"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:17:40 -0400
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] O/T From Burger King in Japan, the Windows 7 Whopper
LOL...THAT is why you weren't invited.
On Oct 28, 2009, at 3:57 PM, Martin Baxter wrote: Why was I not told of
this in advance? Yes, despite my loathing of all things M$, I would've showed
up, eaten as much as I could of the burger...
... then sank back in my chair, unbuttoning my jacket to reveal a Firefox
t-shirt. :-)
"If all the world's a stage and all the people merely players, who in bloody
hell hired the director?" -- Charles L Grant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQUxw9aUVik
To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:50:10 -0700
Subject: [scifinoir2] O/T From Burger King in Japan, the Windows 7 Whopper
>From Burger King in Japan, the Windows 7 Whopper To promote Windows 7 and
>reach a non-techie audience, Microsoft and Burger King teamed up to sell a
>burger as big as a dinner plate By Kenji Hall AsiaAsia's Best Young
>Entrepreneur 2009: The Winner Video Pirates' New Adversary: Chinese Web
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>McDonald's (MCD) took plenty of flak years ago for its super-size meals. But
>Microsoft's (MSFT) strategy for building buzz in Japan gives new meaning to
>the term. Beginning on Oct. 22, to mark the launch of its Windows 7 in Japan,
>Microsoft has teamed up with Burger King (BKC) on a limited-offer burger: the
>Windows 7 Whopper.
The seven-patty burger weighs more than 791 grams (1.4 lb.) and stands about
12.7 centimeters (5 inches) tall. At 2,120 calories, it's more than just a
quick snack, easily exceeding the 2,000-calorie daily diet recommended by the
U.S. Food & Drug Administration. The promotion was originally supposed to last
seven days, but it's been such a hit that the fast-food chain has extended it
for nine more days. "We were surprised that it's been so popular," says Burger
King's spokeswoman Nozomi Nagumo.
Microsoft, based in Redmond, Wash., approached Burger King's Japan unit to
explore a tie-in that would coincide with the Windows 7 release. The idea was
to reach out to a non-techie audience that might not be aware that Microsoft
had revamped its operating software, Microsoft spokesman Masaki Iida says. For
Burger King, which reopened in Japan in mid-2007 after a temporary pullout,
this was a chance to piggyback on Microsoft's brand. The fast-food chain says
the special Whopper is the biggest burger it has ever marketed. Neither company
would reveal the cost of the campaign.
Selling Like Hot Cakes? Sales have been strong. Burger King sells the first 30
burgers at every store in Japan for 777 yen ($8.45); after that, the price
jumps to 1,450 yen ($15.75). In just the first two days of the promotion, the
company's stores sold 1,700 burgers. Two days later, the count reached 6,000.
(The majority of customers were paying the higher price.) For several days at a
Tokyo shop, the Windows 7 Whopper accounted for one in every three orders.
The success of the campaign is evident in the blogosphere and on YouTube,
where videos show people grabbing the burger with both hands and trying to bite
through all seven patties. In one video, a man repeatedly draws attention to a
pool of grease forming on the wrapper he eats over. Burger King's Nagumo says
staff members were told to ask customers if they needed a fork.
The crush of publicity is a welcome change for Miami-based Burger King, which
has struggled for visibility since reentering the Japanese market in June 2007.
The company withdrew in 2001 after losing a price war with McDonald's. Its
return was part of a global expansion to new markets such as Egypt, Hong Kong,
and Poland. By next March, Burger King plans to add five new stores in the
Tokyo metropolitan area, raising its store count to 20, says spokeswoman
Nagumo. That's nowhere near the 3,754 stores in Japan of rival McDonald's.
Larger Than Life Meals in Japan are usually pint-size, which explains why big
burgers tend to attract a lot of attention. McDonald's introduced its
limited-offer MegaMac, featuring four beef patties, in 2007. Last November,
McDonald's launched a stealth-marketing campaign for the Quarter Pounder, which
has been on the menu in U.S. stores for decades but had never been offered in
Japan. That campaign centered around two restaurants in Tokyo's hip Shibuya and
Omotesando shopping areas that were marked only by a "Quarter Pounder" sign
outside. During the pre-launch, customers could only order a single or double
Quarter Pounder meal; now it's a staple on all McDonald's menus.
Burger King's collaboration with Microsoft wasn't the biggest burger the chain
had ever sold in Japan. "One group ordered a 20-patty Whopper for a friend's
20th birthday," says spokeswoman Nagumo.
Microsoft's Iida stresses that the Whopper isn't the focus of its Windows 7
marketing. Besides ads, the tech giant filled a showroom in Tokyo's Akihabara
district—a hub for electronics, anime, and manga shops—with dozens of new
computers made by Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Acer, Sony (SNE), Toshiba, and
others for the two days starting on Oct. 22. Microsoft staffers were on hand to
give demonstrations of the PC operating system's latest features. And in
keeping with the numerical theme, Ultra Seven, a giant Japanese superhero from
outer space that protects the earth from aliens and monsters, made a guest
appearance.
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