White Castle marketing: The history

The White Castle hamburger chain was founded in May 1921 in Wichita, Kansas, by J. Walter “Walt” Anderson, a hamburger-stand proprietor, and Edgar Waldo “Billy” Ingram, a real-estate and insurance agent.

The restaurant wasn’t famous when they launched their restaurant because of the thought of hamburger meat are made from the slaughter scraps and meats that are unwanted. With the help of advertising campaign White castle successfully changed the public perceptions of hamburgers and was the most popular fast food in American East and Midwest by rebuilding and changed the name of the restaurant in order to attract customer

During the 1920s, White Castle, the first fast food advertised in newspapers. It was slow to value radio advertising but did have promotions on radio during the 1930s.

White Castle’s marketing from the beginning encouraged customers to buy sacks of hamburgers as “take-out” food. Anderson made the purchase of multiple hamburgers at one visit part of his on-site advertising, with signs urging the purchase of his sandwiches in “half-dozen lots” with the slogan, “Buy’em by the Sack.”

Taking a cue from grocery store marketing strategies, Billy Ingram paid to have coupons for discounted burgers published in major newspapers on June 3, 1933.

Most of its advertising was targeted at working class. This changed during the 1950s, when White Castle sponsored a children television show, The Cactus and Randy Show.

At that tine American spending in food continue to grow. The increase appears to have stemmed primarily from changes in foods purchased, including more food bought and eaten away from home.

In 1977 White Castle becomes a cultural brand, appearing in the movie Saturday Night Fever. The 2004 buddy comedy Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle boosted sales of White Castle's sliders.

During the second half of the century, consumers increasingly spent food dollars on meals outside the home.

White Castle marketing: The history 

History of McDonald’s

In 1937, the MacDonald brothers, Maurice (Mac) and Richard (Dick( McDonald) opened their first restaurant (the Airdrome) in Pasadena, California selling hot dogs, orange juice, coffee and tea.

Although the establishment sold hamburgers, it otherwise bore little relation to the giant franchise it would one day become.

Their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 established the principles of the modern fast-food restaurant. It’s selling 15 cent hamburgers and 10cent fries.

The true founder of the McDonald’s chain, Ray Kroc, was originally a purveyor of the Multimixer automatic milkshake mixer. Ray Kroc mortgaged his home and invested his entire life savings to become the exclusive distributor of a five-spindled milk shake maker called the Multimixer. He had sold Multimixers to many fast food franchisee including Dairy Queen and Tastee-Freez.

In 1954 he went to see the McDonald brothers at their drive in restaurant in San Bernadino California, where, he had heard they had eight of his mixing machine in constant use – obviously indicating a large business volume. He was 52 years old.

McDonald Beef Burger 

Kroc saw a potential of the McDonald’s operation. He met with the brothers and signed an agreement allowing him to sell McDonald’s franchises nationwide. In the mid-1950s, franchising consisted mainly of assigning territories to franchisees of huge up-front fees. However, Kroc wanted to control the McDonald’s operations, He avoided territorial franchises by selling one store franchises at a time, thereby controlling the number of stores that a licensee could operate.

The present corporation dates its founding to the opening of a franchised restaurant by Kroc, in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15, 1955, the ninth McDonald's restaurant overall.

In July of that year, he added his second store in Fresno, California. Kroc later purchased the McDonald brothers' equity in the company and led its worldwide expansion.

In 1972, McDonald’s pioneered the fast-food breakfast with the introduction of the Egg McMuffin. McDonald’s opened its first drive through in1975 with goal of service in 50 seconds or less.

McDonald’s is today reinventing itself around its core competencies of fast service, healthy fast food, kids and quality.
History of McDonald’s

Kennedy Fried Chicken

Kennedy Fried Chicken was founded in 1979 in New York, City, by two Afghanis, Taeb Zia and Abdul Karim, who, the story goes realized that their own names wouldn’t carry much weight if tacked onto a store sign.

Taeb Zia, came New York from Kabul in 1972, opened the first Kennedy Fried Chicken three years later on Nostrand Avenue in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.

So they looked for a familiar name and decided that a former US president’s surname would suit their needs perfectly. Today, it is a collection of independent fast food restaurants that share a common name but not a common menu.

As of 2011, there were about 200 Kennedy Fried Chicken outlets in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island.
Kennedy Fried Chicken 

Chicken McNuggets

During the 1970s, chicken consumption had greatly increased in the United States, largely due to fast food chains such as Kentucky Fried Chicken, Chicken Delight and Church’s Chicken.

Chicken McNuggets were introduced nationwide by the end of 1983. Within one month of their launch, the McDonald’s corporation had become the largest purchaser of chicken in the United States, surpassed only by KFC.

