🥃This is the Season 2 finale - thank you all for your viewership, support, and feedback. 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 Different
I dont recommend having Masterworks as a sponsor...there is some drama with people exposing it was a bad investment due to their high management fees, iliquidity that it could tarnish your RUclips channel's brand
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).
oh yes, the high end art market is not an investment as much as its a way for the ultra wealthy to avoid taxes and/or hold large sums of money in a single item instead of cash or investments that would be regulated/scrutinized
@@DeezNuts- I think it's an investment. I just doubt it's a good one for the average retail investor. From what I know about Masterworks, it's not a good fit for its target market either
Strongly agree. I don’t come to this channel for sensational get rich quick stuff, I come back again and again for well thought out and well presented data. Masterworks undermines the credibility. Maybe the pay checks make it worth it, I won’t fault you there.
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
Agreed. Based on the title I thought this would be more about Wendy's. Feels a bit like clickbait! I think the BK portion was overly-long near the end and he was just repeating the same points in different ways. He could have cut that to focus more on Wendy's story which seems interesting in its own right!
It's because they're strategy hasn't changed much. They have a simple method of quality over quanity, so much so that it's ingrained in your mind that Wendy's has the better product. When you're eating a $1 Whopper, you wish it was a Baconator. No matter how many battles BK wins, Wendy's always dominated the war. 1 person paying $10 for a Baconator is better than 9 people buying a $1 item at BK. BK is tee ball compared to Wendy's 2009 Yankees in quality. Wendy's just makes sure you know it, and provides a product to back up it's claims.
Wendy’s won because they focused on product (their food). Their marketing focused on clean, fresh food. No gimmicks, as if they were confident in their product and OK to let it do the talking
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.
You're right. 70's was the heyday for BK. But, the patties aren't "flame grilled" any longer. They arrive frozen with phony grill marks and smoke flavor added. The conveyer is just an oven to warm the patties, then into the steamers. I found this out a few years ago from my niece, who worked for BK.
I came here to say this. After they quit flame broiling patties to order and now just stick them in a steam drawer, I quit eating there. They taste like steamed microwaved meat now. Disgusting.
I agree. Wendy’s fresh meat is tastable. Burger King’s old fashioned grill used to be. But now Burger King is just another mushburger like the mediocre competition. When it was fresh grilled, I used to have a Whopper Junior about once a week. The steam drawers made that once a month, then the $3 unsweetened ice tea made it once a year.
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.
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.
@MustacheDLuffy I just had an Itilian BMT subway sandwich for the first time in at least four years. Soooo over priced and the taste was a 5/10 at best. The workers were really cool and salute to them but that's not what I care about when it comes to actually eating the sub.
I don't see fresh sliced meats as a downside. More labor, yes. But has the end quality suffered? I've not been to any sub-style sandwich shop in several years.
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.
Agreed. While I don't eat fast food often, I have stopped eating BK. The food quality is low and always made me feel bloated and lethargic after a meal. Wendy's fresh approach has a much higher quality burger and I don't feel like I need a sweaty nap after lunch.
I grew up on the Whopper in the early-mid 90’s. It’s hilarious that the new CEO is trying to push the Whopper without bringing back the flame broilers that made them delicious. Raising prices and making better commercials wont repair the damage they did to the Whopper’s brand by getting rid of what made it stand out from every other mass market fast food chain. You can’t make the Whopper high quality again just by *saying* that it’s high quality, when you haven’t done anything to actually *make* it high quality.
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.
Lol, I thought it was just the burger King near me that was dirty. I had the misfortune of needing to use their restroom. Somehow managed to not empty my stomach . Never went back.
What Wendy’s was doing in social media was not unique and had been done by Taco Bell and Chick Fil A (fun fact: almost all corporate social media accounts, especially the ones that thrive on witty banter, are run by outside agencies, not internal employees). The other distinction is it is near impossible to measure conversion from short-term broad virality (see Twitter episode) - and all fast food social media, even Burger King, these days have a very similar voice. Interestingly, Wendy’s executives never attributed success to social media whereas Burger King’s executives constantly talked up all the marketing accolades they had won even during periods of obvious business decline. As humans, our bias naturally overrates public signals.
@@ModernMBA Denny's social media marketing was ahead of its time, It would be interested to learn how that turned out for the brand and influenced other companies
@@ModernMBA Partly agree, but I see Wendy's marketing SIGNIFICANTLY more often than any other fast food company. There is definitely something more unique about it compared to the rest.
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.
At my worst I was going to Chick-Fil-A about 7-10 times a month approximately (quite a few years back). He did say they're the so-called "superfans" and I definitely was one of those losers for a while.
@@goosewithagibus The first step is recognizing that it's not healthy and you need to change yourself for the better. Which it sound alike you are already. I hope you do get back on track in that aspect, you'll feel so much better in almost every aspect of life.
As usual, what shines through in your work is the clarity of your script and enunciation, along with the apparent quality of your research and analysis. Good job!
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 first job was at Wendy's...I keep eating there because I know how cleanly they are. They will keep 15 year olds an hour and a half past close if need be to make sure the oil has been changed and floors are mopped lol.
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.
As always, you killed it. Great video. I have a science background, and watching your videos go through fairly intricate business trends (while keeping things surface-level enough for me to follow) always fascinates me. I'm a pretty nerdy guy, but, in my mind, you've struck a great balance between being educational and entertaining. Please keep up the great work.
