Burger King Corporation
Harvard Business School 9-681-045
Rev. February 27, 1998
Burger King Corporation
The first Burger King restaurant in Miami in the mid-1950s featured a walk-up window, a limited menu (burgers and shakes for 19¢, sodas and fries for 10¢), and "your food ready by the time you 'd paid for it." As one early manager recalled, "Our windows faced front so we could see customers driving in. With the limited menu, we pretty much knew what they 'd order and we 'd have it ready." In the 1960s and 1970s, Burger King developed an assembly-line production process that delivered a fresh, hot, high-quality sandwich, yet that had the flexibility to customize that sandwich. One executive explained, "Market research showed us that our ability to give the customer what he wanted clearly differentiated us from McDonald 's, so we capitalized on it." The following jingle was used by Burger King in the 1970s: Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce Special orders don 't upset us All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Later, however, Fortune noted: Hold the jingle. The Burger King hamburger chain has abandoned that bouncy promise to build its sandwiches to suit the customer. Tailoring Whopper Sandwiches was manageable when relatively few fast-food fanciers were coming through the doors. But now so many are lining up, at least at peak hours, that special orders are, well, upsetting. Burger King will still make it your way, if you insist, but isn 't going to invite you to and rather hopes you won 't. 1
The Burger King Corporation
Founded in 1954 by Jim McLamore and David Edgerton, Burger King Corporation had grown from one store in 1954 to 2,766 units, including 136 outside the United States, in 1980. Milestones in the company 's development included the invention by Edgerton of the continuous chain broiler, and creation by McLamore of the Whopper sandwich, both in 1956; franchising agreements in 1959; the sale of Burger King Corporation to the Pillsbury Company in 1967; and the
Rev. February 27, 1998
Burger King Corporation
The first Burger King restaurant in Miami in the mid-1950s featured a walk-up window, a limited menu (burgers and shakes for 19¢, sodas and fries for 10¢), and "your food ready by the time you 'd paid for it." As one early manager recalled, "Our windows faced front so we could see customers driving in. With the limited menu, we pretty much knew what they 'd order and we 'd have it ready." In the 1960s and 1970s, Burger King developed an assembly-line production process that delivered a fresh, hot, high-quality sandwich, yet that had the flexibility to customize that sandwich. One executive explained, "Market research showed us that our ability to give the customer what he wanted clearly differentiated us from McDonald 's, so we capitalized on it." The following jingle was used by Burger King in the 1970s: Hold the pickles, hold the lettuce Special orders don 't upset us All we ask is that you let us serve it your way. Later, however, Fortune noted: Hold the jingle. The Burger King hamburger chain has abandoned that bouncy promise to build its sandwiches to suit the customer. Tailoring Whopper Sandwiches was manageable when relatively few fast-food fanciers were coming through the doors. But now so many are lining up, at least at peak hours, that special orders are, well, upsetting. Burger King will still make it your way, if you insist, but isn 't going to invite you to and rather hopes you won 't. 1
The Burger King Corporation
Founded in 1954 by Jim McLamore and David Edgerton, Burger King Corporation had grown from one store in 1954 to 2,766 units, including 136 outside the United States, in 1980. Milestones in the company 's development included the invention by Edgerton of the continuous chain broiler, and creation by McLamore of the Whopper sandwich, both in 1956; franchising agreements in 1959; the sale of Burger King Corporation to the Pillsbury Company in 1967; and the