Get Me A Whopper!

     When Burger King decided to "see what would happen" when they stopped selling the Whopper for one day, it was a clever way of conducting some very beneficial, and inexpensive qualitative research.  The responses they got from the unknowing participants gave Burger King insight on how their customers feel and what they think about their product-- or how they would feel if that product was suddenly no longer on the market.  In the commercial it was said that people "freaked" when they were told they could not get the Whopper, the burger that Burger King is "The home of".

A shocked customer learns the Whopper has
been taken off the menu.

     A customer being interviewed outside, said, "They're absolutely foolish to do such a thing." Another was quoted, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."  One woman in the drive-thru line demanded to see the manager at the window! The overall reaction Burger King received from their loyal Whopper fans was "stunned outrage" - says Suzanne Vranica, a writer for The Wall Street Journal. Her article states, "The videotaped hoax was a twist on a market research technique called "deprivation research," in which marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand or product by taking it away from them."

    In just two months after the commercials had aired on TV, the video had been played 3.3 million times on Burger King's website, over 350,000 views on YouTube, and most important of all, helped sell more burgers.  After seeing the campaign, more people had gone to Burger King to get their beloved Whopper.