Introduction to Burger King

Burger King (NYSE: BKC), often abbreviated to BK, is a global chain

of hamburger fast food restaurants. The first restaurant was opened
in Miami, Florida in 1954 by James McLamore and David
Edgerton, and has since used several variations of franchising to
expand its operations. Burger King Holdings Corporation is the
parent company of Burger King; in the United States it operates
under the Burger King Brands title while internationally it operates
under the Burger King Corporation banner. It is a publicly traded
company with investment firms of TPG Capital, Bain Capital and
Goldman Sachs Capital Partners each owning about 25% of the
company. At the end of its financial year 2008, Burger King
reported that there are more than 11,550 outlets in 71 countries;
66% are in the United States and 90% are privately owned and
operated. The company has more than 37,000 employees serving
approximately 11.4 million customers daily. In North America,
franchises are licensed on a per store basis, while in several
international locations licenses are sold on a regional basis with
franchises owning exclusive development rights for the region or
country. These regional franchises are known as master franchises,
and are responsible for opening new restaurants, licensing new third
party operators, and performing standards oversight of all restaurant
locations in these countries & franchises is of Dubai.
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Methods of collecting information for this assignment

Primary research involves getting original data directly about the
product and market. Primary research data is data that did not
exist before. It is designed to answer specific questions of interest to
the business - for example:
Business is rated good, bad or excellent?
What do customers think of a new version of a popular product?
To collect primary data a business must carry out field research. The
main methods of field research are:
Face-to-face interviews interviewers ask people on the street or on
their doorstep a series of questions.
Telephone interviews - similar questions to face-to-face interviews,
although often shorter.
Questionnaires sent in the post (for example a customer feedback
form sent to people who have recently bought a product or service).
In most cases it is not possible to ask all existing or potential
customers the questions that the business wants answering so
primary research makes use of surveys and sampling to obtain valid
results.
The main advantages of primary research and data are that it is:

Up to date.

Specific to the purpose asks the questions the business wants

answers to.

Collects data which no other business will have access to (the

results are confidential).

In the case of online surveys and telephone interviews, the data

can be obtained quite quickly (think about how quickly
political opinion polls come out).

In secondary research, the company uses information compiled from

other sources that appears applicable to a new or existing product.
The advantages of secondary research are that it is relatively cheap
and easily accessible than the primary research.
Secondary data is data that already exists and has been collected by
someone else for another purpose. Secondary research involves the
investigation of secondary sources of data.
Sources of secondary data can come from within the firm itself
this is known as internal secondary data. External secondary data,
on the other hand, is data that has been published by other
organisations
What are internal sources of secondary data?
Every department within an organisation will have its own records
that represent a potential source of valuable data. For instance,
records of past advertising campaigns within the marketing
department can be compared with copies of invoices held in the
sales department in order to judge their effectiveness and get ideas
for future campaigns. Past sales figures can also be used to spot
trends and forecast future figures.
The increasing availability and use of loyalty cards has given retail
outlets the chance to gather a wide range of valuable information on
customer buying habits, allowing them to target promotional
campaigns more effectively.
Internal sources of data should always be considered as a first line
of enquiry for any investigation because they are usually the
quickest, cheapest and most convenient source of information
available. Internal data will also be exclusive to the organisation
that generated it, so that rival firms will not have access to it.

However, internal data may be incomplete or out of date, and, if a

project is new, there may be no relevant data at all.

In such cases,

an organisation may need to consider using external sources of

secondary data.
What are external sources of secondary data?
There are several sources of existing data available from outside of
the organisation that may be of value. These include:

Commercial market research organisations including

MINTEL, Keynote and Euro monitor

The Government e.g., Monthly Digest of Statistics, Annual

Abstract of Statistics, Social Trends. In addition, there are now
a number of government websites, such as www.statistics.gov.

Competitors company reports and websites are easily

accessible and contain a limited amount of information

Trade Publications e.g, the Grocer

The general media to the archives of newspapers such as the

Financial Times and the Guardian and journals such as the
Economist are now accessible online, making them a useful
starting point for research

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using secondary data?

