Earlier last month, Burger King retired the latest incarnation of their mascot. The King had had a central role in BK’s messaging, starring in several ad campaigns. He is being replaced by what are being termed “food centric” spots, where fresh ingredients take center stage.
It must be hard to be upstaged by lettuce, beef, and a handful of avocados. Yet we imagine what really galls the king is the fact that Ronald McDonald, the curly haired clown icon of Burger King’s arch rival, continues strong in his role. What can that clown do that the king could not?
Brand Modeling: Connecting With Your Customers
Let’s look at both the Burger King and Ronald McDonald from a Brand Modeling perspective. Both companies have spent considerable time and resources developing mascot characters. In order for these mascots to be effective marketing tools, they had to fit several criteria.
First and foremost, customers needed to like the mascot. The role of the mascot (or any character used to identify our business) is to provoke pleasurable emotions in the viewer. Bonding those pleasurable emotions to a brand’s identity helps motivate consumer behavior: when we enjoy an experience, we seek it out again and again.
Ronald McDonald has continually evolved over the years to provoke pleasurable emotions in a significant portion of their target audience: parents of children. Everything Ronald says or does is explicitly geared to benefit children. The Ronald McDonald House is an extremely well-publicized charity providing housing for the families of children with cancer. McDonald’s restaurants that feature playgrounds have Ronald McDonald imagery throughout, encouraging the kids to have fun and get active. The children in question are entertained while the parents get a moment’s respite—and the clear message that McDonald’s, and their kindly clown, care about you and your family.
Burger King, on the other hand, creeps into people’s beds and is caught peeping through their windows at night, all the while wearing a smile multiple commentators have termed “Creepy.” Some found the approach ironic and hipster-funny, but their numbers were few compared to the masses that found the King and his bizarre antics off-putting. Ronald McDonald wants your kids to have fun and apple fries: Burger King is way too interested in what’s happening in your bedroom.
McDonald’s has demonstrated that they understand some of the core values that motivate their customer’s purchasing behavior. Everyone who has kids needs to feed them. There’s really no way out of it. Dinner time comes every single day. What makes these parents choose McDonald’s?
Price and convenience play a role, of course. Far more important, however, is the customer’s desire to want to do something they see as positive and nurturing for their child. In Brand Modeling, we talk about humanistic drivers. Humanistic drivers are unconscious motivators of our behavior. The imperative to provide for our offspring is strong.
Ronald McDonald’s actions are in many ways in alignment with what parents want to do themselves. He is perpetually cheerful and entertaining. He’s encouraging healthy play and physical activity. He’s offering food the kids want to eat. The connection is immediate and obvious.
The Burger King, in this incarnation, taps into that same unconscious motivator to nurture children. However, with an appearance that’s off putting at best and frightening to small children, and behaviors that usually result in criminal charges, a parent doesn’t feel in alignment with Burger King. These are the type of people we’re told to keep the children away from. The parent with the car full of pre-teen girls might not be able to articulate why they chose one drive through over another, but the contrasting messaging (and profitability picture) of the two chains make it clear that there’s more than French Fries going on.
It just goes to show that understanding your best customers is nothing to clown around with.