Burger King upgrades its broiler - and its menu

Quick-service restaurants have seen an influx of customers trading down from fine- and casual-dining establishments since the U.S. economy took a turn for the worse, and one fast-food chain is rising to the occasion. Consumers with discerning palates may be surprised by the offerings from Miami chain Burger King, according to Elaine Walker’s March 10, 2009, article “Would You Like Ribs With That? New Broiler Means New Burger King Menu,” in the Miami Herald.
Barbecued ribs, a grilled salmon sandwich and a steak kabob are just a few of the 45+ menu items the company has in testing and that are made possible by its new broiler. Burger King has upgraded its 50-year-old broiler to a newer, more-efficient version that allows for flexible cooking settings instead of just one setting - for a piping-hot Whopper with cheese. As a result, Burger King has been able to push its limits and include less-conventional items.By January 2010, all U.S. Burger King restaurants should have the broiler, which has been installed in about 60 percent of the stores. The first new-broiler-inspired offering is the XTC Steakhouse Burger - a thicker, juicier burger made to appeal to Burger King’s core customers. The most elaborate of three flavors will be a version topped with Swiss, cheddar and American cheese, bacon, Parmesan peppercorn sauce and more. The $4.69 price puts it at the high end of Burger King’s menu.Analysts say the strategy makes sense for Burger King, as long as it remains true to its core customer. The items are not so much aimed at new customers as much as they are at luring existing customers to come in more often.
Burger King plans to test the fire-grilled pork ribs in Las Vegas and Indianapolis. “Will consumers be accepting of ribs at a fast-food joint? If they are, that has the possibility to be a game-changer,” said Steve West, restaurant analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, a St. Louis brokerage firm. 

Online coupons boost overall coupon redemption

More shoppers are using coupons to stretch their grocery budgets, but they’re not all clipping them out of the Sunday flyers. Instead, shoppers are increasingly skipping the scissors and getting coupons online or having discounts sent to their smartphones and rewards cards, according to Timothy W. Martin’s February 25, 2009, article “Coupons Are Hot. Clipping Is Not,” in The Wall Street Journal. Since October 2008, coupon usage has risen about 10 percent, according to Inmar Inc., a Winston-Salem, N.C., coupon-processing agent.
Online coupons account for 1 percent of all coupons offered nationwide, but their use is growing quickly. Manufacturers are attracted to digital-coupon delivery in part because of its 13 percent redemption rate - far above the 1 percent redemption rate for coupons found mostly in newspaper inserts, on the back of sales receipts and on product packaging.
Online coupons are being scoured for untapped discounts. Coupons.com, a Mountain View, Calif.-based site that offers coupons from food manufacturers and grocers, says its users printed out online coupons valued at $300 million last year, an increase of 140 percent from 2007. The company predicts the total will triple this year, partly because of the recession.
On the whole, however, coupon usage is on the decline. In 1992, 7.9 billion coupons were redeemed. In 2008, 2.6 billion coupons were used. Part of that decline can be attributed to a robust economy in the mid- to late-1990s. Coupons also lost some appeal after the emergence of supermarket loyalty programs, whereby shoppers sign up for a card to get discounts at the cash register.

Girl tweens not what they seem

The tween girl is famously pop-culture-conscious, well-connected to her peers and willing to grab on to the next hottest thing. Yet as a market segement, the tween girl proves enigmatic and elusive. So how are marketers to understand and reach this highly-sought-after and highly-lucrative group? According to Denise Restauri’s March 17, 2009, article “Stop Thinking for Tween Girls” for MediaPost Publications, the answer is simple: listen. Give up preconceived ideas of what she wants and simply ask.
The following are a few common misperceptions and how research has helped debunk the myth of the tween girl.
Myth: If we declare it to be cool, she will buy.
Not so. The March 6, 2009, Forbes.com headline read, “The Next Jonas Brothers: Eight new tween stars are about to hit the big time.” While the adults who chose the top eight new stars might want them to hit the big time, according to a recent survey of 400 tween girls on AllyKatzz.com, the stars are nowhere near mega-stardom. The girls were asked to comment on the list and rate the boys as “hot” or “not.” A majority of the girls voted seven out of the eight boys not hot.
Myth: She is tech-savvy and online at all times.
Although she is computer literate and familiar with much of the latest technology, she is not tied to her computer. Tween girls have definite preferences regarding how they want to be reached. AK Tweens Pulse-Check Research conducted by AllyKatzz.com reports how girls want to get mail: 58 percent text, 27 percent e-mail and 13 percent snail mail. As for Twitter, forget it because they aren’t tweeting. Eighty-four percent of girls don’t know what Twitter is and, of the girls who know it, only 5 percent use it.
Myth: The only thing she cares about is her friends.
While friends do rank No. 1 for them, tween girls also care about education - mainly about testing and the pressures of school. They care about Iraq and Afghanistan. They care about driving, the legal drinking age, drugs and the peer pressure they face. They care about the economy and they care about being bullied - online and off.
So to understand the tween girl, don’t assume - just ask.