Big And Thick Meets Up With High Touch!

Have you seen the new burger commercials yet?

They begin with the old Burger King jingle….but with some editing of the words…

I know you know that jingle… “Two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese…”

But they are not for Burger King.

The spots are for Hardee’s New Black Angus Beef Think-Burgers.

“Big Thick Meaty Burgers.”

It looks like BIG Burgers are the new “in” among the quick service burger chains.

I stopped off at a McDonald’s the other night and had one of their new Angus Burgers. They come complete with fresh mushrooms.

McDonald’s is promoting their burgers as being “so thick and juicy you’re gonna need an extra napkin” to eat one.

Gosh, back in the early 1980s, I worked for Wendy’s International and I think we had a tagline in our ads about the burgers being “thick and juicy” and that to eat one, our customers needed “an extra napkin.”

Maybe the trademark of that line has now expired.

Burger King has long marketed the Whopper. To combat the competition you can now get their Whopper Jr.’s for a one-dollar bill.

Denny’s has an ad running in this Sunday’s FSI coupon packs touting their Better Burgers … The “New Burgers That Mean Business.”

They even outdo Burger Kings $1 offer with their offer of Better Burgers for FREE.

BIG, THICK Burgers seem to be the latest hit among the fast food burger joints.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about guys starting to carve out their space in houses. They call that space – “Man-Space.” In about half of the Property Virgin and My First Place shows the guys evaluate houses they see based on whether the houses have “Man-Space” to satisfy their need.

I believe that guys wanting something different from those flat, wimpy burgers offered by the budget-driven fast food chains are driving part of the surge in the Big Burger promotions.

Another part of me says its about making budget meals seem like big time tummy fillers.

And yet, there is another part of me that says it’s the fulfillment of many a quest to carve out something that is truly American. And how more American can you get than a fast food burger, fries and a Coke!

I tell clients often that the old can become new again.

Here we have gone full circle from salad bars to pizza to chicken fingers to sub sandwiches to wraps to burritos to burgers again.

While Subway might have more locations than McDonald’s … burgers are truly what kicked off what we term today as “fast food.”

What gets my right-brain thought waves flowing is truly what all else is coming back from our past… that will be re-defined as new, novel and different?

Tomorrow I am having lunch with some folks from a locally owned bank.

In the midst of the new mega-machines like Bank of America and Wachovia…maybe the indie banks can capitalize on that lack of customer service the mega-machines have long ago abandoned.

Last week I presented to the board of one of the top U.S. literary magazines. Believe it or not, literature that has been on the decline for more than three decades is all of a sudden becoming hip again… especially among age 18-24 year olds!

Those “mid-century” three-bedroom, two-bath sub-division flats are a whole genre of popularity among the new Millennial first time home buyers.

High Tech and the social media was all the news in 2009.

It’s my belief that High Touch is one of the BIG Trends of 2010!

And how much more High Touch can a Big Juicy burger get?