Which of these means Burger King to you?

• Free paper crowns.
• The scary king commercials.
• The Whopper Bar.
• ‘Have it Your Way’ campaign.
• The Subservient Chicken.
• The BKlounge on Twitter.

If you answered all of these, you’re right. Now, add one more:

• The new futuristic redesign of its stores.

Burger King is planning a world-wide change in its current store model. The new restaurant design features flat screen TV menus, red flame chandeliers floating overhead, brick, and corrugated metal. “I’d call it more contemporary, edgy, futuristic,” Chairman and CEO John Chidsey told The Associated Press. “It feels so much more like an upscale restaurant.”

So far, remodeled restaurants have seen sales climb about 12 to 15 percent, Chidsey said. Restaurants that are torn down and completely rebuilt at the same location have seen sales climb by as much as 30 percent.

Russ Klein, President, Global Marketing Strategy and Innovation for Burger King, has been rebranding the company since 2004. He brought back the “Have It Your Way” campaign, in fact. Integral to the rebranding process are four principles that “most branding experts would agree make up a brand,” said Klein.

• Relevance. How the brand fits into the consumer’s life.
• Differentiation. The brand’s point of difference.
• Esteem. How well the brand is regarded.
• Knowledge. An intimate consumer understanding of the brand.

Am I right to be confused by their campaign(s)? It seems there are so many variants in the Burger King brand, that I’m not sure exactly what it is that I’m supposed to think about it. To me, Burger King is a fast food Whopper, so here’s what I think:

• Relevance. BK’s relevant to me since I eat there once in a while when traveling.
• Differentiation. It’s different from other fast food because, well…it isn’t, really, is it?
• Esteem. I regard Burger King as a plain old fast food chain.
• Knowledge. I’m really confused about what the brand is supposed to be other than a fast food chain.

I do understand a company like Geico, that started with a caveman, moved into the gecko, and then to the money-you-could-be-saving. One moved smoothly into the other, so each had its own distinct image in my mind. But BK seems to have ALL of their campaign running at the same time. Maybe I don’t watch TV enough and I’m missing all the ads that are supposed to be telling me these things. Or maybe I’ll have to go to one of the redesigned stores to get a new feel for the place, and the campaign(s) will all come together. If I had it my way, there’d only be one distinct message. We’ll see.

Advertising Age has a report on the success of Crispin, Porter & Bogusky’s new “Whopper Virgins” campaign. Here’s the article from the AdAge website:

Burger King’s recent “Whopper Virgins” campaign is on track to replicate the online success of the fast feeder’s earlier viral success “Whopper Freakout,” but its impact on sales remains to be seen.

Burger King won’t report fiscal-second-quarter earnings until Feb. 5, when sales will be reported for the period.

“Anytime a promotional microsite can get a few hundred thousand visitors, it’s pretty successful,” ComScore spokesman Andrew Lipsman said. “Every now and then you’ll have a MyCokeRewards with a few million, but that’s not typical.” MyCokeRewards is a loyalty program for Coca-Cola, where consumers trade in “purchase points” for music, videos or even hotel stays.

More views?
The fast feeder’s internal numbers are much higher. According to Burger King, the site has had 727,075 total visitors and 698,149 unique visitors. They spend an average of nearly four minutes on the site. Consumers are also accessing the site via mobile devices, with 26,434 views so far. The documentary has 1.3 million views, whereas “Whopper Freakout” had roughly 1.5 million views by this time.

Another key measure of viral success: Online parodies abound. One CrazyTalkTV takeoff interviews “Burger King Salad Virgins,” inhabitants of major cities who have never seen or tasted a Burger King salad. That video has more than 26,000 views on YouTube. The campaign also earned a “Saturday Night Live” ribbing last weekend, in which one test subject asked to take the sandwiches home to feed his village, and a woman said she could take part in the study because she was not a virgin.

Although the campaign has certainly raised eyebrows, Burger King pulled back on “Whopper Virgins” after the holidays, moving on to the limited-time “Angry Whopper” (jalapenos, pepper-jack cheese and “angry onions”) with accompanying broadcast spots. But the fast feeder is commited to keeping WhopperVirgins.com live at least through December 2009.

The chain also has been getting media pickup this month thanks to “Whopper Sacrifice.” The promotion offers social networkers a free Whopper if they ditch 10 of their Facebook friends. Nearly 200,000 friends have been sacrificed to date. On the bright side, for everyone except the system’s franchisees, that means nearly 20,000 free sandwiches will be given out.

Source: AdAge

The Maytag Repairman, Geico Caveman and Burger King King will all be getting more exposure this week in New York City. That’s where the annual Advertising Week is being held.

The event is in its fifth year and, word has it, has transformed from a fluffy boondoggle to a working week that’s focused on some of the larger issues facing the industry. This week, attendees will be working through some issues including the rise of digital advertising and the lack of diversity in the advertising business.

It’s interesting to note that the Death of Advertising isn’t on the agenda. After all, the industry is evolving so quickly and so dramatically, that even the term “Advertising Week” is, well, weak. (Okay. Bad pun. We know.)

All that is not to say that the advertising industry is dead. In fact, just the opposite is true — there’s never been a more exciting time in marketing and advertising than there is today. The advent of TV in the 1950s didn’t hold a candle to what’s happening right now. Neither did the Golden Age of Creativity during the 1960s. And the 15 years (1984 to 1999) that ad agencies focused more on awards than sales wasn’t anywhere near as fun as things are today.

So have at it, Advertising Week attendees. Explore all the new and wonderful things going on in marketing. And, while you’re at it, come up with a new name for your annual event. Because traditional advertising is dead and that makes for a very exciting time indeed.