Burger King’s £95 burger

Differentiation / Positioning, PR / Media, Word of Mouth / Buzz

by Mark Nagurski, June 19th, 2008

Anyone who’s ever read Seth Godin’s books or blogs (and an awful lot of people have) will probably have been introduced to the idea of a Purple Cow.

A Purple Cow is something that is truly, actually remarkable, i.e. it makes you remark - ideally to your friends, family and colleagues.

Burger King have launched their version of the Purple Cow (Burger) - a £95 Wagu beef burger with white truffle and saffron bun. Tempted? (I am if you’re buying.)

We can guess that this one isn’t likely to challenge the Whopper so the idea must be about publicity and positioning BK as the premier fast food burger place (in a similar way to its Angus range).

Grabbing a few column inches and other PR fun aside, I wonder how effective this kind of move really is. Is remarkable all about the authenticity or are we happy to remark regardless? And when we do remark, is it less likely to drive action if the remarkable thing is designed for that reason alone - being remarkable?

Is a purple cow all that remarkable if you know someone’s painted the poor heifer up for the cameras?

Additional resources:
1. Link to Trendhunter article and more overpriced burgers
2. A recent Purple Cow story on Seth’s blog

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