McNuggets as they commonly known are small pieces of formless chicken that have been battered and deep fried. It took six months for McDonald to develop McNuggets, small pieces of reconstituted chicken held together by stabilizers that were bread, fried, frozen and shipped to the outlet, where they were reheated.

They were cooked in beef tallow, like McDonald’s fries. The chain soon switched to vegetable oil, adding ‘beef extract’ to McNuggets during the manufacturing process in order to retain their familiar taste.

McDonald’s contracted with Tyson Foods to maintain an adequate supply of chicken. When Chicken McNuggets debuted in 1983, they were an immediate success.

The Chicken McNuggets, French fries and barbecue sauce with a toy prize is one of the specialty meals for children at McDonalds.

In 1980, most chickens were sold whole, today about 90 percent of chickens sold in United States have been cut onto pieces to produce outlets or nuggets.
Chicken McNuggets

History of Chicken Delight

A.L Tunick, a scrap dealer, started his restaurant business when his wrecking company, dismantling a factory building came into possession of a large inventory of abandoned cookers.

Using pressurized oil fryers to cook his chicken quickly Tunick founded his Chicken Delight in Illinois in 1952. He decided to market this method though small take-out outlets and his was the first fast food chain to offer home delivery.

He began franchising his operation and it grew quickly. Tunick expanded into Canada in 1958 and by the mid 1960s Chicken Delight of Canada; Ltd had more than 50 outlets.

Chicken Delight licensed several hundred franchisees to operate its stores. It did not charge its franchisees a franchise fee or royalties; rather, it allowed its franchisees to use its trademark and follow its business methods in exchange for purchasing their cooking equipment and certain supplies from Chicken Delight.

By 1984, Chicken Delight was Canadian-owned with 86 outlets in the United States and 34 in Canada.
History of Chicken Delight

Kenny Rogers Roasters

John Y. Brown, Jr, who also owned KFC from 1964 to 1971 joined with Kenny Rogers, country music entertainer, in 1991 to create Kenny Rogers Roasters.

They had their owned secret marinade and used a rotisserie, called the Kenny Roasters system. Kenny Rogers Roasters chain grew up to 250 outlets in just three years, building on the country-western singer’s persona, but also featuring ‘non-fried’ chicken.

The company also introduced roast turkey in its South Florida stores.

In 1995, Kenny Rogers Roasters and Boston Market were locked in fierce argument over which of them served the learner roast chicken.

Kenny Rogers claimed that a skinless portion of its white-meat chicken had only 0.6 grams of statured fat per ounce, or just over half of Boston’s, which has 1.09 grams.

In 1998, the company went through a restructuring that ended in the acquisition of Kenny Rogers Roasters by Nathan’s Famous, Inc. on April 1, 1999.

Currently Kenny Rogers Roasters owned by Malaysian Berjaya Group.
Kenny Rogers Roasters

History of Wendy’s Restaurant

R. David Thomas, on November 15, 1969 opened his first unit in Columbus, to which he had moved seven years earlier with Kentucky Fried Chicken. It then incorporated drive-thru windows beginning in 1971 to allow customers to purchase and pick up their food without having to leave their cars.

Wendy’s hamburgers were advertised as ‘old fashioned’ at a time of growing nostalgia for the American past, and the chain was named for Thomas ‘s daughter, Wendy, always a deft marketing touch in a culture revering family and children.

Although Thomas offered a streamlined menu similar to those of the major chains, he grilling each burger to order and serving it with the precise condiments selected by customer.

When he first launched Wendy’s, Dave had no intention of beginning a huge fast food chain. A new partner Robert Barney, an experience fast food executive convinced Thomas, that he could started a successful chain.

More Wendy’s appeared in the surrounding areas, even expanding out of state in 1972 when the partners built a company owned Wendy’s in Indianapolis.

The first franchised Wendy’s opened in Marion, Ohio, in March 1972. Selling franchises to eager investors for $200,000 each, he had blanketed the United States with more than one thousand Wendy’s by 1976.

In 1976, Wendy’s 407 units earned $26,000,000, a 90 percent increase over the previous year, and due to American saturated hamburger market, joined its competitors in opening in Europe and Asia.

In the same year Thomas took Wendy’s public, offering one million shares of stock, each at an initial price of twenty-eight dollars. Thomas retired in 1982.
History of Wendy’s Restaurant

Children and Fast Food Advertising

Children have been targeted by soda advertisers since the early twentieth century.

Television greatly expanded the ability of advertiser to reach children, especially on during children programs on saturday mornings, meant that advertisers could market directly to the age group of their choice.

By the 1960s, advertisers had identified children as a separate market, as fast food chains join soda companies in targeting children.

