Burger King

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Burger King, Seoul, South Korea

Burger King Corporation is a large international chain of fast food restaurants, predominantly selling burgers, french fries, drinks, desserts, and various sandwiches. It also operates over 200 restaurants in Australia under the name Hungry Jack's.

Company history

In August of 1992, their corporate headquarters in Miami, Florida was severely damaged by Hurricane Andrew.

On Friday, December 13, 2002, Burger King was purchased from British drinks firm Diageo for $1.5 (US) billion by a group of investors led by the investment firm Texas Pacific Group (TPG). The company planned to go public within the next two years.

Magic Johnson's company Magic Johnson Enterprises purchased 30 Burger King stores on June 7, 2004. Although they will feature sports memorabilia, they will retain the Burger King name. These locations reopened on December 3, 2004.[link]

On August 1, 2004, Greg Brenneman took over from Brad Blum as Chairman and CEO to direct the company's turnaround efforts under TPG ownership.

On February 1, 2006, Brenneman announced TPG's plans to turn Burger King into a publicly traded company by issuing an Initial Public Offering. On February 16, the company announced it had filed its registration for the IPO with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

On April 7, 2006, Burger King named John Chidsey as CEO to succeed Brenneman. Former top Pepsi marketer and eBay CMO and COO, Brian Swette was named non-executive Chairman. On May 18, 2006, Burger King began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BKC.

Burger King is considering a delivery service to deliver food to people sort of in the vein of pizza services such as Pizza Hut. They say it may take effect as early as late '06.

Facts and figures

Burger King, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada

Historically, Burger King has been the second largest burger chain in North America, behind McDonald's. However, Burger King's revenues and market share have been declining. In the early 2000's, Burger King fell to a near tie for second place with Wendy's. Burger King has been closing underperforming stores and changing its marketing strategy in an attempt to turn its fortunes around. In fiscal year 2002, the firm had US $11.3 billion in total sales.

The first BK opened in Miami, Florida on December 4, 1954. Now, there are more than 11,100 Burger King outlets in 65 countries. 66% of their restaurants are in the United States. It has more than 340,000 employees who serve approximately 11.4 million customers daily.

Burger King has a longstanding presence on U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force installations worldwide, dating back to the 1980s, under a contract with Army and Air Force Exchange Service. Today, while other chains such as Taco Bell, Popeye's and Subway have a presence on military bases, virtually every major Army and Air Force installation hosts a BK restaurant. BK has no restaurants on U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps bases since the Navy Exchange Service contracts with competitor McDonald's.

Products

Whopper Combo with fries and drink

• Burger King's trademark product is a hamburger called the Whopper.
• They also serve the Angus Burger, which is a larger, "better burger".
• "Chicken tenders", another popular menu item, are small thin pieces of chicken breaded and lightly peppered. While normally served in long, slender shapes, Burger King occasionally offers the pieces in more kid-friendly shapes resembling stars, lightning bolts, and crowns. They are available in 4, and 8-piece varieties. Chicken Tenders officially made their debut, alongside the Croissan'which, and the Original Chicken Sandwich, in a menu revision/expansion in 1985.
• In 1989, Burger King offered a set of "Burger Buddies," Three miniature hamburgers, much like a White Castle or Krystal burger, served in one package. Breakfast menus at the time also began selling mini-hashbrowns, six miniature potato patties in one package.
• In 1999, Burger King began offering in the U.S. a vegetarian meat selection on their menu, named the BK Veggie. In late 2004, Burger King entered into a partnership with Morningstar Farms to offer a soy-based meatless patty.
• Kids Meal/Big Kids Meals, The "Kids Meal" is offered directly to compete with the popular "Happy Meal" from McDonald's and the "Wendy's Kid's Meal" from Wendy's. Three varieties form the Kids' Meal base; a 4-piece Chicken Tenders, Hamburger, or Cheeseburger. A preteen version of the Kids Meal, called the "Big Kids Meal" and debuted in 1999, has a selection from a 6-piece Chicken Tenders meal, Double Hamburgers, or Double Cheeseburgers. Additionally, kid’s meals can come with either applesauce as a French fry substitute, or any other drink option instead of a soft drink. Little Tikes brand toddler toys are available on request instead of the regular toy offering.
• Chicken Fries, a french-fry cut piece of breaded chicken with added spices, debuted in 2005 as a LTO (limited Time Offering) and quickly became a permanent "Numbered" value meal menu option.
• The Big King was Burger King's response to McDonald's Big Mac since it has a similar style and taste. The Big King was replaced in the U.S. by a similar product, the Supreme Cheeseburger, which was also later discontinued. The Big King, however, is still available in Germany, The Netherlands and the UK.
• Also in response to McDonald's McDeals, Burger King introduced the King Deals. The schedule is Sunday - Whopper Junior, Monday - Big King, Tuesday - Chicken Sandwich, Wednesday - Whopper, Thursday - Bacon Cheeseburger, Friday - Fish Sandwich, and Saturday - Double Cheeseburger.
• Along with the release of the film, Small Soldiers, Burger King released the Rodeo Cheeseburger, which was a limited time offer. The Rodeo Cheeseburger is a burger with cheese, onion rings and barbeque sauce. Although discontinued nationally, the Rodeo Cheeseburger can still be found featured as part of Burger King's revamped Value Menu in some parts of the U.S.
• In the United Kingdom, Burger King offers the Chicken Royale. This consistently popular burger consists of an oblong piece of breaded chicken breast, served with lettuce and mayonnaise in a long (approx. 20cm) bread bun. This burger is also available in other European countries, albeit under different names - in Spain, for example, the product is known as the Long Chicken. In the United States this is marketed as "The Original Chicken Sandwich" and is also very popular.