Secondary data sources should always be considered by any firm
conducting research. No firm can afford to waste time and money
conducting expensive surveys to gather data that already exists!
However, secondary data may have been collected some time ago and,
therefore, be out-of-date. Because it has been collected for another
purpose, it may be in the wrong format or incomplete.
The advantages and disadvantages of using secondary data will vary
from source to source. Government data, for example, is usually
cheap or even free to access. It is likely to be accurate and updated
regularly.

What is marketing research?

It the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis,
and dissemination of information for the purpose of assisting
management in decision making for opportunities in marketing,
they could be on the basis of behaviour of customers., the competitors
or the marketing environment. The goal of marketing research is to
identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix
impacts customer behaviour.
Marketing research is a form of business research and is generally
divided into two categories: business to consumers (B2C) and
business-to-business (B2B) market research, which was previously
known as industrial marketing research. Consumer marketing
research studies the buying habits of individual people while
business-to-business marketing research investigates the markets for
products sold by one business to another.

What is marketing environment?

The marketing environment constitutes all the external actors and
issues that affect the marketing decisions and practices of a business.
A number of different models and acronyms are used by marketers
to divide up the environment in order to deal with it. Sometimes it
is split between the micro or task environment (which includes the
day-to-day influences on a business such as customers, competitors,
suppliers and distributors) and the macro environment which
includes broader influences that have more intermittent impact on
the business (such as social trends, politics, economics, technology or
laws).

The PEST or PESTLE Analysis

Originally designed as a business environmental scan, the PEST or
PESTLE analysis is an analysis of the external macro environment
(big picture) in which a business operates. These are often factors
which are beyond the control or influence of a business, however
are important to be aware of when doing product development,
business or strategy planning.
P: Political factors
E: Environment factors
S: Social factors
T: Technological factors
L: Legal Factors
E: Economic Factors
It is important to take into account PESTLE factors for the following
main reasons:

Firstly, by making effective use of PESTLE analysis, you ensure

that what you are doing is aligned positively with the
powerful forces of change that are affecting our working
environment. By taking advantage of change, you are much
more likely to be successful than if your activities oppose it

Secondly, good use of PESTLE analysis helps you avoid taking

action that is likely to lead to failure for reasons beyond your
control

Thirdly, PESTLE is useful when you start a new product or

service. Use of PESTLE helps you break free of assumptions, and
helps you quickly adapt to the realities of the new
environment.

Effective Questionnaires for Market Research

When we think about research for marketing, the questionnaires are
the first things that come in our mind. One of the primary research
tools used to acquire data is the questionnaire. It is a simple and
easily categorized way to gather information directly from customers.
For optimal success, distribute a questionnaire to a systematic
random sampling of your target audience, as opposed to a general
audience. In this questionnaire we need to focus the attention to

Burger kings Customer survey

Please fill in all the details

Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential

Please tick the following:

Excellent

Good

Normal

Bad

Very Bad

Value for money

Food quality provided

Cleanliness
Service quality
How can we serve you better, please provide with suggestions
___________________________________________________________________
Which Fast food restaurant do you prefer over us? If yes, please provide us with a reason
Fast Food company name _________________ Reason _______________________
At what percentage would you rate Burger King overall in market compared to others?
0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How do you rate Burger King financially in market?

0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How often do you visit our restaurants?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Date & time of last visit _____________________________

Name & contact no: _____________________________________________________

Thank you for cooperating with us, helping us serving you better.

Burger kings Customer survey

Please fill in all the details

Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential

Please tick the following:

Excellent

Good

Normal

Bad

Very Bad

Value for money

Food quality provided

Cleanliness
Service quality
How can we serve you better, please provide with suggestions
___________________________________________________________________
Which Fast food restaurant do you prefer over us? If yes, please provide us with a reason
Fast Food company name _________________ Reason _______________________
At what percentage would you rate Burger King overall in market compared to others?
0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How do you rate Burger King financially in market?

