When Rebranding is Your Only Saving Grace
I find myself watching commercials lately, not fast forwarding through them. The difference is, I’m doing it on my computer, and I choose the ones I want to watch. Marketing 2.0 at its best.
Anyway, the commercial I’m watching is from Burger King. The company, which has changed hands several times (as well as marketing firms) in the past few years, seems to be onto something with its bizarre Burger King showing up in bed with people and dancing in the desert. Whopper eaters mysteriously grow handlebar mustaches. It’s a crazy burger world.
The company must be doing something right. While its stock bottomed out last August at $12.41, it has now doubled since then. You used to not have any particular image in mind when you thought of Burger King a few years ago.
Now they have rebranded to become something funky that people want to be a part of. Even back in 2004, when the Subservient Chicken came out, people spread the viral marketing campaign like wildfire. (Many an hour did I spend trying to figure out if it was live or manual. Didn’t that chicken ever need to use the bathroom??)
The point is, sometimes you have to step back and look at your brand. You may like it, but if sales are dropping faster than, well, Subservient Chicken droppings, you may need to consider a rebrand.
- Take a fresh look (best to hire outside help) at your brand and create an image that is fun and fresh.
- If your target market is 13-25, try viral marketing. It’s cheap and can be extremely effective.
- Examine what catches your eye in marketing and advertising. Play off of that.
And do it in a non-conventional way. I still fast forward through commercials on television (thank goodness for digital video recording) but I will deliberately watch a commercial posted on YouTube if I hear it’s amusing. And who knows? Maybe I’ll go buy a Whopper at the end of the day. I’d like to see what I look like with a ’stache.
-Susan
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Susan Payton is the Marketing Eggspert, and owner of 
Great minds think differently in this case, Susan. I happen to think the current slate of Burger King ads may be some of the worst in the burger advertising kingdom right now.
What’s the message? Eat at BK and you’ll grow a mustache, even if you’re a girl in a bathing suit? That’s not why I would want to eat there.
@Jay,
The message here is that people who wouldn’t eat at Burger King are not all of a sudden going to be compelled to eat there because of an amusing commercial.
However, BK is willing to try something new, and their stock price reflects a good bet (so far). The very fact that we are discussing their marketing at all proves they’re doing *something* right.