Two take aways for myself 1) Gimmick sales just make your customers sad when something they really enjoyed goes away (Ghost Pepper Whopper for me). You push your customers toward the ol' standby instead of whatever is the new hot item. 2) Hearing Wendy's is the #2 seems absurd to me as I've not found Wendy's to be in the running for many years and I don't remember seeing much advertising for them. This probably says more about me and my place vs the wider world. If I'm not seeing their ads, then it's reaching a population significantly different than myself, and that's paying off.
Wendy’s was bound to overtake Burger King eventually I mean it’s 2023 and I still have to pay extra to add cheese to the damn Whopper 🤦🏽♂️ (also Wendy’s quality is just better overall)
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.
@@ayusharora3763 We had Pizza Hut, now gone. We had Taco Bell now long gone. We had Applebee's now gone. We had obviously Wendy's now long gone. Not a single Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, no Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory, And we sure don't have Pollos Hermanos 🤣🤣🤣 We have Dominos, KFC, McDonald's, TGI Fridays and that's about it. We have thousands of Souvlaki joints with almost no large franchises.
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 thought it was my imagination. I could not figure out for the life of me what was wrong. BK lost their only real advantage when they got rid of the charbroiling.
I remember exactly when they changed the char broiling method. I ate exactly 2 of their grey steamed burgers and never went back. They royally screwed up. Heh
In retrospect, the 2010s really were a time of major fast food chains having brand identity crises. I don't personally eat fast food much or often, but that time can definitely be thought of as a renaissance in the fast food arena with a growing consumer consciousness towards healthier food choices.
The huge push of so many fast food chains trying to "be healthy" in that time period is the most bafflingly massive case of not understanding your customers that it should be taught as a death warning to all food business for centuries to come. Not a single fast food chain that fell into that trap has recovered their delicious pre-healthy craze tastes even after a decade of course correction.
The difference between the US and international franchisees was something I notice with McD's also when I moved to the US for studies. In my home country McD's strategy was to constantly roll out specialty limited time menus to compete against domestic chains who rarely had specialties and only competed with price. So you'd check out McD's every so often to see what new stuff they had on the menu. In the US they seemed to have nothing but the box standard menu which was really disappointing, besides the bigger servings. I ended up defaulting on Wendy's during my time in the US and I really hope they expand here at some point. We got BK expanding here, and they are trying to compete with McD's and local chains in quality but lately it seems to be faltering and their service is really a hodgepodge while McD's is always dependable and local chains have robust decades of experience competing against foreign giants.
The dynamics of Burger King's relations with its franchises felt a lot like the dynamics between a weak King and his far more powerful vassals, his dukes and counts. They're the ones with the actual power, can't go to hard on them, can't demand much of them, nothing gets through without their say so and the King focuses entirely on pleasing them instead of the people (customers). I guess that's what the "King" in "Burger King" meant? The decoration on the "throne".
What I learned in this video: McDonald's is a juggernaut. Speaking from a german perspective, Burger King had a few scandals, there was a huge hype around street food, fresh prepared burgers and Starbucks in Germany. There were articles written left and right asking if this is the end for McDonald's. So McDonald's expanded their McCafé sections, bought more modern furniture added vegetarian items to the menu and introduced their own delivery service. They're still as dominant today as they were 10 or 20 years ago.
Marketing 101 for BK: Trying to market to everyone = marketing to no one. Without a defined persona/target focus you'll never resonate with anyone. P/E firms need better marketers to maximize value. Either way this is one of my FAVORITE channels and I appreciate your detailed content! Cheers :)
ive had some truly horrible experiences with burger king. my expectations for fast food aren't particularly high in the first place but burger king has easily been the worst of all in my experience. ive essentially boycotted them and probably wouldn't eat at one in the foreseeable future. a large part of the problem was poor customer service wendys on the other hand is pretty much always good whenever ive had it, as far as fast food places with a drive through i rank them up there with mcdonalds and popeyes for consistency
@@saturationstation1446 lol what a completely pointless comment. I was just sharing my experience with various fast food chains. If you disagree or have had different experiences that's great but calling me a Karen just makes you sound like a jackass
Dear MMBA, Thank you for another well considered and researched piece. One element that needed to be considered in BK's, ( and other fast food organizations ) is within the USA, the rapid decline of the Boomer and post generations to fast food in general. By the very nature of fast foods volumes of scale that can sustain almost unbelievable low food costs, has become the predominant food source for the Lower Middle Class, The Working Poor, and The Homeless. This is especially notable in the core urban and the far rural environments. While not there yet, at some point fast food will adopt the Dollar Store concept to food distribution and consumption.
14:55. Ah, at last the ANSWER. I was wondering why the Burger King Whoppers I used to love since childhood had stopped tasting the same starting around 2011. Burger King used to be my FAVORITE BURGER. Eating one could sooth my anxieties and bring me back to the memories of my childhood when eating a Whopper was a treat that happened only once every few months when my father took my sister to her orthodontist appointment. The only Burger King around back then was just down the street from the orthodontist office. It was like that scene in "Ratatouille" when the food critic was served this simple dish of his childhood and tasting the dish took him back to his memories of childhood. Yeah, when you've eaten as many Whoppers as I had, cooked on the original flame broilers, you cannot fool a Real Whopper Connoisseur and claim the Whoppers taste the same cooked on the new broilers. Ugh. All these bean counters have totally ruined Buger King. From being my favorite burger ever, I haven't gone to a Burger King since 2019 when I tried out the Impossible Burger. Ugh, ugh, ugh. I don't like Wendy's burgers either, never have, I usually get their chili if we go there. If I eat a burger these days, it's most often In-N-Out. Yeah, I can totally see Burger King go the way of Quiznoz, Kmart, and other once great businesses ruined by idiotic rapacious bean counters more interested in profits than the quality of the food.