0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How often do you visit our restaurants?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Date & time of last visit _____________________________

Name & contact no: _____________________________________________________

Thank you for cooperating with us, helping us serving you better.

Burger kings Customer survey

Please fill in all the details

Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential

Please tick the following:

Excellent

Good

Normal

Bad

Very Bad

Value for money

Food quality provided

Cleanliness
Service quality
How can we serve you better, please provide with suggestions
___________________________________________________________________
Which Fast food restaurant do you prefer over us? If yes, please provide us with a reason
Fast Food company name _________________ Reason _______________________
At what percentage would you rate Burger King overall in market compared to others?
0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How do you rate Burger King financially in market?

0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How often do you visit our restaurants?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Date & time of last visit _____________________________

Name & contact no: _____________________________________________________

Thank you for cooperating with us, helping us serving you better.

10

Burger kings Customer survey

Please fill in all the details

Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential

Please tick the following:

Excellent

Good

Normal

Bad

Very Bad

Value for money

Food quality provided

Cleanliness
Service quality
How can we serve you better, please provide with suggestions
___________________________________________________________________
Which Fast food restaurant do you prefer over us? If yes, please provide us with a reason
Fast Food company name _________________ Reason _______________________
At what percentage would you rate Burger King overall in market compared to others?
0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How do you rate Burger King financially in market?

0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How often do you visit our restaurants?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Date & time of last visit _____________________________

Name & contact no: _____________________________________________________

Thank you for cooperating with us, helping us serving you better.

11

Burger kings Customer survey

Please fill in all the details

Your personal information will be kept strictly confidential

Please tick the following:

Excellent

Good

Normal

Bad

Very Bad

Value for money

Food quality provided

Cleanliness
Service quality
How can we serve you better, please provide with suggestions
___________________________________________________________________
Which Fast food restaurant do you prefer over us? If yes, please provide us with a reason
Fast Food company name _________________ Reason _______________________
At what percentage would you rate Burger King overall in market compared to others?
0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How do you rate Burger King financially in market?

0

25%

50%

75%

100%

How often do you visit our restaurants?

Daily

Weekly

Monthly

Date & time of last visit _____________________________

Name & contact no: _____________________________________________________

Thank you for cooperating with us, helping us serving you better.

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Results Obtained from the survey done

Overall from my survey I discovered that every one actually talks
about the services offered, that means that burger king needs to
improved its services which are provided to the customers, for
example a customer says in the survey that it needs to open more
counters so that the transactions done are faster & the other says that
it should reduce the time that is taken for the transactions.
Value of money overall is good, the food quality overall is Excellent,
the cleanliness is overall also good & the service quality is good but
some customers suggest that it should be improved more.
Burger king is rated overall some about 80% when compared to
others, also financially It is rated about 90% & most of the customers
visit the restaurant weekly.

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SWOT ANALYSIS
Basically SWOT analysis is a tool used to measure the Strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities & Threats of an organization or company,
the managers or other senior staff use it to develop a plan that takes
into consideration many different internal and external factors, and
maximizes the potential of the strengths and opportunities while
minimizing the impact of the weaknesses and threats to a
organization or company. But how can it be used?
We can divide the analysis in 2 parts,
Internal Analysis: Examine the capabilities of your organization.
This can be done by analyzing your organization's strengths and
weaknesses.
External Analysis: we can take a look at the main points in the
environmental analysis, and identify those points that pose
opportunities for the organization, and those that pose threats or
obstacles to performance.

Some factors are grouped below to demonstrate an example for SWOT

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Competitive Advantage
What is competitive advantage?
What competitive advantage basically means is that it is an
advantage for the company by increasing its sales compared to the
same kinds of organizations in the market they can be called as its
rivals.
It other words it can be explained as a Condition which enables a
company to operate & generate more sales & profit in a more
efficient or otherwise higher-quality manner than the companies it
competes with, and which results in lots of different benefits for the
company or organization

