Abstract

Burger King failed to attract nutrition-conscious diners through Satisfries, a lower-calorie, healthier version of its French fries, with the result that the company withdrew the product from two-thirds of its restaurants. The failure of Satisfries was a major blow to the global fast food giant which was struggling to provide better dining experiences to customers by serving healthy fast food at its restaurants. Burger King introduced the lower-calorie fries with the objective of attracting more health-conscious consumers and boosting its health-friendly image among the fast food giants in the world. But critics questioned its claim about offering fewer calories and a heathier fast food option than its rivals. The product also failed to satisfy consumers who were not clear about the advantages of Satisfries compared to the company’s regular fries. Moreover, its overpricing, weak brand positioning, bad marketing decision, wrong social media advertisements, and lack of product differentiation among others, resulted in the failure of Satisfries.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand Burger King’s objective of providing lower-calorie healthy fast food through the introduction of Satisfries.
• Understand the appropriateness of the introduction of healthy menu items at fast food chains
• Understand the health-related challenges faced by Satisfries as a lower-calorie fast food.
• Understand the faults in the product promotion and marketing strategy undertaken by the company for Satisfries.
• Analyze the advantages of Satisfries as compared to the company’s regular fries.

Keywords

Burger King,Satisfries,Low-calorie fast food,Product positioning,Classic Fries,French fries,Healthy fast food,Fast Food Industry