Burger King and McDonald's have struggled with dessert.
For years, McDonald's offered nothing more than some crummy cookies, shakes, and soft-serve ice cream you could add toppings to.
Burger King, a Restaurant Brands International (QSR) company, also offers ice cream and shakes, but its desserts are even less notable. The fast-food giant has tried a variety of pies and other offerings but like McDonald's (MCD), the restaurant chain has struggled with getting people to spend more money once they finish their meal.
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McDonald's, of course, has had one major success on its dessert menu: the McFlurry. The problem with that ice cream treat, however, isn't whether people like it. The McFlurry has been very popular, but the machine that makes it has become notorious for breaking down.
That has led to a website, McBroken, that literally exists to answer the question "Is the McDonald’s ice cream machine broken?" The answer to that, at the time this story was written, was that over 11% of all McFlurry machines were down. That creates a frustrating experience for customers and perhaps creates an opening for Burger King to offer a McFlurry rival made on a machine that actually works most of the time.
The rival chain is trying to do just that as it launched its McFlurry knockoff, the BK Blast, across Canada.
Image source: Shutterstock
Burger King Offers a New Ice Cream Treat
The McFlurry actually dates back to 1995, when it was invented by a McDonald's franchisee in Canada. It launched nationally in 1998 and has become a menu staple for the chain around the world pretty much since then.
That makes it somewhat shocking that Burger King has waited this long to introduce its own version of the popular treat. But, after a a 25 year wait, the chain has released the BK Blast, which seems a lot like the McFlurry across Canada.
"The Oreo BK Blast is described as the perfect combination of ice cream and Oreo topping, while the Smarties BK Blast features the fast-food chain’s soft-serve ice cream blended with Smarties candies," Chewboom reported.
Smarties are not the fruit-flavored candy that litter the bottom of kids' Halloween baskets in the U.S. The Canadian version, which is also sold in the Caribbean, is essentially an M&M knockoff.
So, not only is Burger King blatantly knocking off McDonald's popular dessert, it's also offering the two flavors that are on its rival's permanent menu. McDonald's offers other flavors of McFlurry, but Oreo and M&M are the two stock flavors.
Burger King Trying to Make a Comeback
Burger King's parent company has committed to invest $400 million in its restaurants and to increase advertising. $250 million of that investment will go to help franchisees add new restaurant technology, kitchen equipment, building enhancements, and conducting high-quality remodels and relocations.
"We are relentlessly pursuing a better experience for our guests. This is the driving force behind all the initiatives that we are executing collaboratively with our Franchisees. Our plan is focused on a few important priorities -- operational excellence, refreshed image, and enhanced marketing -- that when put together, provide a superior experience for our guests," said Burger King North America President Tom Curtis.
That's a flowery way to say that Burger King has to invest in technology to catch up to McDonald's, which has been investing in digital optimization for many years. Burger King, however, has some advantages in playing catch up. It can examine what McDonald's did right (and what it did wrong) to optimize its own spending.
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