With 100 million members and member contributions accounting for over 40%, how does the “latecomer” Burger King develop its private domain?

Burger King, which entered the Chinese market late, already has more than 1,400 stores in my country by the beginning of the year, and has accumulated more than 100 million private domain members. In Burger King's overall sales performance, member sales account for more than 40%. How does Burger King do a good job in private domain operations? The author of this article will take you to find out.

Compared with the two overseas fast food giants KFC and McDonald's, Burger King did not officially enter China until 2005.

At this time, competitors had already set up a large number of stores in China. In the first seven years of entering the Chinese market, Burger King only opened 52 stores in mainland China.

However, as of early 2023, Burger King has more than 1,400 stores across the country and has accumulated more than 100 million private domain members .

Currently, member sales account for more than 40% of Burger King's overall sales. If we add the 30% from takeaway channels and other online channels, digital channels contribute about 80% to Burger King's sales.

Let’s take a closer look at how Burger King manages its private domain operations.

The contents of this article are as follows:

1. Case Background
2. Private IP Disassembly
3. Traffic channel analysis
4. Community Operation Analysis
5. Membership system breakdown

01 Case Background

1. Brand Introduction

Burger King was founded in 1954. Three years later, it launched its strategic product, the "Royer Burger", which set off a hamburger wave in North America and became the representative of Western hamburger culture.

As of 2019, the number of Burger King stores worldwide exceeded 18,800, and the global total revenue exceeded 160 billion yuan. In terms of market share, Burger King is second only to KFC and McDonald's, becoming a veritable Western fast food giant.

2. Market size

Data shows that the market size of Chinese fast food in 2021 is about 642.6 billion yuan, while the market size of Western fast food is about one-third of that of Chinese fast food during the same period, and the growth rate has slowed down in recent years. However, this is still a super market worth hundreds of billions of yuan, and it is expected to reach 380 billion yuan in 2023.

3. User portrait

Burger King's target group is mainly young people, and the age of its user group is mostly between 20 and 35 years old .

02 Private Domain IP Disassembly

Burger King has carefully crafted its customer service WeChat account, with the brand IP divided into "Burger Store Manager" and "Burger Welfare Officer," whose roles are mainly focused on brand promotion and welfare distribution.

Below is a detailed analysis using the corporate IP I added as an example.

1. Personal positioning

Nickname: Baobao Store Manager

Avatar: Anime character avatar

Role positioning: Brand welfare officer

2. Automatic welcome message

Send community links as soon as possible and inform users of the benefits included in the community so that users can grasp all valuable information in a timely manner.

3. Moments Operation

Content frequency : 2-3 pieces per week

Release time : Unfixed

Moments content : mainly new product promotions and discounts

03 Traffic Channel Analysis

Burger King has established a private domain matrix with WeChat as the core, and established private domain traffic channels on official accounts and mini programs. In addition, it has carried out private domain operations or electronic voucher conversions to varying degrees on platforms such as Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and Weibo.

The following is a breakdown of the drainage methods and main contents of each channel:

1. Private Domain Platform

1) Official Account

The Burger King China official account has a private community entry in the menu bar. The specific path is:

Official account menu bar "BK Member" – Join the community – Scan the QR code to add customer service WeChat – Customer service invites you to join the group – Enter the community.

2) Mini Programs

Burger King has 3 mini-apps, each with different functions, to facilitate users with different needs. They are as follows:

Mini Program "i Burger King": mainly displays welfare information, membership functions, ordering services and points mall;

Mini Program "Burger King Delivery": mainly responsible for takeout orders;

Mini Program "Burger King Official Flagship Store": Mainly used to purchase Burger King electronic coupons;

2. Public Domain Platform

1) Video Account

Burger King linked the mini program on the homepage of the video account, and guided users to the private domain pool through the mini program.

The main video content is brand promotion, product recommendation, and situational drama. In addition, the account will regularly broadcast live to attract fans to place orders by grabbing benefits.

