report opic business communication case study burger king

Rationale Recently, in 2019, after an advertisement on Burger King New Zealand''''s Instagramdepicted westerners attempting to eat the new "Vietnamese Sweet Chili Tender CrispBurger" with a

NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITYSCHOOL OF ADVANCED EDUCATIONAL PROGRAM

ReportTopic

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION’ CASE STUDY: BURGERKING

StudentsNguy n Ng c Minh ChâuễọVương Quang HuyNguy n Th Hễị ương GiangBùi Phương Th oả

SupervisorMrs Mai Le

Hanoi, 2021

Burger King, the world's second-largest fast-food hamburger company, entered theVietnamese fast-food market through franchising in 2012 Burger King would investforty million dollars to develop the restaurant chains with the hope to open as manystores as possible Fast food in Vietnam is a competitive market and need great long-termsuccess to capture market share While the worldwide fast-food market growing at only5% to 7%, the fast-food market in Vietnam is 15% to 20%, which is too attractive toinvestors and calls for a lot of big brands participating and contributing to the competitionbeing pushed higher than ever They began with thirteen stores in three cities: Hanoi, HoChi Minh and Da Nang and quickly expanded to seventeen stores in late 2012 Currently,Burger King in Vietnam has a substantial change in brand and profit when the number ofstores decreases from 17 to 9 stores with the problem of indigenous culture This meansthat after 8 years of business in Vietnam, Burger King not only stagnates but also slightlyregressed in the plan to expand the chains in the country of ninety million people

2 Rationale

Recently, in 2019, after an advertisement on Burger King New Zealand's Instagramdepicted westerners attempting to eat the new "Vietnamese Sweet Chili Tender CrispBurger" with absurdly large red chopsticks, the fast-food business experienced a massiveinternet criticism The advertisement, which did not appear to depict any Vietnamesepeople, was captioned, "Take your taste buds all the way to Ho Chi Minh City”.However, the post was eventually removed after a post criticizing the advertisement asrude and culturally inappropriate went viral, garnering over 2.7 million views and

sparking outrage that Burger King was mocking chopsticks and Asian culture The foodchain apologized, admitting the advert was “insensitive and does not reflect our brandvalues regarding diversity and inclusion.” Yet the brand has been facing a deluge ofderogatory comments across social accounts in all its markets following the PRblowback Several comments feature the hashtag #BurgerKingGetOutOfVietnam Theprovocative advertisement might be just as harmful to Burger King's standing in Asia.While the fast-food chain has yet to acquire momentum in Vietnam, it is highly popularin the area, serving as the largest US food chain in Malaysia and the second largest inThailand and Indonesia The firm intends to open 1,000 additional stores in China.Therefore, whether a company is just getting started or has been in operation for a fewyears, or even decades, social media platforms are crucial to effectively reach to abroader audience

II Problems in the case study

Burger King, the latest western corporation to be criticized of ridiculing Asian foodcustoms, has been forced to remove a "culturally insensitive" advertisement depicting awesterner straining to eat a burger with chopsticks Moreover, the caption of anadvertisement points directly to the city of Vietnam- Ho Chi Minh city It was captioned:“Take your tastebuds all the way to Ho Chi Minh City with our Vietnamese Sweet ChiliTender crisp, part of our Tastes of the World range Available for a limited time only".Many users on social media expressed their displeasure with the advertisement, whichthey thought was culturally insensitive and exploited chopsticks as a joke vehicle.Especially the audiences in Asia and Vietnam are extremely dissatisfied with thisadvertisement and Vietnamese people even boycott Burger King due to the culturalsensitivity and the racism from the brand Others pointed out that sweet chilli sauce, theburger's distinctive ingredient, is considerably more common in Thailand than inVietnam.

b Analyzing the problem:

The ad played on widespread Asian stereotypes, as though their thought process went,‘what’s Asian? Chopsticks!’ The brand walks a delicate line when trying to reach to thespecific audiences A company could have broadcast a single TV commercial to a largegroup of customers ten years ago without fear of backlash Fast food companiesfrequently use humor in their advertisements; however, humor is subjective, and what oneperson finds funny may offend another That means brands must think about how theircontent will be perceived on a social scale in addition to keeping a close eye on it.