To further illustrate your point about Burger King not having a super definable brand, I didn’t even realize that the way they cook their burgers is supposed to be “”special”” at all until I watched this
The only reason I go to Mcdonalds is because of consitency. I had a couple bad experinces at Wendys and they never gave a shit. Had a coupon and they got mad because they had to type it in and mocked me. I complained about something at Mcdonalds (missing item) and the manager called to help. I told him thank you and that it's ok, he doesn't have to waste his time but I appricaite it. It's just simple things like that that will keep me going to a place. I think it might be for some others as well.
The fast food joint you go to "Quality Wise" depends on the people running it ,and the quality of the food and service varies on said location, Owner and service staff . I live by a 4 star Wendy's and 1.5 miles away from there is a crap KFC but then there is a KFC 3.7 miles away from me that has way better food and service make sure to check the food joint review app at the location of the fast food joint you are going towards to see if there ratings, food service and quality are going to be good. I learned my lesson with food quality and service with the 2 different KFC's with the one slightly father near my location being way better than the other in the different area's next to me the hard way.
My city has two Wendy's and two BK. The north stores aren't good, but the south are usually pretty decent. Then every five years it flips and the north stores are the good ones. It's just weird
I wish we could go back to the days where companies used to compete. Now they are owned by private equity and have pretty much just agreed to stay stagnant.
in Scotland Burger King is 30% more expensive than McDonald's being honest i prefer to buy burger patties from my local butcher shop and grill them and put them on a fresh morning roll, with slices of tomato and some ketchup and some home made chips/fries (triple cooked) still works out cheaper than either going to McDonalds or Burger King
It’s crazy how that’s the last time I also ate a Burger King and it was also under the same circumstances. The Burger King was the only restaurant open at the time which was like 12:30am
Two things, great customer service and quality food. Imagine going BK they greet you warmly, the place is clean, they make your food fresh, it's on time and it's always right? My thing is that this falls on BK corporate not setting standards for the franchisees. How much does it cost to give good service? Or get the order right? Or make sure your store is clean? This screams laziness and lack of accountability. If they can't do the basics they have no business doing anything else new.
Have any of these CEO's even lifted a barbell? Its the same weight on each end. So having a product with different price points on each end is not a barbell.
BK had a well-loved Veggie burger back in the '00s. The only difference between it and its replacement, the Impossible Burger, is it tasted better, was cheaper, and didn't have a gimicky name.
Burger kind has always been an F tier fast food chain for me; I’ve never wanted to get food from there when I can get better offerings from any other similar restaurant.
Wendy's won me over with geek appeal -- the Wendy's Feast of Legends RPG was hilarious as a concept and easy to have silly fun with with a group around the tabletop.
I'm german and never saw a Wendy here on the other hand Burger King had a couple huge scandals here. They were so disgusting that i will not go to one anymore
I always wondered why BK burgers taste like burnt leather. It might have been a while since I was a kid, but I still remember BK tasting nothing at all like what it used to be after a 10 year long break. Of course it was when they swapped all the open-flame boilers everywhere to something that is tastelessly industrial.
wait, is THAT why subway has started to suck [more]? weve basically had to switch to jersey mikes but they dont do anything close to a sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub. nobody does actually. it makes my taste buds depressed
Great analysis including sound judgment backed by data points I really enjoyed watching this episode. The aforementioned PE playbook and corporate PEANUT BUTTER APPROACH are very resonating with what I have seen. Looking forward to the next episodes, especially if you will be interested in doing one for Ralph Lauren and middle high-end fashion.
Burger King in NY tastes awful and some locations sell burger buns that consistently taste stale. Wendy's tastes much better, even better than McDonalds, and they have options like frostys and chillis in the value menu.
Please make an in detail video about the success story of Wendy's as well, as this video felt like it was majorly focused on showing BK's failure. Would love to watch the strategies Wendy's management applied to make it take the second position. Great video though!
I will wait in line at Wendy's. I will drive to Wendy's to avoid Burger King or WackDonalds. This is all void if Chick-fil-A is accessible. I grew up on Burger King and they lost me when Wendy's showed up
I love the content but if masterworks has a waitlist, why are they advertising? I get it if you have a certain amount of deliverables left on your contract but if masterworks is what makes the show possible then maybe don’t make the show.
This video reminded me about Burger 👑 😂. Excellent summarised business case study. Listening/ watching was easier for me to remember by heart rather than huge a** PDFs. As an Analyst in training, I’m happy to have subscribe to this Channel. Love the video well done 👏.
Sadly we don't have Wendy's or many premium fast food burger chains here in Germany, so Burger King is still my go-to. They have a lot of value options and you can tweak the burgers to your liking by adding or removing things.
Ironic that he's CEO of Subway and Subway got sold to a PE firm. My old apartment was 1 block away from Burger King. Was a city that frowned / zoned out fast food chains. I think there are under 10 total! fast food stores in residential neighborhoods. The only time I'd go when I was hungover on the weekend and didn't want to go far from my apartment, lol. (McDs was 3-4 blocks away. I'd drive there sometimes, lol. Not a huge fan of McDs, but I think the hot mustard sauce was the draw for me.)
