The company successfully differentiated itself from McDonald’s, its primary rival, when
it launched the Have It Your Way advertising campaign in 1974. Unlike McDonald’s, which
had made it difficult and time-consuming for customers to special-order standard items (such
as a plain hamburger), Burger King restaurants allowed people to change the way a food item
was prepared without a long wait.
Pillsbury (including Burger King) was purchased in 1989 by Grand Metropolitan, which
in turn merged with Guinness to form Diageo, a British spirits company. Diageo’s management
neglected the Burger King business, leading to poor operating performance. Burger King
was damaged to the point that major franchises went out of business and the total value of the
firm declined. Diageo’s management decided to divest the money-losing chain by selling it to
a partnership private equity firm led by TPG Capital in 2002.