Executive Summary
This case report elaborates the various issues that were faced by major players in fast food market -
MacDonalds and Burger King, the reason why the burger wars started, a brief analysis as well as the
consequences, and benefits of the burger wars.
There was increased competition in market leading to market saturation. These were the root cause
for the burger wars. Currently the challenge faced by fast-food businesses is to provide consumers
with healthier choices as customers are becoming aware of the consequences of consuming junk
food and food containing preservatives. Further, McDonalds and Burger King rely heavily on
franchising to expand their businesses, which also has challenges.
Because of the burger wars, both the companies have expanded exponentially over the years to new
locations internationally, invested largely on advertising campaigns, engaged in aggressive marketing
(especially Burger King who began the attack ads on their rival Mc Donald's). However, the burger
wars have been beneficial to customers as players are improving their products, services, and
operations by applying innovations and continuously evolving themselves to adapt to the consumer
demand and trends.
Issue Statement
McDonalds and Burger king utilised franchising model to grow rapidly since 1970s, and became the
top players in the fast-food industry. With
increased competition in the market
, the companies
needed more room to grow and increase their revenues. This led to
market saturation
; hence the
companies entered in a war in order to gain more market share in the burger & fast-food market.
Burger king resorted to aggressive marketing by attacking its competitor with ads about poor quality.
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