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by
Matthew Jones
A
dusty old town.
A broken down, wooden stable.
A rugged cowboy gets ready to enjoy a
well-earned, tasty meal after a hard day’s work.
But he’s not scooping up beans with a
cracked wooden spoon, or picking unknown meat off
the spit. He’s
sinking his teeth into Burger King’s new Western
Whopper Sandwich.
But
that’s not the surprise.
The surprise, for many of us, is the fact
that the cowboy is Black.
Ready for another surprise?
The spot didn’t air on BET (Black
Entertainment Television), or while the Bulls
trounced the Lakers.
We saw this ad on Saturday Night Live.
“Historically,
we have worked with a series of agencies on the
general market, African-American and Hispanic
side,” said Rob
Doughty, VP, Global Corporate Communications,
Burger King Corporation.
“We took a different approach with this
spot. We
take one scene – one that’s relevant to
various consumer groups – and we played with it
a little.”
The
spot, entitled “Cooking with Fire,” comes in
four…flavors, if you will. The
main general market spot features Caucasian
cowboys, but the other general market spot
features a cowgirl.
Then, there is the African American spot
featuring – you guessed it –
African-Americans; and the fourth spot is designed
for the Hispanic market - it’s in Spanish with English subtitles.
“We
didn’t want to change much,” said Doughty.
“There are a few language tweaks for the
Spanish-language spot, but essentially they are
all the same spot.
We have to be true to a lot of concepts in
a short message – not the least of which are the
benefits of being cooked over an open flame.”
The
new ads, which began their run in February,
concluded their flights on Sunday, March 23rd.
Staying
True to the Brand
Diversity
makes sense to Burger King on many levels, but the
numbers really tell the story of why it’s
important to keep African-Americans as part of the
focus.
“For
obvious reasons, African-Americans are important
to our business,” said Doughty.
“[African-Americans] are, according to
the research, our most loyal consumers –
over-indexing pretty significantly.
So, if you want to hold onto your important
consumers, you want to make sure that your company
and your advertising looks like your consumers.”
Consumer
loyalty to Burger King among Hispanics and
African-Americans goes beyond the diversity in the
marketing. According
to Burger King’s data, those particular groups
have a greater appreciation for the taste of flame
broiled burgers, versus the fried, baked or
microwaved food served by competitors.
“Burger
King has a very strong equity in the concept of
flame broiling,” continued Doughty.
“It tastes better, and it’s perceived
as more healthy.
That’s part of what makes the Hispanic
and African-American markets so important to our
business. Because
that’s such a strong part of our brand.”
The
burger giant uses a trio of advertising agencies
to help reach out to all its consumer markets.
It has been with its African-American
agency of record, Uniworld,
since 1983, and its Hispanic agency, Bromley,
since 1989. The
latest general market campaigns have come from AMOEBA,
which has had the account since March of 2002.
Burger
King's media plan seems to remain fluid and
open-minded. While
the Spanish-language spots are limited to Spanish
television (certainly not an unreasonable
limitation), the African-American spots are
popping up in relatively unexpected places –
programming generally reserved for general market
advertising only.
“Diversity
is important to Burger King, and we want people to
see that,” said Doughty.
“But we also use our African-American
spot for what you would consider ‘classic’
African-American programming, such as BET.”
In
general, consumers are beginning to see a small
increase in diverse spots appearing on
traditionally non-diverse programming.
This may be, in part, due to the lack of
primarily African-American programming outlets.
Realistically speaking, how many spots can
you really run on BET and still get mileage out of
the investment?
Smart marketers like Burger King are
getting more bang out of their diversity buck by
realizing that African-Americans, Hispanics and
other ethnic groups watch some of the same
high-profile programming as their Caucasian
counterparts.
“We’ve
had a very positive reaction to the spots,” said
Doughty. “You
will probably see similar creative executions in
the future. But
a lot of that will be determined by our testing
efforts. We
have to make sure that we’re telling the story
we want to tell.
Burger
King Keeps Cookin’ Amid Change
Several
changes at the highest levels of the organization
haven’t derailed Burger King Corporation’s (BKC)
commitment to diversity in marketing.
With the recent sale of Burger King to the
Texas Pacific Group, Goldman Sachs Capital
Partners and Bain Capital, many of the
organization’s top leaders and marketers have
stepped down.
The new ownership team, lead by the Texas
Pacific Group, purchased the fast food leader for
$1.5 billion in January of 2003.
Chris
Clouser, BKC’s EVP, Global Chief Marketing
Officer, and president of Burger King brands
will retire on May 1.
Chairman
John Dasburg and Rick
Dow, the second highest marketing officer, are
leaving the organization this month.
“The
new management is extremely excited about all of
the opportunity ahead of us,” said Doughty.
“And they’re willing to invest in our
growth. It
will be a very good thing for diversity across the
board. They
want to make sure we’re treating our customers
properly, talking to them properly; and that the diversity message is coming
through.”
The new team will
likely be ready for the job. Each of
the top executives, including new CEO
Brad Blum, has a strong marketing background,
across a number of different industries.
Burger
King is the world’s second largest fast food
company, with more than 340,000 employees across
the globe. Founded
in Miami, Florida
in 1954, the company has since grown to more than
11,450 restaurants in 57 countries around the
world. For
fiscal year 2002, the company achieved $11.3
billion in worldwide sales.
Reflecting
History
What
made the Western Whopper spots meaningful and
memorable for so many African Americans and women
was not just that they were seeing themselves in
BKC’s mainstream advertising, but that they were
seeing recognition of their rich history in the
Old West.
You
won’t see Black cowboys, or too many Hispanic
ranchers and cowgirls in John
Wayne movies, or anything directed by John
Huston, but each had a significant legacy in
the Old West, and those legacies are often
overlooked.
African
Americans are especially sensitive to the
oversight. Aside
from a few exceptional films, like Mario Van Peebles’ stylish western hit “Posse,” and “Buck
and the Preacher,” starring Sydney
Poitier, Bill
Cosby and Harry Bellefonte, there’s little on the big screen or on
television to remind Americans of the
contributions, or even the existence of Blacks in
the Old West.
The fact that BKC launched the Western
Whopper ad campaign in February, which is Black
History Month, was especially gratifying. For
a few weeks, millions of African Americans saw an
exciting piece of their history, and a piece of
American history, flash across their television
sets - even if it was only for 30 seconds.
Thanks
BKC, for the acknowledgement.
The ads sizzled.
The End
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