McDonald’s has the Big Mac and Burger King has the Whopper. These signature burgers are synonymous with their respective fast food brands, but Burger King says its sandwich is in need of a revival. Burger King is looking to jump start sales in 2022 by re-focusing efforts behind the Whopper, reports Yahoo Finance.
The fast food chain plans to highlight the Whopper by reducing coupons for it, increasing its marketing efforts for the Whopper, and decreasing the amount of time it takes to assemble. One of those to-do’s is already in the works, as Burger King recently announced it would be removing the Whopper from the value menu.
Why revamp the Whopper?
José Cil, CEO of Restaurant Brands which also owns Firehouse Subs, Popeyes, and Tim Horton’s, said, “We felt it was important to invest behind it and elevate the flagship and iconic product, and make sure that it becomes the centerpiece of our game plan going forward.”
Cil went on to say that customers should “expect to see new extensions and innovations around the Whopper” and some of those changes were already successful in international markets which is why the company expects them to be successful in the U.S. However, CEO Cil did not specify what those “extensions and innovations” would be, so we’re left to make some guesses.
What could the future of the U.S. Whopper be?
Burger King already had one Whopper-focused success on the books in Impossible Whopper, so maybe the brand will focus even more marketing efforts on that. In Japan, Burger King offers a Teriyaki Whopper and in Australia (where the chain is called Hungry Jack’s) a Tropical Whopper with slices of pineapple and barbecue sauce is offered.
Although I think taking away coupons and essentially forcing people to always pay the most for a Whopper is a bad move, I have to say the possibility of new Whopper variations is exciting. The only snag here is that Burger King also emphasized its goal to make the Whopper easier to assemble so customers can get out of the drive-thru quicker. Creating more variations in a classic burger might mess with that goal, but hopefully the company keeps an open mind for the sake of innovation.
What do you think Burger King will do to bring the flame back to the Whopper?