Advertising

In the late-1970s and early-1980s, during children's programming, Burger King used a mascot of the same name to advertise their meals. The "Burger King" was a bearded king, who ruled the Burger King Kingdom, along with other characters such as "The Duke of Doubt" (his arch nemesis), "Burger Thing" (a large burger puppet), "Sir Shakes-A-Lot" (a knight with a craving for Burger King milkshakes), and the "Wizard of Fries" (a robot powered by french fries). This was basically a parallel to McDonald's children's commercials, featuring "Ronald McDonald", "The Hamburgler", "Mayor McCheese", and other characters and mascots.

In the early-1990s, they advertised BK dinner baskets and table service with an approach under the name "BK Tee Vee" or "BKTV". The dinner baskets included the Whopper Dinner Basket, the Steak Sandwich Dinner Basket, The Fried chicken Dinner Basket, and the Shrimp Dinner Basket. Sides included a choice of a side salad, cole slaw, french fries or a baked potato. They also had popcorn. They abandoned the sit-down restaurant concept in 1994 in favor of the original quick service concept. The tagline for this ad campaign was "BK TEE-VEE... I Love this Place!" and "Your Way Right Away!".

The Burger King was brought back in late 2004, this time to advertise the chain's breakfast sandwiches. The character then had a commercial as part of the chain's promotion of the film . The latest commercials feature the King on the field of several National Football League games (using archive footage from NFL Films), in a cross-promotion with the NFL and DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket sports subscription package (in the promotion, a code entered from the wrapper from an Angus burger sandwich could net several prizes, including free access to the Sunday Ticket package). ([NFL Your Way promotion]). In another ad, a man wakes up to find the king lying next to him in bed. Another set of advertisements which premiered during Super Bowl XL featured the King orchestrating a broadway-type show of "Whopperettes", women dressed as burger condiments and toppings.

The Subservient Chicken is a viral marketing promotion by advertising agency Crispin Porter and Bogusky for Burger King, featuring a person (presumably) in a chicken costume, who does nearly whatever action he is told to. Despite appearances, it is not a live webcam.

Dr. Angus is another Crispin Porter and Bogusky creation launched in 2004. He is a smarmy self-help "doctor" with gleaming white teeth and a starched toupee who encourages eaters to "sit down" and enjoy the BK's large Angus burgers. In 2006, his cheesy personality is used to advertise BK's new Cheesy Bacon Angus and Tendercrisp sandwiches.

Later in 2004, Burger King introduced the Tendercrisp Bacon Cheddar Ranch. The sandwich was promoted by a nationwide advertising campaign featuring recording artist Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish) singing a jingle to the tune of "Big Rock Candy Mountain." Prior to that, Burger King promoted its Spicy Tendercrisp Sandwich by having two people in chicken suits have a boxing match brodcasted on DirecTV at one time.

In the summer of 2005, Burger King introduced Chicken Fries to its menu. The advertising campaign featured a metal band called Coq Roq, who wore chicken masks parodying the style of masks of nu metal band Slipknot. The website included music videos, downloadable cellular ringtones, and a store selling band merchandise.

Upon introduction of a kids meal to tie in with The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie in September 2004, pranksters repeatedly stole inflatable advertisements off several restaurant's roof tops [link] and sent the Burger King employees a ransom note demanding Krabby Patties. Similar promotions were done with with an inflatable Darth Vader and Shrek 2 with an inflatable Shrek.

