In an interview with the Janet Adany at the Wall Street Journal, Burger King’s CEO writes about the power of focusing marketing on the core customer:

At a time when many large restaurant chains are struggling, Burger King Holdings Inc. CEO John Chidsey has managed to sustain the once-floundering fast-food company’s turnaround.

WSJ: What were the keys to your company’s turnaround?

Mr. Chidsey: Most importantly, I’d say it was finding who our target customer was, figuring out who was the superfan and not wasting our time trying to be all things to all people.

WSJ: When you looked more closely at your core customer base, you learned that it’s almost split evenly between males and females. Did that surprise you?

Mr. Chidsey: It was a little bit surprising.

WSJ: But your marketing is more targeted at males, isn’t it?

Mr. Chidsey: If you think about sports like the NFL or Nascar, believe it or not, if you rip the demographics apart, women are humongous NFL fans. Nascar has an enormous female following.

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