We're Number Two

Just the other day I happened to be driving past Burger King when their sign caught my attention. Normally they tout burger deals, but this time they were promoting coffee. BK is not exactly the first establishment that leaps to mind when I think coffee, falling somewhere after the corner gas station but before the muffler shop. But that's not what caught my attention — it was the promotion of free coffee from 7 am to 9 am. Considering that's a time of day when a lot of people tend to purchase a coffee, the idea of a free cuppa is rather enticing.

Naturally, the assumption is that the King is hoping that with your free coffee you'll purchase a breakfast sandwich or some cheesy tots. A fairly reasonable assumption, and since coffee costs very little to produce, a fair reasonable loss leader. But that's not why Burger King is running this promotion. No, they're running it because McDonald's is giving away free coffee from 5 am to 8 am.

Isn't that just the way it always is with Burger King? Forever doomed to be the runner up, but not for lack of effort. It seems everything that McD's does BK wants to overdo. Can you imagine the corporate planning meetings?

"So they have a clown for a mascot, what's better than a clown?"
"A magician?"
"No, that's lame, we need something awesome — how about a king?"

Or perhaps

"So, we need something that sounds better than Big Mac, who likes Giant Burger?"
"Made with 100% real giant?"
"Okay, so not Giant Burger? Maybe Uber Burger?"
"That's too hard to say. . . what about Whopper?"

You can see how this would go. Ultimately, Burger King manages to do okay as the second fiddle burger chain, always pushing for that top spot, but probably never really expecting to reach it.

The same thing happens in a lot of markets — the one unassailable monolith versus the persistent challenger. Coke and Pepsi. Windows and Apple. Hallmark and Carlton Cards. Disney and Warner Bros. The list goes on.

Sometimes you have to wonder why the perennial runner ups keep at it. It's not like anyone actually expects Pepsi to outsell Coke someday, apart from in select regional markets. Sure, some folks like to root for the underdog, but a lot of people have the mentality that if you can't win, why play?

Ultimately being in second (or third, or fourth, or ninth) place allows you more potential to innovate and try to come up with something new and different. Of course, so often it doesn't happen that way, as per the example of the free BK coffee from a few paragraphs ago. And who can forget the sheer originality of Pepsi Vanilla, introduced not so many months after Vanilla Coke?

While it's easy to make fun of the second place guys, imagine a world where there was no Burger King? Imagine a world where McDonald's has no one nipping at their heels looking to steal away market share. Their restaurants would soon employ no one but clueless incompetent teenagers with no interest in actually getting your order correct.

On second thought, maybe if Burger King can try a little bit harder. . .