Marketing in the Fast Food Business
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It is common practice in the fast food business to develop tie-ins with movies, television shows, and related products with an appeal to young people and families and to do so by offering toys, games, and other products connecting the fast food store to the popular film, program, or character. However, there is also a danger in doing this because such tie-ins are often made long before the release of a movie and so may fail if the movie is not popular. In other cases, some different issue may arise to throw the campaign in a bad light. In the case of the recent problem facing Burger King with its tie-in to the Pokemon characters, the problem was in the packaging. The tiny images of the Pokemon characters were delivered in plastic eggs which, if played with by very young children, could cover the child's mouth and nose and bring about suffocation. This is a nightmare for a company with a family-oriented image, and the public relations response is vitally important. The public relations campaign changed from one of enticing people into the stores with the Pokemon toys to assuring the public that the problem would be corrected immediately. Burger King Corporation started in a small Miami restaurant and today has more than 9,000 locations in every state and in more than 50 countries. The company features the Whopper and the BK Broiler sandwich as well as traditional fast-food fare such as fries, shakes, and soft drinks. Advertising is considered integral to the success o
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onsumer Products Safety commission urged burger King to take this course, and the two cooperated on the voluntary recall of more than 25 million Pokemon balls beginning December 27, 1999 ("In Wake of Second Death").
A report on the cable channel MSNBC indicates that Burger King decided to reintroduce the Pokemon toys in March without the container that had caused the problem. Clearly, Burger King believed that it was gaining customers by offering the toys. By this time, Burger King was going to great lengths to make itself more available to customers and was using different forms of media to cope with the public relations issue. MSNBC also notes the tactics being undertaken by Burger King:
1) Burger King was urging customers to destroy the container in which the toy was delivered and to take it away from children under three years of age.
2) Burger King ran a national commercial about the potential danger of the toy.
3) Burger King posted recall messages at all of its restaurants.
4) The company made itself available to customers by phone and email.
5) Burger King worked with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to send notification to pediatricians and emergency room directors about the danger posed by these conta
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1617
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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