Burger King's facebook promotion was not joined-up

This is an example of a great idea potentially being let down by ineffective brand experience management.

I refer to the recent Burger King "Whopper Sacrifice" Facebook promotion (Facebook users got a free Whopper coupon in exchange for dropping 10 friends from their account).

Chris Ondrula, chief operating officer of a Chicago-area Burger King franchise, is quoted as saying: “Franchisees were concerned about being deluged with Whopper coupons and had been caught flat-footed…..they would like to be kept in the loop when things like that happen, as it puts people behind the register in a difficult position not to know what [customers] are talking about."

I appreciate that Burger King is a massive and complex business, but to not inform the people serving customers what was happening is a classic example of an organisation that is not delivering joined-up brand experiences.

The lesson from this is simple.

When planning any kind of brand experience that involves front line teams best practise is to get all stakeholders to work together to plan how the activity can most delight the consumer.