McDonald’s had always emphasized marketing to families. The company significantly outperformed Burger King in both “warmth” and “competence” in consumers’ minds. When McDonald’s recently put more emphasis on women and older people by offering relatively
healthy salads and upgraded its already good coffee, Burger King continued to market to young men by (according to one analyst) offering high-calorie burgers and ads featuring dancing chickens and a “creepy-looking” king. These young men were the very group who had
been hit especially hard by the recession. According to Steve Lewis, who operated 36 Burger King franchises in the Philadelphia area, “overall menu development has been horrible. . . . We disregarded kids, we disregarded families, we disregarded moms.” For example, sales of new,
premium-priced menu items like the Steakhouse XT burger declined once they were no longer being advertised. One analyst stated that the company had “put a lot of energy into gimmicky advertising” at the expense of products and service. In addition, analysts commented that franchisees had also disregarded their aging restaurants.