2) Xiaohongshu

There are more than 80,000 notes about Burger King on Xiaohongshu, and users have a high frequency of spontaneous promotion and exposure. The official account currently has 5,177 followers, and the content of the notes is mainly product promotion, new product launches, and event promotion.

3) Tik Tok

Burger King has established a matrix on Douyin, with the total number of fans of the three accounts exceeding 1.9 million .

The video content includes brand promotion, new product launches, product recommendations, situational dramas, etc., and links to the official website are placed on the account homepage to attract traffic.

4) Bilibili

Burger King’s Bilibili account currently has 6,976 followers, and the videos it publishes are mainly about brand promotion and product recommendations.

5) Weibo

Burger King has 667,000 followers on Weibo, and has posted more than 11,700 Weibo posts. Looking through its Weibo posts in recent days, it has posted more than 3 posts every day.

The main content is event promotion, product recommendations, new product launches, and prize-winning interactions.

04 Community Operation Analysis

Social networking is the most effective and common scenario for promoting activity in the private domain. Burger King increases product exposure and conversion through social networking operations. The following is a detailed analysis:

1. Basic information of the community

Group nickname: Burger King Hangzhou Lanzuan Tiancheng Store Welfare Group

Group positioning: welfare group

Community value: product notifications, latest benefits promotions, increased stickiness, and increased repeat purchases

2. Automatic welcome message and group rules

After joining the group, users will immediately receive a welcome message and be informed of the benefits of the community. Burger King clearly states the group rules and event previews in the group announcement, helping users quickly understand the value points of the community and establish boundaries to reduce future violations.

3. Community Content

The main content of the community includes introducing brand welfare activities, interactive games, promoting brands, etc. And the content is arranged regularly, and different welfare activities will be set up from Monday to weekend. Take the sop of a certain week as an example:

Monday: [Holiday Energy Pack], 50 yuan community vouchers will be distributed;

Wednesday: [King's Day], 9.9 yuan 1+1 as you like;

Friday: [Activity day], draw for 0 yuan fries;

Saturday: [Exclusive], receive holiday-exclusive offers.

05 Membership System Analysis

Nowadays, the "membership" model has long been commonplace in private domain operations. It not only can better serve high-quality users, but also can lock in users' consumption for a period of time in the future. Especially in the catering industry, paid membership is also becoming a trend.

In response to the development of the times, Burger King launched a membership system based on "paid membership".

Below is a brief breakdown of Burger King's membership system, which consists of two main parts: paid membership cards and a points system.

1. Paid Membership

Burger King has three types of paid memberships, with different themed cards designed for different groups of people and usage scenarios, as follows:

King Card (19 and 39 yuan, divided into monthly and quarterly cards): For users who purchase it, they can enjoy benefits including super value meals, 40% off breakfast, 8 yuan coffee, and free delivery;

KING Strong Coffee Card (9.9 yuan): For users who purchase it, they can enjoy a cup of coffee of any flavor at 8 yuan per day;

Breakfast Card (19 yuan): Users who purchase the card can enjoy benefits including 50% off on 11 types of 2-piece breakfast sets.

2. Points system

Users can earn points through consumption, and the points can be redeemed for coupons and gifts.

In addition, Burger King's points can also be used for lucky draws. The 1-yuan snacks won in the lucky draws can be added to the shopping cart after any consumption. This can stimulate user consumption and increase repeat purchases.

06 Highlights and shortcomings

Finally, let’s summarize Burger King’s highlights and areas for improvement in private domain operations:

1. High repurchase rate in the community: Although the interaction rate of Burger King’s community is not high, the community has rich activities and many preferential benefits, so the repurchase rate is good.
2. The stratification is sufficiently refined: McDonald’s mini-programs and paid memberships are both finely stratified to facilitate use by users with various needs.
3. The IP number operation is relatively rough: the employees' corporate WeChat lacks operation, and their friend circles are full of coupon content, which creates a sense of distance from users.

Author: Yan Tao

Source: WeChat public account "Yan Tao Sanshou (ID: yantao-219)"