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1. Who is BK’s target audience and what are its communication objectives for that??audience? ? Bk’s target audience is the teenaged youngsters. ? Its communication objective was primarily: – To increase the market share by increasing brand image in front of consumers – To target larger consumer segment – To project itself as high quality and premium brand 2. Why is viral or buzz marketing effective? Analyze the design of the subservient chicken site’s message, including content, structure, and format. What can you conclude from this analysis? Viral marketing is effective because it : 1. Gives away products or services . Provides for effortless transfer to others 3. Scales easily from small to very large 4. Exploits common motivations and behaviors 5. Utilizes existing communication networks 6. Takes advantage of others’ resources After being seeded into several Internet chat rooms, the “Subservient Chicken” instantly struck a nerve with bloggers, in part because the site’s technology allowed users to type in nearly anything and get a response from the chicken. He could do jumping jacks, dance, do push-ups and even watch television. He seemed impossible to stump. Within a day after being released, the site had a million hits.
Within a week, it had received 20 million hits. In addition to Web surfers, the creative community applauded the campaign. “It was so amazingly different and such a good use of the technology,” says freelancer Matt Vescovo, one of the judges who selected the campaign to win the gold at the Viral Awards last month, even over his own MTV “Instructoart” campaign. “To take that idea (that you can have chicken any way you like it) for something that really isn’t that exciting-a chicken sandwich-and to so seamlessly put it into such an innovative use of technology, it just really hit so many sweet spots for e. ” “The bull’s-eye target is the 18- to 45-year-old guy, who spends a lot of time on the Internet. We wanted to push the edge a bit more in media and be more controlled and more focused, more of an opt-in media vs. TV, which is kind of mass and everybody sees it. ” says Andrew Keller, creative director at Burger King’s lead agency, Crispin Porter + Bogusky in Miami, which oversaw creative development on the campaign. “Interactive media are a great place for us to be because that’s really the media that most closely resembles what we’re trying to offer in store. “
The website design was very simple, in black color (which saved a lot of screen energy). The UI of the website was very straight forward with one user-interactive window to throw in the commands to the chicken-man and rest links to other pages, nicely stacked up at the bottom of the page. The Jazz effect was not in the design of the webpages but in the entire experience that a user had during his stay on the website. It can be concluded that what the viral ad promoted was an experience and not just a glamorised website. It promoted the experience more than just the product/service.
This strategy made all the difference and worked very well in the viral media. 3. Do the TV and viral elements of the Burger King Campaign work well together? What additional elements and media might CPB add to the integrated marketing communications campaign? Yes, the TV and Viral elements of the Burger King Campaign worked very well. A simple SWOT analysis of burger king will shows us what it has: Key Issues: Opportunity: The fast food sector is growing. Threats: The major competitor McDonald is way ahead in market share and Wendy’s is catching up.
In its further marketing campaign, it should mitigate its flaws and also should take care that the right image of the burger is projected within the minds of the customers. Other forms of media can be used as prints over ? Busses ? Tubes ? City cabs ? Cellphone marketing through MMS, ? Radio ? Podcasts over internet. 4. What other recommendations would you make to Burger King and CPB to help them improve the integration of BK’s promotion mix? Recommendations: ? BK should stick to a consistent brand image instead of changing continuously which confuses the customers. Continue hands-on approach with franchisees. Establish a regular feedback mechanism from customers and franchisees and take corrective actions on the constructive feedbacks. ? Focus on its two basic strengths ??? ‘flame boiled burgers’ and ‘food made the way customers want’ ? Conduct an extensive audience analysis to assess the image of the company vis-a-vis its competitors and based on it design the communication strategy. ? If its proved that many customers viewed it as a low quality product maintain low profile temporarily to identify the root cause of bad image and address it.
The causes may be anything from bad service to constant image change, but it is necessary to address it before launching another campaign ? Re-evaluate promotional offers. Introduce value meals with discount on bigger orders ? Introduce home delivery facility wherever possible. ———————– Weakness: – Gradual erosion of brand name; – Slow operations; – Expensive; – inconsistent food; – Confusing ad campaigns. Strength: -Extensively distributed store network; -Brand awareness; -Infrastructure availability. – Expensive; – inconsistent food; – Confusing ad campaigns.