In March of 2006, Burger King introduced the Big Buckin' Chicken commercial made by CPB Miami, advertising the tendercrisp cheesy bacon chicken sandwich. The tv ad shows 'old' 8 mm footage of a cowboy riding a chicken in a rodeo while people on the sideline cheer on. The voice concludes that "the only way to beat it, is to eat it." The latest commercial, the "Big Huckin' Chicken", features a large chicken riding a dirt-bike.

Kids Club

Like other fast-food chains, Burger King has meals for children: the regular Kids Meal and the Big Kids Meal (introduced June 1999), which is aimed at preteens and teenagers and has more food. Both still offer the same food, just larger quantity. Burger King is also known for its longtime giveaway of free paper crowns, which are sometimes redesigned to match any promotions the restaurant may be running. In 1990, Burger King launched the Burger King Kids Club across the United States, which continues in operation to this day, and represents the largest club of its kind in North America. Club members receive an annual mailing in the month of their birthday that contains games, product information, and a birthday gift in the form of a coupon for a free kids meal.

The Burger King Kids Club Gang was a group of fictional characters created to promote the Burger King Kids Club meal. Their names were Boomer, I.Q., Jaws, J.D., Kid Vid, Lingo, Snaps, and Wheels.

The use of these characters has drawn criticism from parental advocacy groups, stating that the use of stereotypical static characters instill wrongful notions in children's minds. The groups concerns were with Lingo, so named for the fact that he is Hispanic; Wheels, named for his wheelchair; I.Q., a stereotypically smart male, wearing glasses and a pocket protector; and Kid Vid, thin, blonde male of average height, who is the obvious leader of the gang (and role model for children). Other concerns include the fact that one of the only two girls in the gang, Boomer, is clearly a tomboy. After the Kids Club Gang had existed for several years, a new female character was added to the group; the girl, named Jazz, appears to be Asian and sports a beret.

In the 1970s, BK had a Kids Club that gave children coupons on selected products each month and an extra surprise if it was the child's birthday. In many areas to this day, children under the age of 12 can sign up to the BK Birthday Club, and receive a coupon for a free hamburger as well as a prize in the mail on their birthday.

The Kids Club Gang has now been replaced by the Honbatz in 2005, odd creatures consisting of Mixmax, a punk who likes showing off, Thisorthat, a green monster that likes to eat everything, Bonny, a genius and the only girl in the group, Chomp, an intimidating Honbatz, but still a big softie, and the Eeeps, small, red, ketchup-craving creatures. They have appeared in numerous ads.

Hungry Jack's

When Burger King decided to expand their operations into Australia, they found that their business name was already trademarked by a man running a small takeaway food shop. Consequently, the first Australian franchise of the Burger King Corporation, established in Perth in 1971, was aptly titled Hungry Jack's, echoing the name and sentiment of the franchisee, Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's sells the usual range of burgers, but also an Australian specialty, the Aussie Burger. This burger is based on the traditional Australian fish and chips shop favorite, including fried egg, bacon, onion, and beetroot with the traditional meat, lettuce, and tomato.

When the existing Australian trademark for Burger King lapsed, the American parent company wanted Cowin to change the Hungry Jack's outlets to the Burger King name. Cowin resisted the change, preferring to keep the Hungry Jack's name. The disagreement ended in a court case. In 2001, Hungry Jack's won the court case, and Burger King was ordered to pay $75 million to Hungry Jack's for breach of its franchise agreement.

The slogan "The burgers are better at Hungry Jack's" is well recognized in Australia.

From 1999-2001, Burger King opened several outlets in Australia under the Burger King name. These built on their existing stores in international airports - the international territory apparently outside the Cowin licensing deal. Hungry Jack's locations are required to follow any menu changes made by Burger King. Hungry Jack's introduced a breakfast menu in late 2005 to follow Burger King.

In some cases the new Burger King outlets were located very close to existing Hungry Jack's outlets. Cowin negotiated with Burger King to buy these outlets, renaming them in the process.

In 2003 Burger King Australia ceded to Hungry Jack's and the Burger King stores rebadged themselves, joining forces with Hungry Jack's to take on McDonalds Corp.

In 1986, Hungry Jack's purchased 11 ailing Australian Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers locations and rebranded them to the Hungry Jack's name.

Even in the United States, Burger King found smaller operations had previously been using the name. One such restaurant in Mattoon, Illinois negotiated a settlement that forbids the chain from opening locations within 20 miles. See Burger King (Mattoon, Illinois). Burger King, in a trademark settlement with San Antonio local chain Whopper Burger, was not allowed to open locations within two counties of the city. The chain was ultimately bought out in the mid 80s, opening the way for San Antonio Burger King locations.