I am a Burger King person. My whole life, something about their presentation and their food works for me. I lived in South Florida in the 1990s when the company was pretty much without leadership. I can't remember if it was being sold but a conglomerate or if it had already been spun off, but nobody wanted to buy it. And corporate leadership were fleeing from it. And I still enjoyed eating there. Something about the menu and the atmosphere.
24:45 My mind went to the chopped cheese. Amazing that no one has picked up this idea. Really need a food guy that loves food and the product for these brands to be successful.
I remember the early-mid 2010s, when Wendy's was focusing on quality over scale and margin. They had fantastic food, especially the chicken sandwich, and were my go-to fast food joint. But in recent years their quality has declined drastically, and I rarely look to them when I'm on the road and hungry.
Another business taken over by the MBA's. These are just numbers people, they know nothing about running a business. They were skilled in the fine art of managing money, but have never been taught how to manage people. That is why so many corporations are just a brand, they make nothing they sell, they outsource to cheap foreign labor so they do not have to deal with people. Yet you consumers seem to trust these corporations over the real corporations that have learned to make profits by managing a local labor force that build local communities by treating them with dignity.
I'm 50 years old and I remember a time when McDonald's made fantastic food and it was reasonably priced and I can feed myself my wife and both of my young daughters for less than $20 at McDonald's back in the early 90s McDonald's quality sucks ass and the main reason is because of where they're located they pull employees from that location which tends to be run down shit hole areas and therefore you're going to get the same quality of people working there as the neighborhood quality is. In other words the worst the neighborhood the worst workers McDonald's will get and that's how it ends up being shipped food all the time. I'll take Burger King over McDonald's 99% of the time and I will take Wendy's over all of them 100% of the time. In fact less than five miles from my house now they're actually building a new Wendy's and I'm super excited can't wait for a grand opening and I will be there day one
I think John (the CEO) wasn't wrong in his approach even if it was harsh to the franchisees. Wendys overtook Burger King at that time due to the exoneration from the finger chili incident, their expansion into breakfast, and many more "wins." John was simply trying to play a long game that was tragically ended prematurely. His goal was to make affordable food profitable and the Burger King that came after him did nothing but salt the earth of his efforts. Not only did quality drop severely as a result of the transfer of owners, but they destroyed any "value" the lower tier items had.
🥃This is the Season 2 finale - thank you all for your viewership, support, and feedback.
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 Different
(kkkkkk((kkkk
29:01 Did you know that was actor Lee Jungjae from Squid Game?
I dont recommend having Masterworks as a sponsor...there is some drama with people exposing it was a bad investment due to their high management fees, iliquidity that it could tarnish your RUclips channel's brand
Incredible content. Thanks for your great work.
keep up your great work :)
The thumbnail is a 10/10
I see Waifu Company Mascot, I click
Who made the thumbnail?
My guess is AI generated
Hand-drawn / commissioned for this episode.
@@ModernMBAthe person that came up with the idea and the artist are absolutely amazing
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).
oh yes, the high end art market is not an investment as much as its a way for the ultra wealthy to avoid taxes and/or hold large sums of money in a single item instead of cash or investments that would be regulated/scrutinized
@@DeezNuts- I think it's an investment. I just doubt it's a good one for the average retail investor. From what I know about Masterworks, it's not a good fit for its target market either
Why do people care about such useless things? And no it doesn't undermine his credibility
Strongly agree. I don’t come to this channel for sensational get rich quick stuff, I come back again and again for well thought out and well presented data. Masterworks undermines the credibility. Maybe the pay checks make it worth it, I won’t fault you there.
Ad money worth more than principles.
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
Agreed. Based on the title I thought this would be more about Wendy's. Feels a bit like clickbait! I think the BK portion was overly-long near the end and he was just repeating the same points in different ways. He could have cut that to focus more on Wendy's story which seems interesting in its own right!
100% agreed. I kept waiting for him to get to the Wendy’s part
BK apparently shot itself in the foot. Wendys didn’t need to beat the BK of old, but the bent senile imitation of its former self.
It's because they're strategy hasn't changed much. They have a simple method of quality over quanity, so much so that it's ingrained in your mind that Wendy's has the better product.
When you're eating a $1 Whopper, you wish it was a Baconator. No matter how many battles BK wins, Wendy's always dominated the war. 1 person paying $10 for a Baconator is better than 9 people buying a $1 item at BK.
BK is tee ball compared to Wendy's 2009 Yankees in quality. Wendy's just makes sure you know it, and provides a product to back up it's claims.
Wendy’s won because they focused on product (their food). Their marketing focused on clean, fresh food. No gimmicks, as if they were confident in their product and OK to let it do the talking
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.
You're right. 70's was the heyday for BK. But, the patties aren't "flame grilled" any longer. They arrive frozen with phony grill marks and smoke flavor added. The conveyer is just an oven to warm the patties, then into the steamers. I found this out a few years ago from my niece, who worked for BK.
I came here to say this. After they quit flame broiling patties to order and now just stick them in a steam drawer, I quit eating there. They taste like steamed microwaved meat now. Disgusting.
I agree. Wendy’s fresh meat is tastable. Burger King’s old fashioned grill used to be. But now Burger King is just another mushburger like the mediocre competition. When it was fresh grilled, I used to have a Whopper Junior about once a week. The steam drawers made that once a month, then the $3 unsweetened ice tea made it once a year.
