The Curated Burger

Despite the varying topics of the discussions I attended at Ad Week last week, the big new buzzword I caught was curation, in both branding and social media contexts.  Marketers and advertisers need to act as scholarly curators, finely grooming and maintaining their exhibit to reflect a high quality and cultural interest.  This is the difference between Travelzoo and Lifebooker Loot– the latter is curated to serve flash deals at the higher standards of a specific group.  This is also why argan oil was added to a plethora hair products after Moroccan Oil hit the shelves– curating in the form of a product update.

I realized that Wendy’s has done just that with the new Dave’s Hot n Juicy burger, launched this month.  The radio and TV spots by The Kaplan Thaler Group boast their “thickest, hottest, juiciest beef ever,” “new premium toppings” like crinkled pickles and red onion rings, between a “warm butter-toasted bun.”  Sounds like the Panera of cheeseburger chains and an effort to make a huge leap from floppy, dishonest, machine-made burgers people expect out of fast food.  Leveraging “real food” in their marketing mix for a while, Wendy’s pulled the same move on a smaller level with their “natural sea salt” fries introduced earlier this year.

I agree with Wendy’s idea here and am curious to see how the market responds.  It’s not about fast, convenient, and on-the-go anymore.  Consumers are looking for premium product at a value.  One could call it the Starbucks approach.  I’ll toast my McCafé to that!

– Carrie Knific