In order to find success in the fast food industry, innovation must be a key ingredient in the recipe of every brand.
And not just a one-time innovation, but the ability to continually come up with new approaches and ideas, constantly reshaping the brand identity and menu offerings to keep customers interested.
The most successful fast food brands have mastered this technique.
Some, like McDonald's (MCD), stick to the traditional offerings that made it a household name, carefully reinventing as the world's interests change (like its shift from frozen to fresh beef in 2018, requiring an overhaul across 14,000 restaurants).
Others are known for being willing to slap anything together to get customers to pay attention, such as Restaurant Brands International's Burger King (QSR). Its tried everything from burgers purposely too large to fit into people's mouths to comparing its sandwiches to that all-encompassing pinnacle of the sexual experience, all while continually working on ways to reinvent the Whopper in the background.
Sometimes it seems as if trying to outdo the next guy really is the order of business in the realm of fast food, leading to a constant clamoring over who can claim the attention of the consumer for the next five minutes of fame.
Speaking of, it seems like Burger King is back in the spotlight for the moment.
What Did Burger King Put on a Burger This Time?
No matter how high one piles a burger high with meat and cheese, some adventurous soul will want to eat it. But the true mastery lies in a brand's ability to make a customer curious about something far less appetizing: a burger topped with olives and ice cream, for instance.
Burger King Germany recently did just that, managing to find a way to reinvent the Whopper and come up with its craziest, most stomach-turning offerings yet. Folks on social media were first to notice this menu, which included a Whopper topped with currywurst and a fried herring, another with a bratwurst and a nougat creme, and a third that is smeared with a generous helping of marmalade.
While these burgers do look truly wretched, they are very much real menu items at Burger King--or were. Burger King served them for one day only at its Tempelhofer Damm location in Berlin as part of a Mother's Day promotion aimed at pregnancy cravings. Naturally, any pregnant folks that showed up to get one that day got it for free.
Burger King did a video spot for the promotion as well, where pregnant women talked about all the odd food combos they crave, just to get the point across.
A Clever Business Strategy
While nothing about this food looks appetizing (except to folks afflicted with pregnancy cravings, that is), Burger King has executed yet another of the attention-grabbing innovations its famous for.
The company knew that the promotion was exactly the kind of thing that social media makes a fuss over--which is exactly what it did.
Naturally selling food like this wouldn't do well in the long term, but advertising it and selling it for one day is the kind of stunt that drums up the buzz every fast food brand dreams of.
