Burger King is the world’s largest flame broiled fast food restaurant chain. As of mid 2009, it operated about 12,000 restaurants in all 50 states and in 74 countries and U.S. territories worldwide through a combination of company owned and franchised operations, which together employed nearly 400,000 people worldwide. Burger King is second to McDonald’s in the fast food hamburger restaurant segment market.
4. The case mentions that Burger King prefers to enter countries with large numbers of youth and shopping centers. Why do you think these conditions would be advantageous?
Burger King has taken a more systematic approach toward restaurant expansion. The U.S. still shows substantial growth opportunities and it is considered a mature market for fast food, especially for their hamburgers. I feel that Burger King is really looking for other countries and markets to enter and in doing so; they have a strategic plan in place. They look at the opportunities in places that have large populations and they market especially to the young people. Setting up shop in shopping centers is a great strategic move because they can market their products to a huge population. Consumers in a shopping center may not want to go home and cook after hours of shopping, so it’s quicker to just stop by a fast food restaurant and eat instead of having to go home and cook. Marketing to the younger generation is ideal because they consume a large amount of beef and again after shopping, parents are tired and may want to just grab their kids a kids meal because it is a very inexpensive way to feed your family. Another reason would be that the availability of capital to franchises for growth, a safe pro business environment, growth in shopping centers, and availability of a potential franchisee with experience and resources.
6. Evaluate Burger King’s strategy of using the Brazilian experience to guide its entries into...