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?
I also got half a dozen ads, so they're definitely getting paid otherwise.
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.
Hi basil
Agreed
are they really scams? I saw other channels being sponsored by them as well
It's not a scam its a financial product.
L：０
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.
Is that why subway ingredients quality has gone down?
@@MustacheDLuffy The quality has gone down so far. The last sandwich I had from there recently made me feel weird.
@MustacheDLuffy I just had an Itilian BMT subway sandwich for the first time in at least four years. Soooo over priced and the taste was a 5/10 at best. The workers were really cool and salute to them but that's not what I care about when it comes to actually eating the sub.
@@MYVIDEOSONLY-DB that sandwich used to come in clutch man.
I don't see fresh sliced meats as a downside. More labor, yes. But has the end quality suffered? I've not been to any sub-style sandwich shop in several years.
I wouldn’t necessarily use masterworks.
Thank you for letting us all know
@@richbaboon9345 you are very much welcome 😽
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.
Agreed. While I don't eat fast food often, I have stopped eating BK. The food quality is low and always made me feel bloated and lethargic after a meal. Wendy's fresh approach has a much higher quality burger and I don't feel like I need a sweaty nap after lunch.
The Whopper is still better than Dave or Mac as a burger. Franchise QC is a huge problem for BK in the US tho.
I grew up on the Whopper in the early-mid 90’s.
It’s hilarious that the new CEO is trying to push the Whopper without bringing back the flame broilers that made them delicious. Raising prices and making better commercials wont repair the damage they did to the Whopper’s brand by getting rid of what made it stand out from every other mass market fast food chain.
You can’t make the Whopper high quality again just by *saying* that it’s high quality, when you haven’t done anything to actually *make* it high quality.
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.
The right answer is actually Whataburger
Lol, I thought it was just the burger King near me that was dirty. I had the misfortune of needing to use their restroom. Somehow managed to not empty my stomach . Never went back.
I worked at BK for 2.5 years in SLC, UT. The vast majority of customers didn't use coupons. On a good day, maybe 5-10% of them did.
Is it just the BK near me or do whoppers always smell like sweaty gym socks?
Isn't that coupon thing true about McDonald's app too?
Really surprised that Wendy's viral and organic social media presence didn't come up at all in this video.
What Wendy’s was doing in social media was not unique and had been done by Taco Bell and Chick Fil A (fun fact: almost all corporate social media accounts, especially the ones that thrive on witty banter, are run by outside agencies, not internal employees).
The other distinction is it is near impossible to measure conversion from short-term broad virality (see Twitter episode) - and all fast food social media, even Burger King, these days have a very similar voice. Interestingly, Wendy’s executives never attributed success to social media whereas Burger King’s executives constantly talked up all the marketing accolades they had won even during periods of obvious business decline. As humans, our bias naturally overrates public signals.
@@ModernMBA Denny's social media marketing was ahead of its time, It would be interested to learn how that turned out for the brand and influenced other companies
@@ModernMBA Partly agree, but I see Wendy's marketing SIGNIFICANTLY more often than any other fast food company. There is definitely something more unique about it compared to the rest.
@@mattCDromEw, no on Dennys
“organic social media presence” 😂
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
15 trips in a month is pretty low for me.
It's one of the reasons we're the land of obesity. People feed this to their children multiple times per WEEK.
At my worst I was going to Chick-Fil-A about 7-10 times a month approximately (quite a few years back). He did say they're the so-called "superfans" and I definitely was one of those losers for a while.
@@GoldenEagleXTND my parents did. It did wonders for my health, I'll tell you what.
@@goosewithagibus The first step is recognizing that it's not healthy and you need to change yourself for the better. Which it sound alike you are already. I hope you do get back on track in that aspect, you'll feel so much better in almost every aspect of life.
As usual, what shines through in your work is the clarity of your script and enunciation, along with the apparent quality of your research and analysis. Good job!
I think he enunciates "Peanut Butter" in a strangely exaggerated way. It's a bit jarring.
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 first job was at Wendy's...I keep eating there because I know how cleanly they are. They will keep 15 year olds an hour and a half past close if need be to make sure the oil has been changed and floors are mopped lol.
@@op8ztv literally how it was for me at 17 💀
Chic-fi-a is awful. Chicken is dried out
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.
Incredible thumbnail.
As always, you killed it. Great video. I have a science background, and watching your videos go through fairly intricate business trends (while keeping things surface-level enough for me to follow) always fascinates me. I'm a pretty nerdy guy, but, in my mind, you've struck a great balance between being educational and entertaining. Please keep up the great work.
Two take aways for myself
1) Gimmick sales just make your customers sad when something they really enjoyed goes away (Ghost Pepper Whopper for me). You push your customers toward the ol' standby instead of whatever is the new hot item.
2) Hearing Wendy's is the #2 seems absurd to me as I've not found Wendy's to be in the running for many years and I don't remember seeing much advertising for them. This probably says more about me and my place vs the wider world. If I'm not seeing their ads, then it's reaching a population significantly different than myself, and that's paying off.
Wendy’s was bound to overtake Burger King eventually I mean it’s 2023 and I still have to pay extra to add cheese to the damn Whopper 🤦🏽♂️ (also Wendy’s quality is just better overall)
"Choose Wisely, choose Wendy's!" Man thats a good one because its stuck in my head and say when the commercials play
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.
that is too bad, Greece has the Mediterranean Diet
@@robert7645 Yeah we do and we are all for it, but we play for the "oversize me" team once in a while just to refresh our tasting palette 🍔🍔🍔
@@εγεω hahaha, yes Greece should have a Wendy"s outlet even India has several now. what other fast food joints does Greece not have?
