Friday, September 27, 2013

Will a pretzel bacon cheeseburger promoted by Nick Lachey convince more Gen Y’s to eat at Wendy’s?


Recently the fast-food companies started to realize that Gen Y (19-33 year-olds) prefers fast-food casual chains (e.g. Subway) over them.  In an effort to attract this important demo, Wendy’s created the pretzel bacon cheeseburger.  And then they engaged Nick Lachey to help sell it through social media.  (Morrison, 2013)

They are hoping that consumers will see the item as a “craft” burger, and of course it includes everyone’s favorite food du jour – bacon.  The campaign revolves around consumer tweets, which are incorporated into songs, preformed by Mr. Lachey and Second City members which are then posted on Facebook and YouTube.  (Russell, 2013)

Here’s the launch song which was done as a live feed from the Wendy’s on 34th Street in case you missed it.




So what do you think?  Is this going to draw Gen Y into the chain?


Morrison, M. (2013, July 8)  Wendy’s Signs Nick Lachey to Foist Its Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger on the World.  adage.com.  Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://adage.com/article/news/wendy-s-nick-lachey-serenade-pretzel-bacon-burger/242982/


Russell, K. (2013, July 8) Wendy’s Believes This pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger Will bring In The Millennials.  businessinsider.com.  Retrieved September 26, 2013, from http://www.businessinsider.com/wendys-betting-on-pretzel-cheeseburger-2013-7

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I didn't know exactly many things about this video.
Because both Wendy's and Nick Lachey are unfamiliar to me, but this video is so cool.
I think their target might be Gen Y. (I'm also their target!)
New product - pretzel bacon cheeseburger - is not more important than this promotion.
Using social network(Youtube and Twitter) is good because it is real Gen Y's way.
Twitter and romantic song is enough to draw into 'Hash tag (#pretzellovesongs)'.
Also their big competitor -Mcdonalds- current promotion concept is focused on football season.
Especially Gen Y women could be drawn into Wendy's. I'm sure.

Mark S. said...

My first thought was that their pretzel bacon cheeseburger didn’t seem to fall into a “fast-food casual” category. Also, it wasn’t clear that the pretzel referred to the bun – I originally thought it was a burger with pretzels on it, which didn’t seem very appetizing. I think it’s possible for a burger to be in this category (a few fast-food casual burger places have opened in my town in NJ) but Wendy's should promote the healthier benefits that might appeal to millennials, such as better protein or that it came from grass-fed cows.

The Nick Lachey promotion seems fun, and should be able to attract some millennials, although I don’t know if musicians have the wide pull they once did (the music market is too fragmented). I also think that a reason that fast-casual restaurants are successful in attracting millennials is because they build relationships with customers beyond the Internet. This could be their community involvement, design/atmosphere of their stores (to facilitate group meetings, for example), or service quality. Wendy’s may want to look into some of these strategies in order to attract more of Gen Y.

Anonymous said...

I think Wendy's' strategy is great. These days, there are too many advertisements that appeals people visually. All of them try to catch people's eyes. Therefore, it is hard to remember all of it and visual things don't really come to people's mind when people are not seeing those.
However, if there is something that stimulate people aurally, it will appeal people more. Once it catch people's "ears", it also influence to people's mouths. Especially, in case of a song, it is easy to remember the melody and hum it. Also, this one for the pretzel burger has witty and funny lyric to keep reminding people of that burger. If someone sings it, others can hear without turning a real audio of commercial on.
Moreover, their campaign using tweeter is good. It is really proper to appeal their target audience, Gen Y. Because they are pretty main users, so many Gen Y who have tweeter can participate to the song and it can be shared by their friends. The young generation tend to enjoy things like that. Even if they do it just for fun, that burger can be continuously exposed and let people see the name or the brand. Therefore, I believe it will bring good result and draw Gen Y into the chain.

Thanks! See you this afternoon.

Regards, Yun

grace_legends said...

They are definitely standing out from the crowd of typical fast-food commercial ads . I've never heard pride- love- songs to a cheeseburger. Their customer must have a great sense of humor and an appetite.