Case Study- Burger King

Introduction

In view of the business growth of Burger King, company is considering expanding its business in China. This report is prepared with the aim to analyze the consumers’ awareness of Burger King and to recommend the appropriate global strategy for Burger King to capture the demand in the Greater China markets. The report will cover in three core areas. Firstly, we will analyze the results of the survey about the consumers’ awareness of Burger King which also compared with its competitors. Then, we will analyze three factors that will affecting the acceptance of Burger king in the Greater China markets, including political, economic and cultural factors. Finally, the recommendations of the appropriate global strategies will be made for Burger King to capture the demand in the Greater China markets. (IF Greater China markets,冇提及點在中港台發展)

Methodologies of study

The purpose of this report is to study the consumers’ awareness of Burger King as compared to its rivals. This project used both quantitative and qualitative data to do the research and analysis in order to make the report become more comprehensive.

As for data collection, we collected both primary data and secondary data. To collect primary data, we chose to use questionnaire and we interviewed approximately 60 people from different age group. Questionnaire is a cost-effective way. Our questionnaires were uploaded on Internet so we can reach larger samples of population across wide geographic areas at a low cost. Also, questionnaire is easier to analyze. We can use computer to generate the results of the questionnaires. Online questionnaires will directly import into a database and statistically analyzed.

As for secondary data, we collected information from internet, literature, newspaper and magazines. These data provided a lot of useful information which can support our analysis and help our strategy planning.

Analysis of the result of the survey

The respondents favorite fast food restaurant

According to our survey, McDonalds was the most popular fast food restaurant (Q1). 34% of respondents chose McDonalds as their favorite fast food restaurant. The second and the third are Mos Burger and KFC, with 22% and 11% of respondents choosing them respectively. Burger King ranked number 4 and only 8% of respondents voted it as their favorite.

The respondents willingness

The majority of respondents claimed that they would go to fast food restaurant 1-5 times in the following month (Q2). Among this group of people, McDonalds was the most popular choice, followed by KFC. However, Mos Burger which was the second favorite restaurant, only ranked number three and Burger King still the fourth. In addition, we found that respondents expected to spend more money on McDonalds in the following month, followed by KFC and Burger King (Q3). Respondents preferred to choose Burger King although their second favorite restaurant is Mos Burger. Therefore, we can found out that consumers' preference of fast food restaurant may not equal to the willingness of consumers’ spending and the frequency of visits.

The important factor of choosing and the satisfaction of Burger King

Moreover, we found that taste was an important factor that affecting respondents’ selection on fast food restaurants. 56% of respondents claimed that taste was a very important factor (Q4). 38% of respondents considered price and 23% of respondents cared the cleanliness of the restaurant.

Regarding Burger King’s performance on these factors, according to the survey, 58% of respondents were satisfied with the taste of food (Q5). 64% of the respondents thought Burger King was clean enough. However, as for price setting, only 32% of respondents are satisfied. When we compared the price of Burger King with respondents’ favorite fast food restaurant – McDonalds & Burger King, we found that price setting in Burger King is higher than McDonalds. And this might affected customers’ choice when choosing fast food restaurant.

The variety of food

Based on the survey, 50% of respondents believed that variety of food were very important and 47% of respondents were very satisfied with Burger King's current menu (Q4). In this survey, 94% of respondents visited Burger King before (Q6) and 66% of them still preferred Burger King provide more types of food (Q7) and 37% of them preferred Burger King sell pizza and pasta (Q8).

The location of the Burger King

Furthermore, the survey reflected that 36% of respondents thought that location is an important factor during their selection process (Q4). However, 33% of respondents were dissatisfied with the location of Burger King (Q5) while there are 8 branches in Hong Kong only. If Burger King wants to enhance the competitiveness and market share, it would be better for them to open more branches in different districts.

Promotion channels

According to the survey, Burger King’s in-store promotion is a quite successful promotion method, 25% of respondents received the news from in-store promotion. (Q10) However, when compare the other promotion method with McDonalds and KFC, we can notice that the channels Burger King currently used are not enough for customers to get information from them. According to the survey, around one-third of respondents voted newspapers and television as one of the channel for them to receive information from McDonalds (Q12) and KFC (Q11). Therefore, Burger King should consider these methods when planning the marking promotion in order to increase the opportunity to reach potential customers.

Furthermore, we also notice that “Friends and relatives” is another effective way for promotion, 22% of respondents received Burger King’s information from their friends and relatives before (Q10).

Factors affecting the acceptance of Burger King in the Greater

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