@@ayusharora3763 We had Pizza Hut, now gone.
We had Taco Bell now long gone.
We had Applebee's now gone.
We had obviously Wendy's now long gone.
Not a single Popeyes, Chick-fil-A, no Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory,
And we sure don't have Pollos Hermanos 🤣🤣🤣
We have Dominos, KFC, McDonald's, TGI Fridays and that's about it.
We have thousands of Souvlaki joints with almost no large franchises.
Yup sadly the one that succeeded was the one saling the craziest food Wendys is great in my opinion one of the only major food chains I eat
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 thought it was my imagination. I could not figure out for the life of me what was wrong. BK lost their only real advantage when they got rid of the charbroiling.
I remember exactly when they changed the char broiling method. I ate exactly 2 of their grey steamed burgers and never went back. They royally screwed up. Heh
The charbroiled taste was what set it apart.
In retrospect, the 2010s really were a time of major fast food chains having brand identity crises. I don't personally eat fast food much or often, but that time can definitely be thought of as a renaissance in the fast food arena with a growing consumer consciousness towards healthier food choices.
The huge push of so many fast food chains trying to "be healthy" in that time period is the most bafflingly massive case of not understanding your customers that it should be taught as a death warning to all food business for centuries to come. Not a single fast food chain that fell into that trap has recovered their delicious pre-healthy craze tastes even after a decade of course correction.
The difference between the US and international franchisees was something I notice with McD's also when I moved to the US for studies. In my home country McD's strategy was to constantly roll out specialty limited time menus to compete against domestic chains who rarely had specialties and only competed with price. So you'd check out McD's every so often to see what new stuff they had on the menu. In the US they seemed to have nothing but the box standard menu which was really disappointing, besides the bigger servings. I ended up defaulting on Wendy's during my time in the US and I really hope they expand here at some point. We got BK expanding here, and they are trying to compete with McD's and local chains in quality but lately it seems to be faltering and their service is really a hodgepodge while McD's is always dependable and local chains have robust decades of experience competing against foreign giants.
The dynamics of Burger King's relations with its franchises felt a lot like the dynamics between a weak King and his far more powerful vassals, his dukes and counts. They're the ones with the actual power, can't go to hard on them, can't demand much of them, nothing gets through without their say so and the King focuses entirely on pleasing them instead of the people (customers). I guess that's what the "King" in "Burger King" meant? The decoration on the "throne".
My man's gotta share the contact details for whoever made the thumbnail. 🔥
What I learned in this video:
McDonald's is a juggernaut. Speaking from a german perspective, Burger King had a few scandals, there was a huge hype around street food, fresh prepared burgers and Starbucks in Germany.
There were articles written left and right asking if this is the end for McDonald's.
So McDonald's expanded their McCafé sections, bought more modern furniture added vegetarian items to the menu and introduced their own delivery service. They're still as dominant today as they were 10 or 20 years ago.
Marketing 101 for BK: Trying to market to everyone = marketing to no one. Without a defined persona/target focus you'll never resonate with anyone. P/E firms need better marketers to maximize value. Either way this is one of my FAVORITE channels and I appreciate your detailed content! Cheers :)
Modern MBA video drops are a red-letter day in my household 🎉
ive had some truly horrible experiences with burger king. my expectations for fast food aren't particularly high in the first place but burger king has easily been the worst of all in my experience. ive essentially boycotted them and probably wouldn't eat at one in the foreseeable future. a large part of the problem was poor customer service
wendys on the other hand is pretty much always good whenever ive had it, as far as fast food places with a drive through i rank them up there with mcdonalds and popeyes for consistency
My favorite by far is Whataburger
It's hard to call what they sell at BK "food". I don't really know what it is. It certainly looks nothing like what is in their advertisements.
found the karen
@@saturationstation1446 lol what a completely pointless comment. I was just sharing my experience with various fast food chains. If you disagree or have had different experiences that's great but calling me a Karen just makes you sound like a jackass
@@danieldaniels7571only in Texas
Ok. Can we all agree that the image at 00:02:31 is amazing?
I loved the $1 double cheeseburger. They always used to ask if I wanted .50c tomatoes or bacon. Never lol
Dear MMBA, Thank you for another well considered and researched piece. One element that needed to be considered in BK's, ( and other fast food organizations ) is within the USA, the rapid decline of the Boomer and post generations to fast food in general. By the very nature of fast foods volumes of scale that can sustain almost unbelievable low food costs, has become the predominant food source for the Lower Middle Class, The Working Poor, and The Homeless. This is especially notable in the core urban and the far rural environments. While not there yet, at some point fast food will adopt the Dollar Store concept to food distribution and consumption.
14:55. Ah, at last the ANSWER. I was wondering why the Burger King Whoppers I used to love since childhood had stopped tasting the same starting around 2011.
Burger King used to be my FAVORITE BURGER. Eating one could sooth my anxieties and bring me back to the memories of my childhood when eating a Whopper was a treat that happened only once every few months when my father took my sister to her orthodontist appointment. The only Burger King around back then was just down the street from the orthodontist office. It was like that scene in "Ratatouille" when the food critic was served this simple dish of his childhood and tasting the dish took him back to his memories of childhood.