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BCG MATRIX
Basically
explaining,
BOSTON
CONSULTING
GROUP MATRIX (
BCG ) is a
technique which is
particularly useful
for multidivisional or
multi- product
companies. The
divisions or
products
compromise the
organisations
business portfolio.
The composition of the portfolio can be critical to the growth and
success of the company. The products or business fields of an
enterprise are assigned to one of the four ranges now on the basis
their values. Each range embodies thereby a standard strategy in
such a way specified. It is to give a recommendation regarding the
further procedure. The life way of a typical product runs from the
Question Mark over star and cash Cow to the Poor Dog. There are
also products, which do not follow this ideal way. Many flops do not
reach the dying stage at all. An imitating product against it possibly
jumps over the range of the Question Marks or somewhat around

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The Question Marks (also question mark, new generation

product or baby) is the newcomers under the products.
They have however only small market shares. The
management stands before the decision whether it is to
invest or give the product up.
The Star; It not only has a high market share, but also a
high market growth. They however already cover the
enormous investment demand, which results from high
market growth, with high cash flow.
The Cash Cows: have the largest market share, however a
small market growth. They are front runners in the cashflow operation.
The Dogs is the discharge products in the enterprise. They
have a small market growth, sometimes even a market
decrease as well as a small market share.
.

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The burger king product life cycle

The product life cycle in burger king goes through many phases,
involves many professional disciplines, and requires many skills,
tools and processes. Product life cycle (PLC) has to do with the life of
a product in the market with respect to business/commercial costs
and sales measures; eg a product of the burger king company
WHOPPER has a life cycle in which it had to assert four things: 1)
that products have a limited life, 2) product sales pass through
distinct stages, each posing different challenges, opportunities, and
problems to the seller, 3) profits rise and fall at different stages of
product life cycle, and 4) products require different marketing,
financial, manufacturing, purchasing, and human resource
strategies in each life cycle stage. Infact the product was so successful
that burger king made a separates website for the product:
http://www.whopperfreakout.com/index.html
The general different stages in a product life cycle are:

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1. Market introduction stage for whopper

Cost high
o

sales volume was low

no/little competition - competitive manufacturers watch for

acceptance/segment growth losses

demand had to be created

customers had to be prompted to try the product

2. Growth stage of whopper

Costs were reduced due to economies of scale
o

sales volume increased significantly

profitability increased

public awareness increased

competition began to increase with a few new players in

establishing market

prices maximized market share

3. Mature stage of whopper

Costs were low as was well established in market & no need for
publicity.
o

sales volume peaked

increased competitive offerings

prices tended to drop due to the proliferation of competing

products

brand differentiation, feature diversification, as each player

seeked to differentiated from competition with "how much
product" is offered

Industrial profits went down

4. Saturation and decline stage of whopper

Costs became counter-optimal
o

sales volume stabilized

prices, profitability slightly diminished

profit became more a challenge of production/distribution

efficiency than increased sale

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BCG MATRIX FOR PRODUCTS OF BURGER KING

Cash cows:
The Burger Kings product called Whopper resulted in being a cash
cow because it had the highest sale compared to the other products
in the market, the making charges for a whopper for also low for
Burger king & burger king made high revenue from this product.
Star:
The product named in burger king as sundae which is an icecream, the products sale is good but the making charges are a bit
high as special machines are needed to make the ice-cream so more
investments are needed for the product to be more successful.

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Question Mark:
The burger kings product named as Chicken Caesar Salad have the
worst cash characteristics of all, because high demands and low returns due
to low market share, the company is a bit confused about this product
because if nothing is done to change the market share, question marks will
simply absorb great amounts of cash and later but if the growth stops, it will
become dog.

