Brand marketing and promotion, how to capture the young group?

In May, which is Mental Health Month, Burger King has launched a series of "Unhappy Meals" to respond to the theme, providing an appetite outlet for those who are unhappy in life.

Everyone knows about the Happy Meal, but what about this unhappy meal?

Unhappy Package: Let your emotions run wild.

No need to pretend to be happy if you are not happy

Burger King's "Unhappy Meal" has launched five products targeting five different emotions.

There are the mildly sad meals (BLUE MEAL), the bitter meals (SALTY MEAL), the intensely angry meals (PISSED MEAL), the yelling meals (YAAAS MEAL), and the totally desperate I don't care meals (DGAF MEAL).

Burger King encourages young people who are experiencing low moods in life that if life deceives you, don't force a smile, accept your emotions, and order an unhappy meal.

In addition, Burger King also launched a video advertisement accordingly.

The young people in the advertisement are facing emotional collapse due to work problems, financial difficulties, parenting pressure, etc., and the background music sings leisurely, "I'm not angry, I just can't be happy, but there's nothing wrong with this feeling."

Burger King's advertisement, which is full of negative energy, seems very out of place in the context of major brands establishing a positive image.

What is the marketing logic behind this?

Burger King:

Marketing ingenuity of "touching porcelain" + mourning culture

Burger King’s marketing this time may seem illogical at first glance, but it actually contains several aspects of marketing cleverness.

First, fraudulent marketing.

Although it is not obvious on the surface, in fact, this is Burger King's second attempt to take advantage of McDonald's.

McDonald's has the well-known Happy Meal, which has been launched since 1979 and has a history of 40 years. This meal, which includes toys and food with different themes, sells an average of 3.2 million units per day, bringing huge profits to McDonald's.

Compared with the Happy Meal which is positioned for children, Burger King’s Unhappy Meal is mainly for adults.

This is essentially Burger King using a scam to illustrate its differentiation: the Innocent and Happy Meal is not suitable for adults, as there is no such thing as easy in the adult world. The Unhappy Meal is more suitable for adults and is more in line with the real world.

In fact, copying McDonald's has become Burger King's marketing highlight, and it happens every now and then.

For example, Burger King once "raided McDonald's backyard" - breaking into the mansion where McDonald's executives previously lived. In every carefully shot scene, there is a barbecue grill with a slogan on it: "Real fire grilling is too hard to resist."

Not only that, Burger King also encouraged consumers to go to McDonald's stores and order food using the Burger King App, leaving the other side's employees in tears and laughter.

This kind of marketing method of touching porcelain has a very good effect.

On the one hand, the fraud has tied Burger King to McDonald's to some extent, and it can use McDonald's fame to attract more attention to itself. This is the same as Luckin Coffee's fraud against Starbucks.

On the other hand, by using the "bumping" method, Burger King can highlight its differences from McDonald's. For example, Burger King’s meal is unhappy, while McDonald’s is happy; Burger King’s burgers are made on an open flame grill, while McDonald’s use a flat griddle.

Second, marketing of mourning culture.

Compared with the scam, "sorrowful culture" is the more unique highlight of Burger King's marketing this time.

Burger King has ingeniously linked mental health with fast food, launching a sad and unhappy meal. Not only does it display various sad things on the packaging, it also uses videos to reinforce the emotions.

The so-called "sadness marketing" takes the disappointments in life as the starting point and uses marketing activities to cater to consumers' negative emotions, thereby causing resonance and giving personalization to brands and products.

The most famous example of this kind of marketing is the "Sang Tea" of that year.

At the end of April 2017, NetEase News and Ele.me launched a pop-up store called "Sangcha". The menu of this store is very heartbreaking: "Your life is an oolong macchiato", "Come on, you are the fattest black tea latte", "My ex-boyfriend is living a better life than me black tea", etc.

Although the store was only open for four days, due to its strong sense of desolation and sharp contrast with Heytea, it became a phenomenal store and attracted a large number of customers and attention.

There is actually a solid underlying logic behind the sad marketing.

First of all, mourning culture caters to the inner heart of consumers. Since adulthood, all kinds of worries will follow us like a shadow. While people are trying hard to cope with them, they will inevitably feel tired and fragile inside. Sad statements can accurately hit consumers, which is equivalent to speaking for people.

Secondly, behind the sadness is the courage to face it. Showing the sad side of life does not mean admitting to decadence. On the contrary, it is an attitude of facing troubles directly and remaining positive after being sad. As the saying goes - the so-called heroism is to still love life after recognizing the truth of life.

Finally, mourning marketing helps to create differentiation. The marketing methods of most brands are positive, and they find ways to output positive energy to people. In this context, the appropriate use of mourning marketing can achieve innovative effects and form obvious differentiation.

Brand rejuvenation: Marketing should not preach to young people

Whether it is "bumping into porcelain" or "funeral style", we can see that marketing techniques are becoming more and more sophisticated and delicate.

Behind this is the rise of a new generation of consumer groups.

Today’s young people born after the 1990s are extremely resistant to “preaching”, pursue self-inner exile, and prefer brands with unique style. The old, blunt, and product-shoving marketing methods mostly don’t work.

Therefore, brands should find emotional resonance points for these young people.

For example, sad culture is the younger generation’s complaints about real life, and sad texts are mostly about daily topics such as work, emotions, and weight loss. The brand starts with the culture of mourning, which actually reflects an insight into the emotions of young people, complaining with them and then facing it positively.

This approach may seem indirect and detached from the product, but it actually leaves consumers with the impression that "this brand understands me."

In fact, brands are now more and more willing to discuss emotional topics with young people, even those that are not so positive. By helping consumers express their emotions through empathetic marketing language, we can further narrow the distance and establish a deeper emotional connection with consumers.

As for the specific marketing methods, each one has its own unique way of doing things. You can "bump into someone" or "happy yourself", you can use it to express "sadness" or "joy".

In short, don't preach to young people, talk to them. Only in this way can we truly achieve "brand rejuvenation".

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Author: Xu Li

Source: Marketing Front Page (MKT2000)