Burger Singh woos young foodies with Re.1 fries

In a bid to attract youngsters to its stores, home-grown fast food chain, Burger Singh has come up with a witty and unique marketing campaign — offering fries complimentary with any burger at just Re.1.

The company's name sounds familiar to American-based fast food giant, Burger King and that’s where the similarity ends. Because Burger Singh is known for its Indian taste and flavours in comparison to other burger brands in the QSR category.

To generate buzz and popularise the campaign, the brand has chosen offline branding and has connected with one thousand auto rickshaws in Delhi-NCR. It has also collaborated with apps such as Inshorts and Saavn to advertise on the digital medium.

The offer, that will run throughout the year, will be available on all food delivery apps and in select dine-in outlets.

The brand was launched in 2014 and has a presence in West and North India with 30 outlets in Delhi NCR, Jaipur, Dehradun, Nagpur and Pune. Plans are in full swing to expand in the existing market with 10 more outlets before the end of this year.

According to Kabir Jeet Singh, founder and chief executive officer, Burger Singh, “We get a lot of repeat customers because of our fries. We've curated an entire category around fries with 4 distinct flavours. Our target audience is just about anyone who loves to eat ‘burgers and fries’, everyone from school children to working professionals.”

In addition to the outdoor campaign, the brand has chosen two other focus areas to advertise: social media and digital (in-app). The division of expenditure between the three is approximately 30:30:40. “As a brand,” Singh says, “we need to understand our customer's patterns and deliver relevant content at suitable touch points. Our customers are tech savvy and regularly engage with music, news and social media apps. So, our choice of advertising on these apps will ensure the customer has seen us in a non-transactional environment.”

The brand has also ventured into the UK market with two outlets in London and aims to drive Burger Singh’s international expansion by taking Indian flavours across the world. Till date, the company has raised over USD 6 million in series A funding from both strategic and angel investors.

We asked industry experts for their opinion on Burger Singh’s choice of media channels and the campaign in general.

Brand strategist and founder, Brand-Building, M G Parameswaran a.k.a Ambi, explains, “QSRs are trying to attract the middle and the lower middle class to their shiny outlets. But Indians across all social strata are quite happy eating from roadside food stalls. Techniques like temporary price reduction are aimed at getting a new cohort into the restaurant. I am sure this will work.”

“The challenge is to gain stickiness with the fickle Indian consumers, especially millennials. They know when they see a good deal and are not as brand loyal as the older consumers. So, in addition to building a ’now’ appeal, Burger Singh needs to build an emotional appeal of going to the outlet. If they don’t do that, inside and outside, they will only get a temporary uptick in their footfalls,” says Ambi.

According to Rahul Vengalil, founder, WhatClicks, “If you look at the 4Ps of marketing, price is one of them. This being promoted across platforms will give the required eyeballs and push sales up, hopefully. It is a tactical campaign in my opinion.”

“I personally don't recommend discounting as a customer acquisition platform for F&B brands. It is a loose situation, as the new users coming are there only for the price and not for the food. There is no loyalty today, how will the brand retain the customers when the discount dries up,” he asks.