Essay 1B Competition

Essay 1B

Competition - McDonalds vs. Burger King

THE QUESTION: Define what market competition is and how it pertains to any one or all of these rivalries.  How are these rivalries reflected through the effective use of both traditional offline and emerging online marketing and media?

Part One:

SUMMARY: While attempting to answer this question I noticed that almost all big businesses have a major competitor.  I never noticed or even thought about a businesses competitor while shopping at a business.  It made me wonder why I choose one place over the other since I never sat down to think about which one I liked more.

 

REASON:  I feel that you asked us this question because you wanted us to think about how business use marketing to grab peoples attention.  I think that you also want us to realize how much online marketing is capturing people’s attention more so than offline marketing.  With rapid change of technology these days, I feel that it is very important for marketing to stay ahead of the technology so businesses can advertise the best way possible. 

PURPOSE:  I believe the purpose of this question was for us to realize how marketing effects us everyday as much as we don’t realize it or think about it.  Marketing is all around us and is used in so many various ways each day. 

DIRECTION:  While beginning to do research on the topic of market competition and rivalries I started my searches on the Internet.  All my ideas and information came from various articles and blogs on numerous websites.  During my research I noticed that there isn’t as much information on market competition as I thought there would be.  I feel that a lot of the stuff I already knew because of common knowledge.

IMPRESSIONS:  Something that surprised me while doing research that I will never forget was that every business, no matter how big or small they are has a competitor that they market against.  I always felt that a small entrepreneurship never had a big competitor but in reality every small business does.

Part Two:

ANSWER:  There is market competition within all businesses.  Market competition is a competition in which individuals and firms strive for a greater share of market to sell or buy goods and services.  Each company has a rival they compete against although some are more intense than others.  When reading this question I decided to focus my research on McDonalds vs. Burger King.  I have always heard that people say they like McDonalds fries but Burger Kings burgers better, which made me wonder if marketing had anything to do with that.

There is no question that McDonalds and Burger King compete against each other since they sell similar products, yet there are other business that they compete against also like Wendy’s and Subway.  The picture below shows how much money in advertisements the following companies spend in a year.

The chart clearly shows that McDonalds overall spends more money on both regular ad’s and TV ads combined.  A big part of McDonalds customers is from children begging their parents to take them to McDonalds for the toy.  McDonalds always had Disney and Barbie toys while Burger King had generic toys that didn’t attract children’s attention.  I have also noticed that McDonalds has been big on advertising there salads to attract the ‘healthy fast food eaters’ while Burger King promotes there double stacked burgers and unhealthy food.

Burger King has tried many different marketing strategies trying to get there products out there and known.  They advertise on twitter, Facebook, myspace, commercials and more.  Burger King has also been known for having a celebrity spokesperson to pitch there products in ads.  Another way Burger King has marketed themselves is through media tie-ins.  "The Burger King" has showed up in many different movies and shows like Star Wars and The Simpsons.  Even with them just having the Burger King make an appearance in a show helps market there product.

Similar to Burger King, McDonald's has also had numerous celebrities help advertise them, although theres may have made a bigger impact on people because they used more famous people like Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Yoa Ming, ect.  Starting in 2008, McDonald's also sponsors NASCAR which helped get there logo out to a bigger audience of people..  "McDonalds' racing not only sponsors NASCAR cars but also sponsors other racing series/divisons, including the #02 McDonald's car o Graham Rahal in the IndyCar Series."  Although McDonald's and Burger King have similar ways of marketing there product, they celebrities they use and the way they do it attract different audiences.

Both McDonalds and Burger King also have very catchy slogans that really catch peoples attention.  Thinking of McDonalds most people think of the quote “I’m lovin’ it” while the same goes for Burger Kings quote “have it your way”.  These two quotes attract many peoples attention.  I feel that the quote “I’m lovin’ it” attracts more peoples attention then “have it your way”, just because I feel that you can also order food the way you want it at McDonalds.  Equally, they came up with very catchy slogans that people will remember forever.

Works Cited:

Chart from: http://www.burgerbusiness.com/?p=1505

http://www.bk.com/

http://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en/home.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burger_King_advertising
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonald's_advertising