Fast Food Wars: Burger King Launches Sharing Formulas with “Baby Burgers”

The war for new products is intensifying among the fast-food giants. While McDonald's has just unveiled new recipes never before seen in France (shrimp burgers, the Quebec dish poutine, etc.), Burger King, its main challenger in France, is hot on its heels with another summer promotion: from July 8 to August 25, its 578 restaurants in France (compared to more than 1,560 for McDonald's) will be offering "mini-burgers" to share.

"This is a world first," says Alexandra Laviolette, Marketing Director of Burger King France. "We were inspired by the French appetite for sharing , one of the latest trends we've seen emerge. Today, consumers go out to treat themselves, but they're also looking for good deals to save money. We came up with this new format to create a friendly and accessible experience."

These "baby burgers" will allow you to taste several recipes by buying a single box, alone or with others. They will be presented in boxes of three or nine with the reduced formats of three products well known to aficionados: the Whopper , the Steakhouse, and the Big King. But these cuties will not be that tiny, promises the brand. "Their size (nearly 9 cm in diameter) will not be much smaller than the smallest of our sandwiches, the cheeseburger (around 10 cm), because making it too small would not be like us," assures Alexandra Laviolette.

The box of three will be sold at the recommended price of 9.90 euros (11.90 euros for the menu version with 1 drink and 1 medium portion of fries), the box of nine at 24.90 euros (29.90 euros for the sharing menu version with 3 drinks and 3 medium portions of fries). That's 3.30 euros per burger in the first and 2.77 in the second. For comparison, the current cheeseburger, "much more basic in its composition," recalls the marketing director, is 2.95 euros.

Innovation and the release of new recipes are the lifeblood of fast-food restaurants, which are constantly battling to continue nibbling away at market share. Ahead of KFC and Quick, Burger King recently stepped up efforts to bolster its growth against leader McDonald's. "Consumer habits are evolving so quickly, we must constantly offer new products," Alexandre Simon, its CEO, explained to us last year. "With the Bertrand group (which orchestrated the brand's return to France in 2013 after a 15-year absence), we have the strength to be able to take risks."

A fan of the “test and learn” strategy, the general manager has already implemented two new features: table ordering and service (via QR codes), now deployed in all his restaurants, and “crush corners” (dessert bars) in 13 restaurants in Île-de-France.

After an initial experiment this summer, the "baby burgers" could also be made a permanent part of the menu if the recipe is popular: "We're not ruling out keeping them and offering other versions," emphasizes Alexandra Laviolette.

The goal is also to attract new customers who might be less familiar with the brand. Perhaps even to invite it into homes to compete with the traditional football match pizza (or other pizzas).