Some have in comparison the fast-food brand's since-eliminated commercial to the

debatable Dolce & Gabbana advertmarketing campaign that confirmed a version eating

Italian food with chopsticks Just closingyear Italian stylebrand Dolce and Gabbana hadbeen accused of racism and racial stereotyping when theyposted a video at the Chinesesocial media platform Weibo displaying a Chinese versionthe usage of chopsticks to

attempt toeat a pizza, a cannoli and spaghetti The backlash in China changed into so big

that some Chinese web sites and stores stopped promoting Dolce and Gabbana products.

It is clear that discrimination in advertising continues to be a serious issue Althoughmajor advertisers are assisting in the creation of an inclusive culture in which KingBurger can feel like they are a part of the culture and that they belong here, attempts totruly showcase Vietnamese traditional cuisine in advertising have so far failed.Meanwhile, some advertisers attempt to exploit or foment divisiveness, while others aresimply unconcerned about the offense they cause.

This problem was a result of poor market research and a lack of interpretation making process.

decision-● Poor market research

The problem of poor market research of large transnational corporations has causedunnecessary social media communication crises Burger King has made the same mistakeas Dolce & Gabbana when it had a media campaign and used images deemed "offensive",which had negatively impacted brand reputation This is a consequence of the lack ofmarket research and reasonable communication decisions by the company's leadership.Especially, in the case of Burger King, the firm did not research thoroughly the customs,practices, culture of Vietnamese people in general and food culture in particular Vietnam

is a country with a long history and traditions, so cultural values have been passed downthrough many generations Therefore, businesses must understand the importance ofculture when doing business in Vietnam because when they neglect this aspect in doingmarket research, they would miss valuable opportunities and heavy losses in terms ofimage and revenue

Nevertheless, the most absurd knowing is that the American Society of Anesthesiologistsordered the ad be removed from any platform, not because of any reasons involvingcultural insensitivity, but the advertisement’s final remark (“Just need another three!”)normalized what it is believed to be “excessive consumption” This is an example of foodmarketing that takes advantage of the developmental vulnerabilities of specific targetedaudiences

● Lack of interpretation decision-making process

Not only that, the decision-making process of media campaigns with transnationalcorporations is definitely important To have an effective communication campaign,multinational corporations need to have cultural diversity from many different countries.Indeed, Burger King has not really built a diverse cultural environment in the workplace,so the decision-making process of the management has lacked proper evaluation When acompany tries to engage with consumers from another culture, understanding cross-cultural differences is critical to the venture's success Misunderstandings andcommunication blunders will harm these efforts if the persons in charge of these projectsor their advertising firms are unaware of the influence on cross-cultural connections.

2 Problem 2

Analyzing the problem of lack of control over franchisees

Franchising is a crucial entrepreneurial growth strategy that involves partnership amongtwo distinct types of entrepreneurs The franchisor recognized a business opportunity andestablished a new venture to exploit it The franchisee purchases the right to replicate thefranchisor's business model and exploit the opportunity in a new geographic market.(Inbar Pizanti, Miri Lerner, 2015)

Nowadays, franchising has gained recognition as a secure and practical means forestablishing businesses in foreign countries, which is currently considered a fast way tobusiness growth Especially, the fast food and business services sector attribute more than

50% of the international franchising operations of US firms and Burger King is one of thesuccessful fast-food franchises all over the world However, franchises around the worldwith various locations and diverse cultures makes it more challenging in managing

