Over the past year Burger King has attempted to change its menu not by creating new items that require new ingredients, but rather by creating new items that use ingredients that already exist on hand in the kitchen. Burger King has said that this approach to menu innovation is working in their favor; Daniel Schwartz, Burger King Chief Executive Officer has stated that the third consecutive quarter of growth was “driven by our strategy of launching fewer, more impactful products and by the continued popularity of our core offerings.”

In the last quarter Burger King launched five new items, less than it has in past quarters, which were all essentially versions of existing burgers with small adjustments. For instance, the new Chicken Big King is a Big King with a chicken patty that replace the beef patty. Similarly, the new BBQ Bacon Whopper is essentially a Whopper that has bacon and sauce added to it, and the Extra Long BBQ Cheeseburger utilizes the same hoagie bun that is currently used for the chicken sandwich and inserts two beef patties, cheese, BBQ sauce and onion rings.

In the past Burger King has launched seasonal new items which caused complications in the kitchen, which led to this more modest menu innovation strategy. McDonald’s is also attempting to simplify the menu in order to increase speed and efficiency at its restaurant locations. The ordering and execution will be more streamlined with simpler menu items that do not require too many ingredients or a complicated time-consuming assembly process. Burger King’s President for North America, Alexandre Macedo, has stated that this new menu strategy that tweaks original menu items without adding new products or ingredients will enable the company to focus spending in certain high-impact areas and will also allow Burger King to be more consistent across the board in its marketing efforts.

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