By Kelly Rogan, on 22 June 2015
Fast food chains are part of our daily lives, just like our mobile phone. Surely you’ve eaten a burger menu with fries and a drink in your time off from work, with family or hanging out with friends. Therefore, we will analyze the McDonald's and Burger King Apps to see what marketing efforts are being implemented to seduce and keep their consumers.
These two popular fast food brands have already had their applications for a few years focused on the Spanish market. These companies seek to approach the millennium generation, which is known to be more connected to their products. With this system, chain restaurants can strengthen customer loyalty and encourage consumption.
# 1 platforms that are available in the app's
Both the Burger King Spain App and the McDonald's Spain App can be downloaded on iOS and Android market. There is no official option to download on other systems such as Microsoft. Why? The answer can be found in a recent study, presented at the last Mobile World Congress, entitled Mobile Overview Report, in which it notes that today in Spain 82% of devices sold in the market are Android and 12 % are Apple. These being the most popular it's understandable why Spanish marketing departments have decided to skip the rest of mobile operating systems (as its presence is almost irrelevant).
# 2 User Ratings
If you visit the Apple App store you will find this data on the two applications:
- Burger King app: Its ranking is based on 200 scores and has two and a half stars (out of 5). 48 users rated with the highest grade (5) and 88 with the lower (1). Personal opinions stress that what they like most about the application are the discount coupons offered to consume brand products.
- McDonald's App: Has 2 star rating (out of 5) average of 487 votes from consumers. With the highest score they have scored 100 and 301. The lowest score user reviews emphasize that the purpose of this application is to know what deals are available at the nearest restaurant in this chain (using geographical location).
In contract, the Android App Store receives these figures:
- Burger King app: Android is very vague when it comes to how many people have installed the program. In the case of this brand, it tells you that they have between 1 and 5 million users. With regard to score 18,575 users have voted and have given an average of 3.9 out of 5 and 3,894 have recommended the app through Google+.
- McDonald's App: This also the have been installed by 1 and 5 million people. The assessment of consumers about the program results in 2.9 out of 5 stars from the total 8,364 people who voted. 3,175 users recommend it on Google+.
In marketing, it is all in the numbers. We must always be analyzing, segmenting and drawing conclusions, and here you can see that the most valued App is Burger King, on both IOS and Android.
# 3. Main Purpose of the App's
These brands define what their main goal is: "New products, promotions, discounts and more!" And "Enjoy special offers available only on the app and coupons discounts." The two agree in general terms. McDonald's marketers such as Burger King have designed specific applications for the Spanish market and intended to have their ordinary consumers to enjoy special discounts that can only be achieved through mobile.
The two apps differ in that Burger King puts consumer loyalty first by offering simple and direct discounts. Instead, McDonald's has as main goal to obtain the data of users by offering promotions through the Call-to-Action.
# 4. Mobile Costumer Experience (Mobile User Experience)
Now remains installing and testing applications. My personal experience of a smartphone Samsung Galaxy S5 with a screen of 5.1 inches, a respectable size.
- Burger King App
The Burger King application plays with corporate colors for the application design: cream color for the background and red buttons and part of the texts. This gives a greater sense of light and space. Although the problem is that some offers contain letters and very small images, because they have much detail, that in a mobile lose definition.
To apply the discounts at the time of purchase, it's enough to show the phone at the store or say the name of the offer.
Having the ability to place orders at home, find deals according to the autonomous community where you live, geographical location to offer the nearest restaurants, see the current local store and corporate videos. The app is simple, updated, intuitive and has fast navigation.
- McDonald's App
The McDonald's App is committed to a design that contains a lot of black, a color that has little to do with corporate design. Also, putting a dark background color undermines the perception the clear images that are used for offers and coupons.
To access the discounts it is necessary to register. I understand that the goal of the marketing department is to collect the personal data of users who use your app, so as to contact them later. But to force users to give their personal data for promotions may discourage more than one from registering. If we want consumers to register, it is best done through actions that attract or seduce them and not an obligation.
Actually, it provides little consumer content and you don't have to longon. It stresses the option to know what's closest to your situation if you check the option of premises are mobile GPS.
Marketers must take into account that mobile is an increasingly powerful tool in our marketing strategy, with an App that arriveds straight into the hands of our customers!
What experience have you had through the smartphone with your favorite brands? Tell us here!
