Burger King: how to communicate to overcome the Covid-19 crisis?

France's No. 2 burger chain has announced the gradual reopening of its restaurants from Monday April 27, with drive-through only and home delivery via the Uber Eats and Deliveroo platforms. What communications strategy has the Burger King fast-food chain deployed? How has the chain adapted to prepare for the takeover?

Ultra-polished communication, a sharp sense of humor, regular winks at the competition and a close relationship with its customers: Burger King has succeeded in keeping its place in France.

After several weeks of closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Burger King was able to maintain this precious link with its customers and prepare for its return!
This success can be largely explained by Burger King's communication strategy deployed by the burger king during this period of crisis: humor, an effective articulation between digital and street marketing, and a real focus on social media.

I) Burger King: the king of containment?

Burger King reacted swiftly to the arrival of Covid-19 and its impact. In France, numerous banners were displayed in front of the chain's restaurants. Safety and respect for government regulations were highlighted in a light-hearted way, encouraging customers to stay at home.

In Belgium, as soon as the lockdown began, all the products normally available on the site were masked by a message that was as ingenious as it was clever: "Drive reopening very soon. In the meantime, let's avoid any frustration". In the meantime, let's avoid any frustration".

Whopper lovers and bacon lovers had to wait for the health situation to improve. The Buzzman agency pushed this communication by hiding the visuals of the sandwiches and appealing to the greed of Internet users with tantalizing phrases.

The fast-food chain knows how to stay in touch with its customers. Burger King, Carrefour and Uber Eats have teamed up to prepare their favorite sandwiches, so as not to deprive their most impatient and loyal customers!

II) Burger King becomes Burger Klean!

As with the reopening of restaurants in France, the burger chain was also eagerly awaited by the French. Burger King first announced the implementation of four actions within its restaurants. These included the ordering of masks for employee safety, the installation of Plexiglas dividers to protect customers and employees, floor markings to help employees respect safety distances, and hand-washing for employees every 30 minutes.

Well-prepared, Burger King has turned Covid-19 not only into a strength, but above all an opportunity to activate a strong communication strategy by playing with words. The brand renamed itself Burger Klean ("clean") in reference to the sanitary safety measures put in place for the reopening.

Burger King was quick to make available a kit of practices undertaken by all employees!

No customers will be able to enter the restaurant. So the drive-through, as important as it is, has also been relaunched thanks to drastically reinforced sanitary protocols!

Burger King also explains the measures taken for delivery. Always with a quirky tone, the signature of its communication!  

To emphasize once again the health measures taken, the fast food chain is pushing its communications further by installing masks over the microphones and loudspeakers used for the Drive, the only ordering method used alongside click and collect and delivery!

III) Burger King manages the reopening: between promotion and street marketing

From fresh sundaes to double cheeseburgers and nuggets, Burger King offers a wide selection of products at low prices ("Les Deals") to encourage customers to recommend its products: "Just enough to fill your belly without emptying your wallet."

To get the word out, Burger King goes beyond promotion. During the deconfinement, the BK located in the Opéra district of Paris took the floor. With the help of the Buzzman agency, they conveyed a clear message and subtly attacked rival chain McDonald's!

On social media, the king of burgers remains true to his reputation: simple, funny and effective!

In Italy, the brand recommends whoppers with onions to maintain a safe distance. In Germany, it's with king's crowns that social distancing takes place!

In France, delivery is promoted by a very explicit photo of delivery packaging: "Go less to Burger King, let Burger King come to you."

A great synergy between street marketing and digital marketing to exploit the feeling of scarcity, Burger King takes care of its local communication to reach as many customers as possible!

This link with customers, well staged to generate buzz, is at the heart of the media strategy to maximize brand awareness! Burger King uses each social network differently to get the most out of it. One constant remains:"a strong brand personality: there's always a certain arrogance and a second degree about not taking oneself too seriously," explains Marine Dupas, Burger King's Community Manager.

Twitter is used to mark the brand's tone, either online by interacting with followers, or on the street by printing tweets and their responses on construction site tarpaulins.

"On Instagramconsumers drive the Burger King account".. The brand relies on User Generated Content, which means that it regrams (or shares) content created by subscribers. This not only limits the cost of content creation, but also generates more interaction.

On Facebook, Burger King uses a very different strategy from McDonald's, whose page is used to share information.

The Community Manager is very responsive to comments, and has a functional mission that he often fulfills with humor.

In a nutshell,

The burger king continues to consolidate its dominance in France with an effective communications strategy, local roots and clever use of social media.

At Burger King, it's the quest for commitment that counts: "TheThe social media sites enable us to create a truly engaged community, and turn our subscribers into brand ambassadors," sums up Marine Dupas. sums up Marine Dupas. The Community Manager doesn't respond to every comment,"only to relevant comments where he can mark the brand's tone".

This major American fast-food chain, with over 13,000 outlets in 88 countries, has managed to survive the coronavirus crisis and will undoubtedly emerge even stronger.

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