Dogs:
The product named 1/4 lb Burger is expensive as well & doesnt
even generate revenue that is expected, the market share is relatively
low & as well as the investment is low so this is marked as the worst
product in burger king

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How Burger King uses Marketing Techniques to

increase demand for its products.
Marketing is a function of a business to promote its products and
services & that is why Burger King uses these techniques, the
underlying objective of the Burger King marketing is to make its
products or services stand out amongst its competitors in the Fast food
market in order to increase its revenue by selling its Products.
Businesses, depending on their size and financial strength, either
have their own designated team to take care of the marketing
activities, or they hire professional services of marketing companies
to outsource their marketing function. Burger King but themselves
have a team to meet their marketing needs. Outsourcing is usually
done by smaller to mid-sized companies in order to conserve their
limited resources to keep their focus on their core business activities.
Its also a choice of some large organizations as well, primarily
because leaving the marketing job in the hands of experts without
heavily investing, in terms of time and money, in building their
own team makes more sense to them, unless there is a good reason
not to do so.
There are various traditional marketing techniques that are
employed by Burger King, there Marketing techniques can be seen as
the means by which businesses attempt to communicate, influence
and remind consumers, either directly or through a third party
marketing company, about their products, services and/or their
brands.

Marketing techniques are most commonly used tools to juggle with

the '&Ps' of marketing - Product, Price, Promotion and Placement.
Their eventual goal is to increase sales. marketing techniques
include; Advertising, Sales Promotion, Events and Experiences,
Marketing literature, Public relations, Personal Selling, Direct
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Marketing etc. In addition to the traditional marketing techniques,

there are numerous newer and innovative concepts of marketing
employed by Burger king, such as, Internet Marketing, Marketing
Driven by Business Behaviour and Search Engine Marketing etc.

Some of the Main Marketing Techniques Used By Burger King

Advertising: It includes print and broadcast ads, packaging inserts in
the newspapers, movies, brochures and booklets, posters and
billboards.
Sales Promotion: Products promotional activities to increase sales by
means of short term incentives to encourage the consumer to buy the
products, such as, Discount Coupons, Contests and Games.
Events and Experiences: It includes sponsoring sports and
entertainment events, experiential sales through arranging factory
tours for the customers, increasing business's interest in charitable
and noble causes and participating in the promotion of events
related to arts.
Public Relations: Its another communication technique employed
by businesses and marketing companies. It includes, Public Speeches,
Seminars, Lobbying, Annual Reports and Publications, such as,
Newsletters. This technique also helps increase the credibility of the
business and positively influences the demand of the products and
services.
Personal Selling: Involves Sales Presentations, Sales Meetings, and
Incentive Programs, Providing Samples, Arranging Fairs, Trade
Shows and Exhibits.

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Direct Marketing: It includes Mailing Product Catalogues, Direct

Letters to the potential customers, Telemarketing, Electronic
Shopping, TV Shopping, Direct Fax Mails and Direct Emails.
Positioning: Burger king uses this marketing intended to identify the
place or position its product or service within its target market
compared to its competition. These techniques are used to influence
and/or reinforce certain perceptions that customers and prospects
have of its products. Once an organization is able to identify how it
wants its customers to perceive its product or service.
Branding: is the organization's representation of what it stands for,
often based on cumulative impressions and positive reinforcement.
Like BurgerKing, a Fast food brand can be identified readily and is
used for increased awareness of the business. Branding is used
throughout by BurgerKing, such as in its logo, Food Menu, on its web
site and in its tagline. A great example of effective branding is the
Nike "swoosh" logo because it's instantly recognizable around the
world.

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References
http://labspace.open.ac.uk/mod/resource/view.php?id=341
852
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_research#Marketi
ng_research_methods
http://www.esurveyspro.com/links/samplequestionnaire.aspx
http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing/marketresearch/1959-1.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_research
http://tutor2u.net/marketing/default.html
http://tutor2u.net/business/marketing/segmentation_why.a
sp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_research
http://www.cfsd.org.uk/smart-knownet/links/marketingenv.htm
http://www.rapidbi.com/created/the-PESTLE-analysistool.html

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http://www.trumpuniversity.com/businessbriefings/lib/resources/images/graphs/product_life_cycle.gif
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_meaning_of_produc
t_life_cycle&alreadyAsked=1&rtitle=Product_life_cycle
http://www.boulderinternetguide.com/Restaurants/burger_
king_menu.htm

http://erc.msh.org/quality/ittools/itswot.cfm
http://www.12manage.com/methods_swot_analysis.html
http://www.economy-point.org/b/bcg-matrix.html

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