Comparison Report of McDonalds and Burger King - Essay Example

Comparison Report of McDonalds and Burger King With the advancement and changes of technology and communicationin the world, companies are forced to remain alert and in corporate these changes in their day to day endeavors else the completion will be ahead of them. This paper looks at the Facebook pages of two competing companies in the same sector, McDonalds and Burger King. It compares and contrast the companies based on their social media pages and comes to the conclusion that McDonalds is the better company of the two Comparison Report of McDonalds and Burger King In this advancing world today, companies in competing industries have to be on their toes in order to keep up with the completion. With new technologies and modes of communication coming up more every other day, they have to embrace them and make use of them in order to achieve maximum advantages over their colleagues. This is the case with McDonalds and Burger King and thus this paper looks at the two companies, comparing and contrasting them using their social media pages on Facebook. McDonald’s is the nation’s leading service provider in the food and beverage industry in the nation. It is one of the oldest of the companies and franchises offering the service having opened the first on in 1940 (McDonalds, n.d.). Over the years, it has achieved a nationwide fan base and opened its doors to local business owners. That is, locals under the umbrella of McDonalds Company own McDonald restaurants in neighborhoods and communities. This has provided locals within the community with jobs and affordable food obviously. With a wide range of foods to chose from, accommodating all sorts of people, diets and meals, at pocket friendly prices, they have managed to serve on average 26 million customers per day (McDonalds, n.d.). Apart from providing jobs and food to people, the franchise is involved greatly in the community. They take part in local charities in the community, are concerned in youth sport activities, and hold communal and nationwide events. Through this interaction with the people, they are able to provide help to the needy such as foster children and provide an avenue for the children to vent and exercise through sport activities. Through their social media page on Facebook, they also interact with their customers listening to their grievances and compliments. This has allowed them to receive criticism directly from the customers and has helped improve their services and also build good rapport with them. Through the same avenue, they are also able to update customers on their new products and advertize greatly on their products both new and old. Burger King is another franchise in the food and beverage company that is giving McDonalds a run for its money. Founded in 1954 in Florida (Burger King, n.d.), it has been able to spread throughout the nation and worldwide achieving a great fan base in more than 74 countries (Burger King, n.d.). The restaurants are privately owned under the umbrella corporation Burger King and have reputation of housing the world famous WHOPPER sandwich among others. Not limited to the United States, the company has been able to break language barriers and provides food and beverage services to more than 11 million customers daily (Burger King, n.d.). With its wide array of foods to choose from its menu, it gives people a great selection of food substances to choose from accommodating all ages, tastes, and preferences for all meals and snacks becoming a household name in the regions it serves. Having a Facebook page allows the company to interact freely and directly with its customer base in the region. Here they are able to advertise the products they offer and keep tabs on customer satisfaction. According to the page, however they have more complaints than compliments meaning they need to use these customer responses to their services and products to improve on them. It is clear that they are more into advertising, which may compromise their business, and based on their fan base, compared to McDonalds, they need it. The two companies, being in the same industry, are similar to some degree. Having used the same media platform to reach its customers, they experience the same amount of exposure to the public. The customer base of McDonalds is greater compared to Burger King but the amount of traffic received and number of people talking about the two companies are similar. Through Facebook, both companies are able to advertise new products. Burger King recently posted on its page the introduction of free Wi-Fi services within its premises, courtesy to mobile company AT&T. through this move, they were undoubtedly able to reach and get the attention of more customers especially the youth and the businessmen frequenting the page. Similarly, McDonalds posted its intentions of hosting a music festival and the pictures of the same creating interest in those who viewed the same. McDonalds and Burger King are also both faced with issues of customer dissatisfaction as viewed from their page. Customers on both pages post their grievances towards the services offered and the state of conditions of premises and food products. Several customers of Burger King have complained of cold food and some even of hairs in their burgers! McDonalds has had similar complaints with wrong orders being at the top of the list. From the pages however, it is quite clear that McDonalds is more involved in the community than Burger King. Burger King only uses the platform for advertisements and receiving complaints and compliments from customers. Even as it receives these criticisms, it only redirects the complaints to the company website claiming it will follow up and acknowledges the compliments. There is minimal communication and more emphasis on its advertising thus they have build a poor rapport with its customers. McDonalds on the other hand, have created a good rapport with its customers and is even involved in their lives. It has events held in neighborhoods for the benefit of the community, take part in youth activities, and do respond to grievances posted accordingly. Thus apart from advertising, it boasts posts its achievements and works done in communities. This interests customers who even offer their support to the cause and good nature of the company. On top of this, McDonalds has a more detailed page on information on the company and its activities both inside and outside the business field. From their page, we see that they are involved in charities and setting up activities for locals in the community that are both for adults and the youth. Burger King however is vague in its description of the company. Information it provides is more business oriented and thus less appealing to those who would view it. In the end, the two companies are more different than alike yet in the same field. Through the use of Facebook, they achieve a means of advertising and relating with customers increasing their market. However, McDonalds reaches out to more because it uses better public relation techniques and is more involved in the customers’ lives than Burger King who basically uses the social media platform for advertising. References Burger King. (n.d.). Burger King. Facebook. Retrieved 21 May 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/burgerking/info McDonalds. (n.d.). McDonalds. Facebook. Retrieved 21 May 2014, from https://www.facebook.com/McDonalds/info Read More