Burger King Bringing Out Its Whoppers As It Enters The Fast Food Breakfast Wars

Jeremie Bohbot

LOS ANGELES , May 14, 2014 (Off The Menu) – Score one for Burger King for being creative in the ongoing fast food breakfast wars.

The home of the Whopper, known for its “Have It Your Way” slogan, took that saying to a new level last week when the company announced that it would offer burgers (as well as some other lunch/dinner items) for breakfast at approximately 5,000 U.S. locations.

This is a great move for three reasons:

1) Unlike Taco Bell with its new breakfast menu or Starbucks with its new La Boulange pastry treats, Burger King’s approach isn’t adding new items to its breakfast menu. Heck, it’s not adding new items at all! It’s simply offering current items at an unusual time, which no one else is doing. That leads to:

2) Free publicity. Numerous major media outlets are giving Burger King tons of free press simply because the company is doing something that none of its competitors are publicly doing. No ads are needed, like Taco Bell’s “Hi I’m Ronald McDonald and I like Taco Bell’s new breakfast wrap” TV campaign. No promotions are needed, like McDonald’s giving away free coffee for two weeks. Burger King merely said “Burgers for breakfast” and the media attention came in waves.

And you want to know the genius stroke of all of this?

3) Burger Kings across the nation have been offering burgers for breakfast for years! I’ve had access to morning Whoppers since the 1980s! It isn’t doing anything new. It’s merely making it public. No change is needed to its structure or its processes.

The fast food breakfast war is going to wage for the foreseeable future, and there will be casualties. But Burger King has just launched an offensive without risking or suffering a single loss.

Nevin Barich is the Food and Beverage Analyst for Industry Intelligence. Email him here or follow him on Twitter here.

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