been very successful and as many as half of Burger Kings costumers are ordering the “Black Burger”.
Japan is known for being innovative in food; local restaurants and international food chains are constantly updating their menu and offering costumers exciting new options. This is very different to what happens in countries in America, where menus barely change and new products are never that different to what you can usually find on the menu.
In a competitive food market like the one in Japan, food chains have to keep on coming up with interesting new recipes and special offers. Imitating the competitions product is not good enough, one of Burger King’s store assistants said ““Others may copy our innovation, but we are the original,” and costumers seem to think the same.
After Burger Kings success McDonalds decided to have their own version of the “Black Burger” they called it the ” spooky” burger and it’s a halloween special. It hasn’t experienced as much success as Burger Kings “black burger” and people in Japan call it “nib an senji” which means second best.
This is a great example that differentiation is key to having competitive advantage. In this case as well as having good new interesting products, price is also really important because with many food chains offering similar products price can make a great difference.
Rivals Burger King And McDonald’s In Black Burger Face-off In Tokyo.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2014/10/05/rivals-burger-king-and-mcdonalds-in-black-burger-face-off-in-tokyo/>.