Food advertisements account for well over 50% of all advertisements targeting children on national network and food is the most frequently advertised product category on children’s TV.

In addition to television advertising, fast food chains also created child oriented characters such as Ronald MacDonald and began offering meals made especially for children, such as Happy Meals with toys and the creation of playgrounds for children.

Advertisers are trying to create situations where consumers are constantly exposed to their brand names.

Products are displayed in as many places as possible, whether it is on the grocery store shelf, in a television carton, or on the cover of a book.

Finally, the companies developed movie tie-ins and made special arrangements with theme parks such as Disneyland, which has had long history of selling fast food.

Children themselves have little buying power but they do have pester power. Busy parents simply take the easy way out and give in to children’s constant pestering. In addition, advertisers believe that childhood experiences will be remembered throughout a lifetime.

In United States in early 1991, a study reveled that children watching cartoon shows for a four hour period on atypical Saturday morning were bombarded with total food commercials.

The product advertised were dominated by sugar coated cereals, candy cookies, fruit flavored drinks, chocolate syrup, fast food meals and pizza.

Besides food advertisement, advertisements for fast food chains have strongly increased in the United States and in Europe during last 15 years reaching almost a third of all food advertisements in the United States.
Children and Fast Food Advertising

Fast Food Begin

Fast Food Begin
The story of fast food begins in October 1885, near the small town of Seymour, Wisconsin. A friendly and outgoing fifteen-year-old boy named Charlie Nagreen was driving his family’s ox cart down a dirt road amid wide open field.

Charlie was going to Outagamie County’s first annual; fair, where he wanted to earn some extra money selling meatballs.

What happened next as the unlikely origin of a delicious sandwich that would one day change the world.

As Charlie sold meatballs at the fair, he noticed that customers had trouble eating and strolling at the same time.

People were impatient. They wanted to visit Mr. John Bull’s popular beehives (encased in glass), to see the fancy new harvesting machines and to enjoy all the other thrilling attractions at the fair.

They didn’t want to waste time eating meatballs. Charlie suddenly had an idea, if he squashed the meatballs and put them between two slices of bread, people could walk and eat. And so Charlie invented the hamburger.

German immigrants lived in Charlie’s hometown of Hortonville, Wisconsin and he later claimed that the new sandwich was named the German of Hamburg long famous for its ground beef steaks.

Charlie continued selling burgers at the Outagamie Country Fair until 1951.

Charlie had not only invented the hamburger but also composed one of the first advertising jingles for it.
Fast Food Begin

Fast Food Advertisement

Fast Food Advertisement
During the 1920s, White Castle, the first fast food advertised in newspapers. It was slow to value radio advertising but did have promotions on radio during the 1930s.

Most of its advertising was targeted at working class. This changed during the 1950s, when White Castle sponsored a children television show, The Cactus and Randy Show.

At that tine American spending in food continue to grow. The increase appears to have stemmed primarily from changes in foods purchased, including more food bought and eaten away from home.

During the second half of the century, consumers increasingly spent food dollars on meals outside the home.

McDonald’s did little national advertising in the 1950s. In 1959, Minneapolis McDonald’s operator, Jim Zein, began running radio advertisements and his sales skyrocketed.

Based on this success, Ray Kroc encouraged other franchises and managers to launch their own campaigns.

Following this directive, two Washington D.C., franchisees, John Gibson and Oscar Goldstein, began sponsoring a children’s television show, called Bozo’s Circus.

This resulted in the creation of Ronald MacDonald, the McDonald’s corporate clown icon who appeared in local Washington, DC television commercial beginning in 1963.

During the following year, he appeared in national television on Thanksgiving. The company has regularly used McDonald its advertising campaigns and like the Quaker Oats man, people dressed as Ronald MacDonald make personal appearances throughout the nation.

Ronald McDonald’s a household word with its “billion served” advertisement slogan serving as evidence of its leadership in this area of fast food.

The Happy Meal has been pleasing kids since 1979. The Ronald MacDonald Houses are noted for their continued good work with families and children suffering from incurable disease.

Through extensive advertising, McDonald’s became the nation’s largest fast food chain during the 1970s.

McDonald’s and other fast food restaurant don’t rely just on advertising to get young people hooked. McDonald’s operates more than 8,000 playgrounds at its US restaurants to lure children onto the premises.

While McDonald’s is re-finding its belief in beef as its core product, KFC is continuing to harry its competitors by promoting chicken as a lean and healthy product, confronting the obesity and food hygiene issue rather than shying away from it.

The new positioning by company is summed up used by company advertising and marketing: tasty and safe, balanced nutrition, high quality, and healthy living.

In 2000, the fast food industry spent $3 billion a year on television advertising, much of it targeted at children.
Fast Food Advertisement