One of the challenges in franchising is reputation risks when a lack of control inmanagement issues in almost all franchises chains all over the world As the nature of thefranchise system, the franchisee purchases the brand rights from the franchisor, then theyhave a contract that defines the obligations and rights of both the franchisor and thefranchisee to protect the commercial interests of both sides In the beginning, thefranchisee will receive business assistance from the franchisor such as brand recognition,the equipment, supplies, and the advertising plan After having assistance from thefranchisor, the franchisee needs to establish a long-term business strategy and marketingcampaign on their own Therefore, the franchisors have no right to control all thefranchisee's business activities, especially social media activities Indeed, most of thefast-food chain locations are separately held by individual owners and marketingcampaign dependence on those owners, therefore, in this case, Burger King’s associationwithin its franchises has not always effectively networked Indeed, Burger King foodchains in New Zealand are separate from Burger King in Vietnam, which both chains aredifferent from social media activities Hence, the activity of posting advertisements onsocial platforms in New Zealand and other chains in the world are not under the controlof the Burger King’ headquarter in the US

In 2019, Burger King New Zealand uploaded an advertisement with a sensitive imageand content and went viral immediately on the Internet with a reach of 2.7 million views,which brings negative effects on the reputation of the chain Meanwhile, reputation isconsidered an intangible asset for a fast-food chain because it ensures its stability in theeyes of the customers Also, reputation is positively related to repurchase intention, wordof mouth and brand loyalty, which is crucial for the expansion and growth of thefranchise Therefore, with the bad reputation starting from the New Zealand chainInstagram's account, the brand was under criticism heavily, especially from the Asians.Also, the brand image had hit heavily negative effects when several comments fromVietnam with the hashtag "BurgerKingGetOutOfVietNam" emerged on the socialnetworking sites of Burger King Vietnam Consequently, the mistake in advertisingactivity in New Zealand restaurants could bring serious negative influence on theVietnam region that has not well robust

III Recommendations and applying theory to address theproblems

1 Problem 1

Burger King, for its part, has withdrawn a commercial and apologized after beingbranded a racist by several netizens for personally attacking Asian people who eat withchopsticks via social media This is because the use of media platforms is emerging as animportant technology for disaster response in the digital age.

The brand's representative, Mr James Woodbridge (general marketing manager)apologized for this communication problem It was one of the mistakes that the companyhad released this deeply racist ad At the same time, the company has withdrawn thisvideo from all media and asked the Burger King franchisee in New Zealand to removethe video from its marketing plan Although the advertisement has been taken down fromBurger King New Zealand's social platforms, the Vietnamese burger included in the videois still available on the fast-food chain's website and was under heavy criticism on theforums Burger King also sent an apology immediately for not well-prepared marketresearch, especially about the Asian culture, which provoked a boycott from the public.Whenever a crisis happens, either because the company itself did or due to externalfactors, the situation needs to be managed and addressed immediately by the company.Therefore, evaluating then choosing an effective communication channel to cope with thecrisis needs to be prioritized To solve the problem of Burger King, our group has beenresearching and collecting several effective solutions

The first solution is establishing effective channels to engage with more followers onmass media because of the diverse social media audience This is necessary on account ofthe spread perpetual way messages usually have amplifier effects One new followercould be tens, hundreds or thousands other social media users could follow posts at thetime of crisis However, due to the diversity of social media users, social media channelsneed to be regularly evaluated to ensure that they have had maximum impacts anddetermine effective plans for negative circumstances Therefore, it is necessary to assessby posting the same message on different social media platforms and channels and thencontrolling the reach, view, and engagement by statistics.