Hungry Jack's has seen success with their Kids Club mascots, allowing children to have birthday parties at their restaurants based on different themes, and also with their Kids Club Meals (similar to McDonald's Happy Meal), see Burger King Kingdom.

Hungry Jack's in Australia has trademarked the new slogan 'Oh Yeah' which has featured in late 2005/early 2006 commercials. Other changes at Hungry Jack's include new fresh salads and deli-style burgers.

While Burger King's logo has since changed to the "blue swirl" design, the Hungry Jack's logo is still (as of 2005) based on the previous Burger King logo, that of the simpler bun-and-contents motif.

Many larger Hungry Jacks stores in Australia, especially in Perth, Western Australia, where the first Hungry Jacks store was opened, have a 1950's/1960's styled theme. Background music from this time is played, and pictures and memorabilia from this era is often hung around the store. In larger sit-down style restaurants the seats and tables are laid out in a 1950's "Diner" style manner. Hungry Jacks has a real Perth identity, with the city's first team in the Australian Football League, the West Coast Eagles, having been sponsored by Hungry Jack's since their entry into the league in 1987.

More recently, Hungry Jack's has 210 locations in Australia while Burger King only has 81 locations.

Slogans

• Are you hungry for Burger King now?
• Burger King: Where kids are king.
• Have it your way. (This has been one of the longest running slogans of any company in the United States; Burger King has been using it since 1973)
• When you have it your way, it just tastes better.
• If you ask us, it just tastes better.
• Your Way Right Away
• We're America's Burger King.
• Home of the Whopper (some Burger King locations still have this slogan beneath the Burger King sign on the rooftop on locations built in the 1960s and 1970s.)
• The Fire's Ready
• Fuel Your Fire
• Get Your Burgers' Worth
• @ BK You Got It!
• We do it like you'd do it!
• We know how burgers should be.
• The BEST Food for FAST Times.
• It takes Two Hands to hold my Whopper
• (In an ad featuring Mr. T) Mo Beef, Betta Taste.
• Magic makes it Special when you're with Burger King.
• BK Tee Vee: I love this place!
• Aren't You Hungry?
• Got the Urge? Come to Burger King
• Burger King, where you're the boss!
• BK4U
• In the land of burgers, Whopper is king.
• Got the Urge?
• Wake Up With the King
• Burger King Kids Club: Great food, cool stuff, kids only.

Hungry Jack's Slogans

• The Burgers are Better at Hungry Jack's
• We're all about fresh at Hungry Jack's
• Oh Yeah
• We've just got to have it... Oh Yeah... Time to Hungry Jack's it... Oh Yeah
• Love it at Hungry Jack's
• Home of The Whopper

The logos of Burger King

The famous bun-halves logo made its debut in 1969 and endured until it was updated in 1999. However, most restaurants did not acquire signs with the new logo until 2001. The logo, meant to resemble a hamburger, features the restaurant's name in red lettering on two lines, sandwiched between two yellow bun halves, and thus was nicknamed the 'Bun Halves' logo. The Bun Halves logo is Burger King's equivalent of McDonalds' Golden Arches. The new Burger King logo tilts the bun halves and the font on an axis, wraps the burger with a blue swirl, and has a more circular appearance. The Hungry Jack's version of the logo is based on the previous logo which has been used since its founding in 1971. The old logo was given a graphically tightened revision in 1994 at both Burger King and Hungry Jack's restaurants up until the switch to the "blue swirl" logo in 1999.

Countries (and territories) with Burger King restaurants

Andorra

El Salvador (first country in Central America to have a Burger King)

Jordan

Puerto Rico

Map of places with Burger King restaurants

Countries (and territories) that once had Burger King restaurants

Finland (Burger King operated in Helsinki for a short period in the 1980s)

See also

• Burger King Kingdom
• Burger King University
• Whopper (signature sandwich)
• Big King
• BK Tee Vee

External links

A Burger King restaurant in Redwood City, California

Official websites

• [Burger King website]
• [Burger King Canada website]
• [Burger King UK/Ireland website]
• [Hungry Jack's website]
• [Burger King New Zealand website]
• [Burger King Germany website]
• [Burger King Italy website]
• [Burger King Mexico website]
• [Burger King Brazil website]
• [Burger King's Coq Roq website]
• [Official Honbatz website]

Other sites

• [Burger King & Food Safety]
• [How many calories does Burger King food have?]
• [Yahoo! - Burger King Corporation Company Profile] at Yahoo! Finance
• [Mockery of Burger King's Mascot]

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