It’s the second major Burger-specific announcement in the Fast Food Value War in a week… And the third to involve a traditionally non-Burger power. What’s going on with Chilis, that it’s coming out of left field, targeting McDonald’s on McD’s home ground?
With almost twice the beef as McDonald’s Quarter Pounder, and not one
but two slices of traditional ‘American’ (Procesed) cheese, Chili’s
Big QP is set to give the McClassic a run for its supremacy…
Chili’s is rolling out a new mega-burger which, at first glance, will remind you of McDonald’s flagship Quarter Pounder. That’s no coincidence. In a ‘winter of discontent’ for a number of Fast Food players being challenged for supremacy in their traditional areas of expertise, McDonald’s is the latest ‘name’ to be be ‘tagged’ by a pack of yapping upstarts…
Sheer effrontery!
It might be an attempt to break the current logjam in the Value War by striking directly at the heart of the matter – Burgers.
McDonald’s made us wait for months after declaring it would take the lead in the conflict, launching a new, ‘Bigger’, ‘Better Value’ burger last year. Last Fall, it premiered the Arch Burger to mild applause, and a bunch of potentially embarrassing questions.
Since then, upstarts in the burger sector and traditional first-tier players alike have been answering McD’s challenge with bigger burgers of their own. Even Filipino Chicken powerhouse Jollybee recently unveiled a new ‘Better’ burger they say is designed to give McD’s a serious run for its burger suprem-acy on the quality front, if not on sales quantity.
Now Chilis, the fast-casual Tex-Mex chain I’ve always seen as the head-to-head foe of Chipotle’s and Taco Bell, is poking the McBear. With a burger that not only matches but surpasses the Big Mac in size.
What it is…
Chili’s, perhaps with tongue just a bit in-cheek, is making sure you won’t mistake its new Big QP bur-ger for McD’s classic. First of all, the BQP offers not just more, but a LOT more beef: 85 percent more, in fact, than the standard, single-patty Quarter Pounder. One reviewer notes the BQP’s other major components must have McDonald’s itching to call their lawyers, so similar is the roster – all the way down to the sesame seed bun.
On the other obvious vector of comparison, the Big QP, while offering more substance, is actually, “even more value-packed,” than McD’s Quarter Pounder..
Chili’s points out, in its premiere news release in the Battle of the QP’s, that its offering is, “less ex-pensive than a comparable meal at McDonald’s.” Coordinating TV ads call-out the Quarter Pounder as ‘tiny’.
My take
McD’s has always been seen as the pioneer marketer and innovator in the Burger niche. And on any occasion where it’s shown the slightest sign of weakness, the competition has been all over the leader like a shoal of piranhas on a wounded cow.
The disappointing, ho-hum reception accorded the long-awaited Arch Burger must have been seen as at least a minor indicator of McWeakness. A rare misstep in the never-ending Fast Food Burger mar-keting ‘waltz’.
Now that Chick-Fil-A, Jollybee and other non-burger-powers such as Chilis have weighted in… I’ll be eager to see what McD’s does next!
~ Maggie J.