How Burger King Lost to Wendy’s
313,662
Published 2023-03-01
Purchase shares in masterpieces from artists like Pablo Picasso, Banksy, Andy Warhol, and more. How Masterworks works:
- Create your account with your traditional bank account
- Pick major works of art to invest in or our new blue-chip diversified art portfolio
- Invest, hold shares in works or trade them in our secondary marketplace
“Net Return" refers to the annualized internal rate of return net of all fees and costs, calculated from the offering closing date to the date the sale is consummated. IRR may not be indicative of Masterworks paintings not yet sold and past performance is not indicative of future results. See important Reg A disclosures: Masterworks.com/cd
When it comes to fast food, McDonald’s is unrivaled in scale and success. McDonald’s has held onto its crown, selling more fries, burgers, nuggets, and apple pies every year than any other fast food chain. There is no challenger to the Golden Arches whether that’s overseas or on home field. In the world of burgers, the fight for the top spot is futile.
While the fight for first place is non-existent, the battle for second place in the burger wars is vicious. For decades, Burger King held second place with its signature flame-grilled Whopper, onion rings, and French Toast sticks. Burger King and a little red-haired girl by the name of Wendy’s have been in a constant battle for the number two spot behind McDonald’s. While the King and the girl have traded places over the years, Wendy’s these days is the clear number two burger chain despite having significantly fewer locations and resources.
Burger King’s fall is a timeless story of what happens when private equity takes over and over-simplifies business into a short-term, soulless optimization of numbers and shareholders over products and customers. In this episode, we’ll cover the toppling of Burger King and the rise of Wendy’s as a modern tale of David versus Goliath and how important vision is for all businesses that even burger flippers live or die based on their strategy.
💬 Join the Modern MBA community - www.reddit.com/r/modernmba/
☕️ Support Modern MBA on Patreon and unlock bonuses like additional content, exclusive essays, and regular Q&A: patreon.com/modernmba
🎧 Audio Editing & Mixing: Sonalf
0:00 Battle for Second Place
4:22 The CFO Who Would Be King
16:59 Dawn of Private Equity
26:31 Have It One Way
34:51 Youth Wasted on The Young
43:12 Deliciously Differe
All Comments (21)
-
-
Masterworks isn't quite a scam, but it's marketing is misleading and relies on selective data. You shouldn't have them as a sponsor. It undermines your credibility (meant very respectfully).
-
The thumbnail is a 10/10
-
I liked this video, but I wish Wendy’s had gotten the same focus that Burger King got. The video played as “why BK lost”, when “why Wendy’s won” is an equally compelling story, if not more so
-
You make great content but the masterworks ads are off-putting. I know you have to get paid but surely there are other, less dodgy sponsors?
-
This video made me spit out my coffee when you said the former CEO is now at subway. It sounded so familiar to our new meat slicers we just got and now it all makes sense.
-
I wouldn’t necessarily use masterworks.
-
To me the biggest thing is that the burgers from Wendy's come off the grill to the bun...Burger King burgers come from a steam drawer to the bun. Back in the 70's, I remember seeing BK burgers coming fresh from the char broiling conveyer grill to the bun, that made it better, but grilling them in advance and putting them in a steam drawer to be used whenever they are needed has killed their quality and they lost 2nd place to Wendy's fresher product.
-
I'm sorry, the research that you've done is pretty good. I admire the script writing. But the ad for Masterworks was just not settling with me. I hope you find sponsors that aren't outright garbage fires or glorified NFTs. You deserve better support from a reliable sponsor.
-
Really surprised that Wendy's viral and organic social media presence didn't come up at all in this video.
-
Now that I have finished the video, I think it overall comes down to the Whopper losing its reputation of it being the best fast food burger you could get. Back in the early 2000s you could make a case the Whopper was indeed the best option, but nowadays no one would rank it even top 20.
-
As someone who worked for over 6 different fast food chains in the past 3 years, Wendys has great cooking standards compared to the competition. I would say that for quality they are in second place, behind Chic-fil-a. In third place would be McDonalds. Then everything after that just depends on the owner of the building.
-
My thoughts pre=video: Burger King restaurants seem dirty even when they aren't, service is extremely inconsistent even at the same location, and they need to dramatically rework their pricing. Everyone I know has different opinions about food, but to a person they know you don't go to burger king without a coupon. If you have to use coupons and use them every single time, what's the point of the coupon at all? Just drop the coupons and fix the pricing. Literally their only issues are ones that competent management could very easily solve.
-
I always wondered what happened to the flame broiled taste. Now I know. And yes, it's absolutely noticeable. Nothing worse than a CEO with zero understanding of the product.
-
15 trips a month to fast food places for men between 18-34?! That seems insane to me (I don't live in the US) I'm 30 and go maybe 2, 3 times a month
-
My man's gotta share the contact details for whoever made the thumbnail. 🔥
-
Incredible thumbnail.
-
History for you guys :) I worked for Cliff Freeman as an editor in the early 2000s. He was the person who created the "Where's the beef" Wendy commercials back in the 1980s that were very famous. Cliff told me the story that when they tested the commercial, it got really bad results. No one understood why there was an old lady in the commercial. They didn't 'get it'. Cliff told Wendy's to put the commercial into the wild. He said that if the commercial failed, he will personally pay them 1million dollars. The rest is history.
-
I had been thinking that the Whopper wasn't as good as it used to be, but I figured it was just me getting older. But now I know they screwed up the charbroiling.
-
I used to work in a Wendy's here in Greece during 98-99. The franchise didn't make it over here. McDonald's on the other hand did but with really slow progress. McDonald's are doing great now but back then they operated with high losses. It was a pity that Wendy's left Greece. They had an overall delicious menu and I would be happy if I had the opportunity to shop in their restaurants again.