Yeah, when you've eaten as many Whoppers as I had, cooked on the original flame broilers, you cannot fool a Real Whopper Connoisseur and claim the Whoppers taste the same cooked on the new broilers.
Ugh. All these bean counters have totally ruined Buger King. From being my favorite burger ever, I haven't gone to a Burger King since 2019 when I tried out the Impossible Burger.
Ugh, ugh, ugh.
I don't like Wendy's burgers either, never have, I usually get their chili if we go there. If I eat a burger these days, it's most often In-N-Out.
Yeah, I can totally see Burger King go the way of Quiznoz, Kmart, and other once great businesses ruined by idiotic rapacious bean counters more interested in profits than the quality of the food.
Can you do a video on the economics of all inclusive resorts! Really interesting
To further illustrate your point about Burger King not having a super definable brand, I didn’t even realize that the way they cook their burgers is supposed to be “”special”” at all until I watched this
The only reason I go to Mcdonalds is because of consitency. I had a couple bad experinces at Wendys and they never gave a shit. Had a coupon and they got mad because they had to type it in and mocked me.
I complained about something at Mcdonalds (missing item) and the manager called to help. I told him thank you and that it's ok, he doesn't have to waste his time but I appricaite it. It's just simple things like that that will keep me going to a place. I think it might be for some others as well.
The fast food joint you go to "Quality Wise" depends on the people running it ,and the quality of the food and service varies on said location, Owner and service staff . I live by a 4 star Wendy's and 1.5 miles away from there is a crap KFC but then there is a KFC 3.7 miles away from me that has way better food and service make sure to check the food joint review app at the location of the fast food joint you are going towards to see if there ratings, food service and quality are going to be good. I learned my lesson with food quality and service with the 2 different KFC's with the one slightly father near my location being way better than the other in the different area's next to me the hard way.
My city has two Wendy's and two BK. The north stores aren't good, but the south are usually pretty decent. Then every five years it flips and the north stores are the good ones. It's just weird
I wish we could go back to the days where companies used to compete. Now they are owned by private equity and have pretty much just agreed to stay stagnant.
Really insightful and entertaining episode as always, watched in one sitting and enjoyed every bit of it
I love modern mba! Every episode is so insightful!
in Scotland Burger King is 30% more expensive than McDonald's being honest i prefer to buy burger patties from my local butcher shop and grill them and put them on a fresh morning roll, with slices of tomato and some ketchup and some home made chips/fries (triple cooked) still works out cheaper than either going to McDonalds or Burger King
dude is still doing the masterworks sponsorships
Burger King should serve crickets because every time I go in there which is exceptionally rare, that’s what I hear. Few customers.
It’s crazy how that’s the last time I also ate a Burger King and it was also under the same circumstances. The Burger King was the only restaurant open at the time which was like 12:30am
This video was so sad I started crying. My tear ducts are now emptied than a Burger King
Modern MBA get a proper ad sponsor like Henson razors or Nord VPN
Amazing video as always
I also noticed the use of the Yakuza font when naming the CEOs 💀
Two things, great customer service and quality food. Imagine going BK they greet you warmly, the place is clean, they make your food fresh, it's on time and it's always right? My thing is that this falls on BK corporate not setting standards for the franchisees. How much does it cost to give good service? Or get the order right? Or make sure your store is clean? This screams laziness and lack of accountability. If they can't do the basics they have no business doing anything else new.
12:32 getting rid of cheesy tots was a big big mistake. I can taste them right now..
Have any of these CEO's even lifted a barbell? Its the same weight on each end. So having a product with different price points on each end is not a barbell.
BK had a well-loved Veggie burger back in the '00s. The only difference between it and its replacement, the Impossible Burger, is it tasted better, was cheaper, and didn't have a gimicky name.
Your videos on food just make me hungry… maybe it’s the ads you play in the background
can we stop doing masterworks sponsors. They're not a scam but they're pretty misleading
Burger kind has always been an F tier fast food chain for me; I’ve never wanted to get food from there when I can get better offerings from any other similar restaurant.
This has to be one the best if not the best business/finance channels I have come across in a long time.
All your videos are amazing ! A small request, for season 3 could you have more cases related to service-based companies?
Thank you for the amazing work here. one of my favourite channels on YT
I am just here because that logo is awsome.
Wendy's won me over with geek appeal -- the Wendy's Feast of Legends RPG was hilarious as a concept and easy to have silly fun with with a group around the tabletop.
As long as BK and Wendy's follow the business model of McDonald's they will always lag behind.
this video made me realize I'm a super fan for fast food restaurants in general 💀💀 life of a college commuter
same bro
Babe wake up new Modern MBA video just dropped
this video is a value combo of 5 video essays
I'm german and never saw a Wendy here on the other hand Burger King had a couple huge scandals here. They were so disgusting that i will not go to one anymore
I always wondered why BK burgers taste like burnt leather. It might have been a while since I was a kid, but I still remember BK tasting nothing at all like what it used to be after a 10 year long break. Of course it was when they swapped all the open-flame boilers everywhere to something that is tastelessly industrial.
The jojo thumbnail is legendary
fr fr
Loved the Street Fighter 5-inspired thumbnail. Chun-Li does kick Ryu's ass
Looool and the Yakuza presentation used later in the video.
john is a saint and should come back
wait, is THAT why subway has started to suck [more]? weve basically had to switch to jersey mikes but they dont do anything close to a sweet onion chicken teriyaki sub. nobody does actually. it makes my taste buds depressed
Great analysis including sound judgment backed by data points
I really enjoyed watching this episode.
