A lesson in Brand Awareness
September 26th was McHappy Day in Argentina. A day when every McDonalds throughout the South American country donated $2 from every Big Mac sold to help fight children?s cancer. In an act of solidarity, Burger King decided to celebrate A Day Without Whopper. They opted to not sell any Whopper sandwiches, encouraging people to go buy a Big Mac instead so as to help McDonalds in their cause.
All across social media, especially LinkedIn, users were sharing the image of Ronald and the King holding hands commending Burger King for being such great guys and encouraging other business operators to take note. The only caveat is that people didn?t seem to realize that this campaign was only running in Argentina. It was an easy mistake to make though since the image being shared look like this:
So in exchange for a 1 day dip in Argentinian sales, Burger King received literally millions of dollars worth of free advertising and goodwill. And as we all know, the best advertising is word-of-mouth. When people we know and trust recommend products or services to us, we are much more likely to trust them. When people point out a company performing nobly, we are much more likely to give them our money.
Now, not to say that BK?s actions aren?t noble but perhaps the real lesson people should take away from this is not one of corporate benevolence but one of brand awareness.
