Is the King a Pauper?

Is the King a Pauper?
Tags: Consumer Behavior, Customer Experience, Marketing, Psychology
September 13, 2010

What is it about Burger King...

...that leaves us feeling like paupers?

When you hear the word, King, what do you envision? Royalty? Enormous wealth? Power? The best of everything, right?

Then there’s Burger King, which is being sued by franchise owners over the $1.00 double cheeseburger. Let’s skip past the suit for a minute and examine Burger King’s pricing strategy in light of its marketing messages.

As we’ve discussed before, there’s a need for congruity between your marketing messages and your pricing. Whenever you make marketing claims that aren’t substantiated by your price, you place buyers in the awkward position of trying to decide which to believe your price or your marketing claims.

Burger King, by virtue of its name, is claiming to be the best. This message is enhanced by ads touting their flame broiling. For people who love to grill, flame broiling is a distinct advantage over other forms of cooking. They feel that the flame broiling gives a richer, fuller, kingly taste to the burger.

With all that going for it, why does Burger King insist upon making us feel like paupers? Their willingness to follow the pack to the $1.00 menu makes them just another pauper’s burger joint.

As a consumer I no longer feel that I’m getting something special. Indeed, I feel like a pauper myself for choosing the $1.00 double cheeseburger even though it’s my favorite. Besides that I can’t help but wonder, each time, “Is the burger smaller than I remember?” As a seller those aren’t the kind of thoughts you want wandering around your customers’ minds.

Lest I forget, let’s revisit the franchisee suit. I haven’t read the Burger King agreement, but most of these agreements require the franchisor (Burger King) to be compensated on the basis of a percentage revenue dollars generated. If Burger King changed it’s pricing strategy to make its pricing more congruent with the value it provides, it would be generating greater revenues and profits for both their franchisees and itself.

It’s counter-intuitive, but telling its customers that they’ll feel like royalty when they’re paying bargain basement prices just doesn’t jibe.