Burger King Worldwide Inc (BKW): The Return of the King

Appealing to the royal family
Previous management’s marketing strategy and menu items were targeted at a very narrow subset of the population; young, adult, males. Males under 18, males over 35, families, women, children; these groups were, generally speaking, not Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW)’s customers. If you wish to be a niche player in the fast food burger space, there is nothing wrong with hype-focusing on a certain target demographic. But if you wish to be a more mainstream restaurant company, you have to try to appeal more to the masses.

And wishing to be more mainstream, new management began the implementation of their plan to win over more women, children and families. Introduced recently are premium salads to appeal to the older female demographic, dessert items for children, sandwich wraps for the young female demographic and fruit smoothies for a little mass market appear (because who doesn’t love a fruit smoothie?). Burger King also began expanding their coffee selection and introducing more chicken items to their once predominately burger-centric sandwich menu. And if sales are any indication, these efforts are beginning to bear fruit.

Foolish bottom line
New management is expecting big things for the company and current investors seem to agree. Although still early, Burger King Worldwide Inc (NYSE:BKW) appears to be in the beginning stages of a turnaround. After successfully (thus far) implementing their new strategy, improving the financials and having reclaimed that No. 2 US position from The Wendy’s Co (NASDAQ:WEN) earlier this year, Burger King appears poised to regain some, if not all, of its former glory.

The article The Return of the King originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Matthew Luke.

Matthew Luke has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Burger King Worldwide and McDonald’s. The Motley Fool owns shares of McDonald’s. Matthew is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network — entries represent the personal opinion of the blogger and are not formally edited.

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