The aforementioned PE playbook and corporate PEANUT BUTTER APPROACH are very resonating with what I have seen.
Looking forward to the next episodes, especially if you will be interested in doing one for Ralph Lauren and middle high-end fashion.
How can Wendy's beat BK exactly when it doesn't exist in 99% of the actual world, and BK does?
Burger King in NY tastes awful and some locations sell burger buns that consistently taste stale. Wendy's tastes much better, even better than McDonalds, and they have options like frostys and chillis in the value menu.
Yeah last time I had BK the bin just fell apart. Not a very satisfying experience.
Please make an in detail video about the success story of Wendy's as well, as this video felt like it was majorly focused on showing BK's failure. Would love to watch the strategies Wendy's management applied to make it take the second position. Great video though!
I know I'm a bit late to the party, but I don't get as excited for a 1 hour video by any channel as I get from yours!
Keep up the good work!
“Diddy says BK is open late”… wow that didn’t age well
Babe wake up ! Modern MBA just dropped 😍
I will wait in line at Wendy's. I will drive to Wendy's to avoid Burger King or WackDonalds.
This is all void if Chick-fil-A is accessible.
I grew up on Burger King and they lost me when Wendy's showed up
I love the content but if masterworks has a waitlist, why are they advertising? I get it if you have a certain amount of deliverables left on your contract but if masterworks is what makes the show possible then maybe don’t make the show.
Organizations and the strategies they take is a direct reflection of the people in that organization.
This video reminded me about Burger 👑 😂.
Excellent summarised business case study. Listening/ watching was easier for me to remember by heart rather than huge a** PDFs. As an Analyst in training, I’m happy to have subscribe to this Channel.
Love the video well done 👏.
Sadly we don't have Wendy's or many premium fast food burger chains here in Germany, so Burger King is still my go-to. They have a lot of value options and you can tweak the burgers to your liking by adding or removing things.
Ironic that he's CEO of Subway and Subway got sold to a PE firm.
My old apartment was 1 block away from Burger King. Was a city that frowned / zoned out fast food chains. I think there are under 10 total! fast food stores in residential neighborhoods.
The only time I'd go when I was hungover on the weekend and didn't want to go far from my apartment, lol.
(McDs was 3-4 blocks away. I'd drive there sometimes, lol. Not a huge fan of McDs, but I think the hot mustard sauce was the draw for me.)
Chicken fries were launched in 2005 not 2013. They did leave for one year preceding 2013 but the way this was phrased at 23:45 doesn’t sound accurate.
Your videos are so well made. You deserve way more views.
Wake up babe, Modern MBA is back
And yet, most people have never even heard of Wendy’s
I am a Burger King person. My whole life, something about their presentation and their food works for me.
I lived in South Florida in the 1990s when the company was pretty much without leadership. I can't remember if it was being sold but a conglomerate or if it had already been spun off, but nobody wanted to buy it. And corporate leadership were fleeing from it. And I still enjoyed eating there. Something about the menu and the atmosphere.
One of the best channels on RUclips.
24:45 My mind went to the chopped cheese. Amazing that no one has picked up this idea. Really need a food guy that loves food and the product for these brands to be successful.
Market: Why eat at BK?
John: No reason not to
I remember the early-mid 2010s, when Wendy's was focusing on quality over scale and margin. They had fantastic food, especially the chicken sandwich, and were my go-to fast food joint. But in recent years their quality has declined drastically, and I rarely look to them when I'm on the road and hungry.
I’m pretty sure the actor eating the shrimp burger thing in the BK ad was the same guy in the Squid Game. Cool.
Where's Chick-Fil-A?
Another business taken over by the MBA's. These are just numbers people, they know nothing about running a business. They were skilled in the fine art of managing money, but have never been taught how to manage people. That is why so many corporations are just a brand, they make nothing they sell, they outsource to cheap foreign labor so they do not have to deal with people. Yet you consumers seem to trust these corporations over the real corporations that have learned to make profits by managing a local labor force that build local communities by treating them with dignity.
Really appreciate the choice of font. Brings me Kamurocho vibes 👌
I'm 50 years old and I remember a time when McDonald's made fantastic food and it was reasonably priced and I can feed myself my wife and both of my young daughters for less than $20 at McDonald's back in the early 90s McDonald's quality sucks ass and the main reason is because of where they're located they pull employees from that location which tends to be run down shit hole areas and therefore you're going to get the same quality of people working there as the neighborhood quality is. In other words the worst the neighborhood the worst workers McDonald's will get and that's how it ends up being shipped food all the time. I'll take Burger King over McDonald's 99% of the time and I will take Wendy's over all of them 100% of the time. In fact less than five miles from my house now they're actually building a new Wendy's and I'm super excited can't wait for a grand opening and I will be there day one
As Hank Schrader once said "Wendy giving Wendy's"
I think John (the CEO) wasn't wrong in his approach even if it was harsh to the franchisees. Wendys overtook Burger King at that time due to the exoneration from the finger chili incident, their expansion into breakfast, and many more "wins." John was simply trying to play a long game that was tragically ended prematurely. His goal was to make affordable food profitable and the Burger King that came after him did nothing but salt the earth of his efforts. Not only did quality drop severely as a result of the transfer of owners, but they destroyed any "value" the lower tier items had.