Marketing mix

Marketing Mix for the Burger King Fast Food Retail
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Abstract
The Burger King is a fast food retail chain located in the United States but with retail outlets in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The Burger King is a global franchise that differentiates itself from competitors in the market by allowing customers to individualize and customize orders with a variety of options such as pickles, mayonnaise, ketchup, tomato, bacon, cheese, lettuce, fries, or onion rings. Burger King is the second largest fast-food franchise in the world after McDonald’s. Based in Florida, Miami, the organization employs the four Ps of the marketing mix to facilitate business and operational competitiveness particularly in the supply and distribution of fast foods. By leveraging the relative marketing techniques and strategies, Burger King effectively grapples with concerns that are directly associated with aggressive competition for fast foods. This essay evaluates the four facets of Burger King’s marketing mix, it goes ahead to develop a revised marketing strategy and finally recommends the financial percentage that should be allocated to the American and the international markets.
Keywords: Marketing Mix, Fast Foods, Retail Chain, Retail Outlets
Product
Burger King is a fast food franchise that produces cheeseburgers, pies, hash browns, hamburgers, cookies, fries, onion rings, coffee, juice, and salads. Also, the franchise provides healthy menus such as fresh apple slices, wraps, and garden salads.

The brand recently introduced crinkle French fries for weight watchers with 30% fewer calories and 40% reduction in fat (Greenspan, 2017). Burger King is further developing microwavable products that will retail in specific stores in the United States such as Walmart. The Rating: Strong
Price
Burger King provides value menus such as the $1.29 Whopper Jr., the $1 twin cheeseburger, and the $1 ice cold lemonades. The franchise sustains the balance between premium products and the value for money with additional budget-friendly menus to be introduced. The brand focuses on competitive pricing and the bundles pricing strategy comparable to consumer demand and market behavior (Forbes, 2014). Rating: Strong
Place
As a franchise, Burger King has various outlets in the international market with its headquarters located in Miami, Florida. By the turn of 2013, the company recorded 12,667outlets in over 73 nationalities with 66% being in the United States and the others in global locations like the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. Burger King Outlets are usually strategically located in shopping centers and close to traveling points like airports, trains, and bus stations (Forbes, 2014). Rating: above average.
Promotion
Burger King employs various promotional strategies to reinforce customer loyalty and quality perception. Campaigns such as the $1 “Talent Show” and “The next best move” motivate customer engagement. Social media provides the company with an online avenue to gather a bigger market share through advertisements and other promotional campaigns. However, digital advertising and contemporary marketing initiatives earmark the enterprise approach to promotion Rating: average
Revised Marketing Mix
For Burger King to close the gap with McDonald’s its closest competitor, it has to revamp the promotional strategies used on social media and other online platforms. Burger King should display exciting visual content that is recycled across different channels and align online posts with current events. On the basis of location, Burger King should implement additional franchise outlets globally to compete with McDonald’s ever-growing international influence. New product development is also crucial in closing the gap between the two fast food companies. Well-developed restaurant chains rival against one other on the premise of menu price, products, service, quality, and location (Di Muro, 2015).
By revamping online promotional strategies, Burger King will intimately engage with its existing consumers and attract a new customer base from other competitors such as McDonald’s. Additional stores across the world will enable the franchise to efficiently service more people and close the gap with McDonald’s on the basis of market share. New product innovation allows the firm to drive traffic by growing the customer base consequently distancing Burger King from other competitors.
In line with the revised marketing mix, the percentage of Burger King’s financial resources allocated to the U.S. market would be 60%. Since a majority of outlets are located in the United States, it is imperative to ensure that these stores are allocated adequate financial resources. The American market presents the primary customer base of Burger King and as such should be allocated a significantly higher percentage compared to international markets. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) make up the largest market outside the United States and should be allocated 30% of the marketing financial resources. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and the Asia Pacific (APAC) should be allocated 5% each since both regions record low market shares.
References
Di Muro, F. (2015). Burger King: Developing a Marketing Mix for Growth. Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation.
Forbes. (2014). The Primary Trends that Impact and Affect the Burger King Fast Food Business. Forbes Official Website. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/07/01/key-trends-impacting-burger-kings-business/#23b837373cd0Greenspan, R. (2017). The Analysis of Burger King Marketing Mix 4Ps. Panmore Institute Official Website. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/burger-king-marketing-mix-4ps-analysis