Uma Talreja, Chief Marketing Officer, Burger King India, talks about the research and insights behind the brand’s recent launch and creating hyper-local communication plans for it
By Saloni Dutta
Q] Since Burger King began operations in India recently, what has played a fundamental role in the marketing plan?
Ever since we launched in November 2014, we’ve open 10 stores in India. The launch has been a bit of deep-diving into what consumers think of Burger King. We started by looking for consumers who were already aware of the brand from their international trips. We found a lot of them online. Our primary source was Facebook where about 4 lakh people, though based in India, were already following the brand’s international page. We began with a fan acquisition, looking for people who could be our ambassadors. This was vital as we were not yet in a position to talk about our menu, which is completely localized. Fans started talking about Burger King in terms of what they expect and why they were excited about its India launch. This showed us the strength of the Whopper, and we treated it as the cornerstone of our strategy.
The menu is fundamental to our marketing and the brand’s success. Our maximum effort has been around making a unique menu for India, not only in the global Burger King system, but amongst competition as well. The structure is pretty much like in the FMCG sector. We have a category manager who is responsible for communication to development to everything. The menu is spread across wide price points, ensuring that all budgets and preferences are met. We will identify preferences and keep evolving those platforms for newness and current tastes and trends.
Q] What kind of research did you do before launching the brand in the Indian market?
Our first deep dive was done with McKinsey, as we studied the industry landscape. They referred to a lot of expert, consumer and secondary data. When it comes to eating out, India has one of the smallest numbers across the world. While eating out at Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) is around 17%, Asian cuisine is the largest and within Western QSR, the pizza category is probably the largest. The burger QSR, while we see so much omnipresence of just one brand, is just 2% of the entire QSR market. Despite the kind of penetration that McDonald’s and KFC have created, Indians haven’t necessarily taken up the category. It shows opportunity and head-room for everyone to grow because the challenge is about getting new customers in the segment. That’s why it is even more important to differentiate well, so that people with different expectations and taste profiles start coming to you. We want to create eating out occasions. We also conducted a Q&A research across seven markets to understand what fast food means to consumers, their apprehensions and what good taste for Indians is.
Q] What is Burger King’s USP?
There are three points: adequate portion size, always a 100% quality standard and unbeatable taste.
Q] What is the media mix for Burger King’s marketing plan?
Currently, our mix is between Out Of Home and in-mall, along with a lot of Digital and Print. This is because we are still launching and haven’t gotten into steady state marketing communications; we are using strategies that work well in order to generate response for the launch. We have used these three vehicles in a big way. In terms of spends, Print obviously costs more; so it is Print, OOH, followed by Digital. While Digital is reasonable in terms of medium, our usage of Digital has been the highest. In spite of not spending much on Digital, we have used it more than any other medium, more actively and innovatively than other media.
Q] What are the essentials you keep in mind while developing marketing campaigns?
Firstly, we want to portray the product for what it is. Burger King is not about Photo-shopped burgers. It will be almost what you get. It is an authentic and real brand, and that is essential to anything we do and therefore we position ourselves in that manner as well.
The second thing is that when we are launching at a location, we operate our marketing activities out of an insight which is relevant to that catchment area. For example, when we launched at Andheri in Mumbai, which is an area with a lot of people from the film and TV industry, we had an activity on Digital where consumers had to use the Whopper in a movie dialogue. We got interesting replies such as, “I’ll make you a Whopper that you can’t refuse.” The third thing is that the brand has a certain innovative quotient and a tone of voice that goes with that. That is integral to our brief as well.
Q] What are your BTL activities to approach consumers?
We try to create a little anticipation about what the experience is going to be like. We did an association with eBay, where one could pre-order their Whopper. We have done a lot of work with Digital influencers as well, in terms of bloggers, Twitterati, both in Mumbai and Delhi. Our first launch was in Delhi and we had a whole format for it. We had Rocky and Mayur leading the activity for us in terms of the concept, and it was important for us that people know how we operate and what is the experience like. We have used BTL very specifically to make sure that the messaging comes through, more than just reaching out to people through visibility.
Q] What were some of the challenges faced while launching the brand?
Initially, there was a lot of demand for beef online, but I won’t say that it is a problem. That was one of the things we didn’t expect to be so noisy. But yes, we have come across a lot of fans who told us that we are not launching beef and therefore not giving them what they really want. Someone even launched a petition for us to launch beef in India! Operationally, it has been hectic because we have had more people visit the outlets than we could actually accommodate. So both are good challenges to have. It has been extremely hectic for our operations, but in general it has been good. We have not had stock and availability issues. Our supply chain partners have really helped us with mobile cold storage vans at our launch. Our first launch had 6,000 people who came into a 108-seater restaurant throughout the day.
Q] What are some trends that would shape the category this year?
Innovation is going to be the key and will shape the category. With more new brands such as Wendy’s and Carl’s Jr entering the market, innovation is going to shape how consumers look at the category. So far, they have had a very one-dimensional view. This year, we have a very hectic pace of launches. We will be opening in newer markets. There will be a lot of marketing effort for these launches and to convey to consumers what Burger King stands for.
About the brand
Burger King is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in Miami, Florida, United States. Founded in 1954, Burger King is the second largest fast food hamburger chain in the world. Every day, more than 11 million guests visit Burger King restaurants across 13,000 restaurants around the world. In 2013, private equity company Everstone Capital Management announced a joint venture with Burger King Corp., famous for its Whopper burgers, to establish its presence in India. Everstone owns 89% stake in the venture with 11% controlled by Burger King.
Facts
Creative Agency – Publicis India
Media Agency – M/Six
Social & Digital Agency – REP India
PR Agency – Image Public Relations
Marketing Tip
Be insight-driven and speak on behalf of consumers, to create successful marketing for your brand and yourself.
CMO File
Uma Talreja is the Chief Marketing Officer at Burger King India Private Limited. She leads the marketing strategy of Burger King in India. Her experience spans the entire spectrum of corporate marketing, brand management, marketing communications and loyalty programme strategies. Talreja’s multi-sector experience in areas of marketing communications, brand management and brand rejuvenation has seen her successfully consult and manage some of the leading MNCs and retail chains such as Shoppers Stop, Shaw Wallace, Aditya Birla Retail Ltd, Trent Limited amongst others in their brand transition over the years.
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
