Sheethal Devi S | Executive Member | Crowd Core Marketing Club
You have almost certainly heard of MrBeast, A.K.A. Jimmy Donaldson. His YouTube channel has over 65 million subscribers where most of the videos are philanthropic in nature, but not the boring “Charity” type philanthropy. He gives away tons of cash, cars, tech gadgets, and whatnot when the participants pull off arduous tasks. Can you find better videos to watch while enjoying your dinner??
Our interest is now drawn to how this young ‘content creator turned entrepreneur’ made it huge into the fast-food chain which already promises cut-throat competition for survival (Don’t forget the feud between McD and Burger King where they ROAST each other in their marketing campaigns). He launched 300 fast-food kitchens, called MrBeast Burger across the US in December 2020. Their menu items include “The Beast Style Burger”, “The Chandler Style Burger”, “The Chris Style Burger” etc. Though the names are quite quirky, the burgers were all classics - nothing comparable to the unique options provided by the industry giants. But still, MrBeast Burger manages to operate and in fact expand in terms of a number of locations; the 300 locations in December have now expanded to 800 locations across the US, Canada, and the UK. How was this possible considering that not a single dollar was spent on marketing?
OPERATIONS:
Though you might have fallen in love with the “MrBeast” burgers, you can never take your friends there to hang out or walk into their outlet to grab a bite during your office hours. That’s because they don’t have outlets for dine-in; you can only order their food in food apps - UberEATS, Door dash, etc., or their own app “MrBeast Burger” available on iOS and Android.
Oh, wait!! If there is no restaurant, then are the burgers just raining down the sky like in the movie “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs”? Obviously not. Then where are the burgers from??
This introduces us to the concept of “Ghost Kitchens”. These are setups where actual restaurants rent out their kitchens (when not in use) to other food joints and these food joints pay on a monthly basis for using the kitchens.
To understand this better, let us listen to a fictional guy, Tom’s story. Tom owns a Chinese restaurant in the heart of the city; it is a great location that attracts tons of customers due to its proximity to the movie theatre. It is an amazing dine-in set up and has a well-equipped kitchen. But people only eat Chinese for lunch and dinner and thus the restaurant expects customers only for around 6-8 hrs in a day. But Tom has rented the location at a huge price in a prime location though he can only partially use it to make profits. He meets his old friend Harry who is a chef wanting to start a restaurant business but doesn’t have the capital to rent a good place. Tom gets an amazing idea… Why not rent the kitchen to Harry when his Chinese restaurant is not working? This will enable in using the equipment and the place to maximum efficiency. And Harry is happy with this idea as he can now have his own brand and sell his food on delivery apps - reduced capital, reduced maintenance costs, and lesser rent. It’s a win-win situation for both.
This is exactly how MrBeast Burger works. They hire ghost kitchens and in fact give franchises to rent ghost kitchens in their name to reach every nook and corner of the country. They function based on the number of sales and not the quality of sales.
MARKETING:
As mentioned already, MrBeast Burger spent $0 on marketing. Then how did he pull off such a huge success? This drags us back to the basics. What is marketing? If you are saying that ‘it is the act of promoting our products/ services to our audience’, then kudos!! You are absolutely right. Now let us contemplate who the target audience for this fast-food chain is. It is none other than his fans and subscribers. He has 65 million subscribers on YouTube, plus MrBeast's 10.9 million followers on Twitter, 5.3 million followers on Facebook and 13.1 million followers on Instagram. MrBeast also launched a separate “MrBeast Burger" account on Instagram, which already has over 223k followers. Isn’t this audience more than enough?
THE LAUNCH:
MrBeast Burger was launched on his own YouTube channel where he served free food to everyone. If this isn’t exciting enough for you, they also know that he gave free cash, iPads, AirPods, and even a car along with every burger!! On the day of the launch of the app, they had a whopping number of people ordering food on it that the app crashed. He had to apologize to his customers for the inconvenience caused. Seems like a huge hit for the entrepreneur!
Though the joint seems to get appreciation from its die-hard fans, some people have complained about the quality of food. Donaldson addressed the complaints on Twitter and promised to refund all the people who had problems with his product. Seems like a generous move but how long do you think this company will survive among the white sharks? And what is your opinion about ghost kitchens and dark kitchens? Do let us know in the comments.