The Homa Files

Ken’s Take: (1) Nice example of “judo marketing” – leveraging a much bigger competitor’s strength. (2) the mobile diner shows some marketing cahones (3) never, ever say that you’re not concerned about what competitors are doing – just riles them up (4) even if you say you’re not concerned, be concerned and counter-punch

Excerpted from WSJ: Hardee’s, Carl’s Hope to Steer Angus Eaters. Aug 19, 2009 

The burger wars are heating up, with the Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. chains taking aim at McDonald’s Corp. with a taste challenge and an attack on Big Mac.

In September, Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. restaurants will offer mail-in refunds to customers who claim to like a McDonald’s Angus burger better than a Carl’s Jr. ‘Six Dollar Angus Burger ‘ — which actually costs $3.99 –or a $3.49 Hardee’s Angus Thickburger.

The chief executive of CKE Restaurants — the parent of both Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr. —  said that McDonald’s national rollout last month of $3.99 Angus burgers “gave us the perfect opportunity” to change a perception among consumers that burgers at Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s cost more than those at McDonald’s.

Moreover, feeling that the McDonald’s Angus burger was a copycat of CKE’s Angus burgers, Carl’s Jr.  is introducing the Big Carl, to go up against the Big Mac.

The Big Carl contains seven ounces of beef, compared to the Big Mac’s 3.2 ounces, and costs $2.49, about 50 cents less than a Big Mac, depending on the city.

“After they so blatantly copied our burgers, we felt it was fair play.” 

The Big Carl burger will be backed by a snarky marketing campaign. One television commercial begins with a parody of the Big Mac jingle followed by a voice from Carl’s Jr. saying, “We’ve got a jingle, too. Double the meat. Double the cheese. Less money. La La La La La.”

One day next month, the company will park a Carl’s Jr. mobile diner outside McDonald’s restaurants in Los Angeles and offer to swap McDonald’s customers’ Big Macs for Big Carls.

CKE could have a hard time making a dent in its large rival. With 14,000 U.S. stores, McDonald’s dwarfs CKE, which has 1,082 Carl’s Jr. restaurants and 1,713 Hardee’s in the U.S.

Hardee’s sells different types of Thickburgers, the biggest of which is the Monster Thickburger, which tips the scales at 1,420 calories and 108 grams of fat. McDonald’s Bacon and Cheese Angus burger weighs in with 790 calories and 39 grams of fat.

McDonald’s isn’t worried about CKE’s efforts. “It’s flattering that there’s so much attention around us … our Angus third pounder is a great burger and I’m not too concerned about what other folks are doing.”

Full article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125064285111841883.html?mod=djemMM

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This entry was posted on August 25, 2009 at 7:30 am and is filed under Mktg - Promotion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.