Following the theory in chapter 4 Business Communication of Mary Ellen Guffey andDana Loewy, it is essential for Burger King to analyze and anticipate the audience,especially the customers who come from Asia who damage directly through the

advertisement To have an effective apology message, first, the company need todetermine the purpose of writing a message Why does Burger King need to write thismessage? What do they achieve when the audience receives the message? In thissituation, the primary purpose is to send an apology for their misunderstandingadvertisement and the secondary purpose is to show the customers that the brand iswilling to fix their problem and hope that audiences may accept the apology and keepconsuming their products After identifying the purpose, the company now need toanticipate and profile the audience The primary audiences in this situation are consumersfrom Asia, especially Vietnamese customers The secondary customers are the audiencesfrom all over the world who can receive the message Then Burger King needs to makechoices based on the audience profile which means they must carefully decide thelanguage in the message, both suitable for primary and secondary audiences The decisivestep and a crucial one is the way the company selects the best channel to send themessage In addition to these practical problems, you'll think about the channel's material.The amount to which a channel or medium recreates or displays all the informationaccessible in the original message is referred to as the channel's richness Moreengagement and feedback are possible with richer media, such as a face-to-face chat Aflat, one-dimensional message is presented by a thinner medium, such as a letter or an e-mail More verbal and visual clues, as well as the ability to customize the message to theaudience, are all possible with richer media.

Secondly, gathering feedback from the public, as well as regularly evaluating the socialmedia activities are keys to gain more customers during a crisis The business then canbe aware of how posting content can be interpreted by the audience Of course, notplacing information on the website can be strategic It's likely that an organization doesn'twant to make the situation public by posting information about it on the companywebsite But one of the terrific ways to get higher engagement is to implement contestson social media channels Otherwise, it is also important that businesses need to carefullycontrol their social media activities:

● When posting information, be truthful and transparent Before, during, and after acrisis, provide accessible information to reduce "new dangers as well as fulfillingthe public's desire for information so they do not seek to other providers."● Build a relationship with the publicbefore a crisis and encompass it to yourcrisis

control policy It is essentialto set up a crisis control method that consists ofconversation and social media updates Continuous conversation via social media

needs to be achieved before, during and after a crisis A powerfulmethod or

coverage is “ongoing and entails preparedness sportswhich includeinstructing thegeneral public”

● During a crisis, make sure your messages are delivered on time When a crisisoccurs, it is crucial to respond quickly to the public The first reply is the mostnecessary It is vital to (i) permitpeoplerecogniseyou'reaware about the crisis,(ii) that you're coping with it, (iii) what steps are being taken, or (iv) that you aregoing to “respond at a certain time when the facts are assessed”.

● Sociocultural cognizance Emergency and disaster corporations need to be

conscious that cultural agencies can interpret tweets differently It is essential to

growth the social-cultural recognitionmost of the tweeters and keep away from

prejudiced or biased posts This may beachievedwith the aid of usingoperatingatthe inner subculturewithinside the organization.

Internal communications can be overlooked in the rush to deal with the issue and itsimpact on external audiences When addressed appropriately, effective internalcommunication, on the other hand, can be one of the most successful techniques forensuring that your problem does not worsen Therefore, businesses can navigate internalorganizations’ behaviour through the media crisis.

● Provide messages of self-efficacy: If the organisation can involve stakeholderswith significantmoves in a crisis,it couldpromote a experience of manage andself-efficacy Emergency and disastercompaniesought to offer “ a proof as to whythe movement is recommended”.

● Organize your messaging: Arrange the distribution of any crisis communicationmessages that are spread throughout the company It's vital to avoid circumstanceswhere certain members of the council have more up-to-date information thanothers Instead of devolving different messages to different portions of theorganization, consider producing an hourly bulletin where the most up-to-dateinformation will be presented to everyone.

2 Problem 2

Burger King's ownership structure is influenced not only by the external environment(competitors) but also by the franchisee entity structure, which has an impact on thedynamics of control and autonomy in franchising partnerships To solve the problem,Burger King needs to create a franchise network that can close the relationship amongfranchises all over the world It is essential that the franchisor should be a great hostwhich means that the franchisors need to be the connector for all the franchisees Indeed,the annual conference is the way to make Burger King’s franchisees in different regions