Burger King Tried to Make a Truce with McDonald’s. And McDonald’s Committed an Epic Fail
Justin Bariso
Founder & Principal at EQ Applied | Management Thinker & Doer | Emotional Intelligence Student & Teacher | Inc. and TIME Contributor
“The Burger King came in peace. And Ronald McDonald shot him in the back.”
That’s how I began my article on Inc. from this morning, which details McDonald’s’ CEO Steve Easterbrook’s response to Burger King’s proposal.
To catch everyone up, Burger King put a full page ad in The New York Times and Chicago Tribune yesterday, inviting McDonalds to join a one day truce in support of world peace. The pitch was a joint effort with Peace One Day, a non-profit organization lobbying to make September 21 "Peace Day".
As Burger King states in their ad:
We'd like to propose a one-off collaboration between Burger King and McDonald's to create something special--something that gets the world talking about Peace Day.
The McWhopper.
All the tastiest bits of your Big Mac and our Whopper, united in one delicious, peace-loving burger. Developed together, cooked together, and available in one location for one day only--Peace Day 2015, with all proceeds benefiting Peace One Day.
Burger King also put together a promotional video to fully relate their proposal:
The ad concludes: Let's end the beef. With beef.
So how did McDonalds respond?
They declined, by means of a Facebook post by CEO Steve Easterbrook.
Here's the post:
(Facebook)
Look, you and I know this is nothing more than a marketing scheme put on by Burger King. There’s no way these companies will have any type of meaningful impact on war throughout the world.
But this is a major PR fail by McDonalds. Notice some of the comments below their post:
Here are two reasons why McDonald’s response was disastrous:
1. It's condescending.
The first five lines of the McDonald’s post are textbook excellent communication. They acknowledge their partner’s idea. They’re respectful in stating their own opinion. They even commit to join forces, and offer an alternative.
Then, suddenly, the message gets patronizing. Of course you can’t compare business rivalry to war! But we all know that already.
Easterbrook finishes off his reply with the following:
"P.S. A simple phone call will do next time."
Ouch, Steve.
Lesson: Before saying something you might regret, ask yourself: Do I really need to say this? So much bad communication would be avoided every day if people just left out some unnecessary details.
Does it add any value? When in doubt, leave it out.
2. It's un-American.
I'm not referring to being patriotic. Just culturally aware.
Look, I love the UK, and their sense of humor (er, humour). Truly, I do. Dry, sarcastic – Ricky Gervais is one of my favorites.
But this was a case of wrong place, wrong time. (Remember the Piers Morgan fiasco?) Hailing from the U.K., Easterbrook's not entirely at fault; his team let him down. But he had the final say. (As Hilton Barbour put it, "if your name is on it, you own it.") And he showed that he’s out of touch with his target customers.
Lesson: Learn how to communicate in a way that other cultures are comfortable with.
I’m not saying to be fake or superficial…Authenticity is still key, even in marketing and PR. Scratch that, especially in marketing and PR.
But learn who your audience is. Learn how to speak to them, respect them. Or, as in this case, learn how to speak to your competitors while your audience is watching.
Then, you’ll have everyone listening – for the right reasons.
(If you're interested in a few more insights I don't cover here, check out the piece I wrote for Inc.com this morning.)
What do you think? Did McDonald's blow it with their response? Happy to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
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Freelance Graphic Designer
9 年I actually empathise completely with McD's response, having found Burger King's proposal a waste of resources to begin with. Clearly a marketing gimmick, and McD's just called it as it was. I don't blame Easterbrook for the way he replied either. But as Gina Leslie below says, the people who are complaining about McD are just not fans to begin with, so take any opportunity to put them down.
Senior Executive. CEO & Board member. Non Executive Director. Transformation and return to profitability specialist. Strategist. Founder of Genesiss Advisory and Consultancy - energy and electrical manufacturing industry
9 年Wow. Powerfull insight into PR and communication. Know your target market. Great article.
Passionate nerdy entrepreneur and senior level project/product designer/developer.
9 年BK made a strategic attack in PR terms by creating a concept without any backing from the other party and releasing it publicly with a charitable cause attached. This is PR manipulation at its best as there's no truly good way for McD to decline without coming out with egg on their face. Though a definite alternative would have been for McD to acknowledge and offer their own promotion with respect to the concept, say a discount on whatever item(s) for the day or possibly some type of new shake flavor similar to the Shamrock that they could do annually to up the ante. -- Neither side in this has left a good taste in my mouth.
Sales Manager at Ford Performance Racing School
9 年I have to disagree with both sides on this. If there are true intentions of mounting a global movement to enact change with a fellow competitor, then prior communication is the only way it truly works. Otherwise you are exposing your competitor, almost promoting them, to react in just the way that Easterbrook did, which I agree, was a complete PR fail by he and his team. I think Burger King had a great idea, but the wrong way of bringing it to the public. I also think that McDonald's could have been much more sensitive to the overall message that was relayed in Easterbrook's message and the media that they utilized.