Upscaling the Burger
By Joe Coombs

Behold the hamburger. It’s the simplest of meals, one of the quickest and easiest fixes to satiate the pangs of a mid-day hunger outbreak.

It’s the food of choice at ballparks, backyard cookouts, and many quick-service eateries. The success of some of the restaurant industry’s largest players has hinged on how well they can slap a patty of beef together and slide it onto a bun.

But why do we care so much about the burger? Apart from its convenience and broad appeal, maybe it’s the fact that there’s something uniquely American about the beef on the bun. "I think this is why you’re seeing a resurgence in the hamburger," says Scott McCullough, director of marketing for Fuddruckers. "With all that’s been going on in our world recently, people are looking for comfortable, familiar things. You’re in the yard, cooking burgers on the grill. It’s an all-American way to eat."

The nostalgia factor referenced by McCullough could be part of the reason why many quick-service restaurants are putting a slew of new faces on patties. To serve a wide variety of tastes, they’re bulking up the beef–Hardee‘s, for example, is grilling its "Thickburger" lines in 1/3, 1/2, and 2/3-pound patties– and piling on a bevy of non-traditional toppings. Like fried crawfish and Cajun sauce? Try Fuddruckers "Mardi Gras" burger. Fancy a helping of sautéed mushrooms and Swiss cheese? Belly up to the "Gourmet Burger" offered by Back Yard Burgers. They’re getting tagged with some catchy names, too. There’s the "Monster," the "Slammer," the "Black Jack" and the "Texas Toothpicks."

But burgers haven’t always enjoyed such a boom in popularity. In the past decade in particular, quick-service restaurants have often flexed their marketing muscles behind chicken-based products, Tex-Mex specialties, and healthier, meat-free fare like salads and veggie burgers. Per capita annual consumption of hamburger peaked at 30.6 pounds in 1990, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In the four years that followed, that figure dropped to 29.8, 28.3, 27.3 and 26.5.

The decline in popularity can perhaps be attributed to two main factors: fear of food-borne pathogens, including the outbreak of mad cow disease, and changes in Americans’ dietary habits, resulting in tighter tracking of calories.

Higher standards for testing of red meat have helped to allay some of the public’s concerns, says Ron Gustafson, livestock economist with Economic Research Service, an arm of the USDA. Per capita consumption rose to 27.9 pounds of hamburger per year in 1999 and jumped to 28.3 pounds in 2000. Those numbers have remained steady in the past couple of years. "The industry has learned a lot in recent years," Gustafson says. "They know they can’t get burned on certain things, or it will cost them."

And just as increased testing has made hamburger and other forms of beef safer to eat, the meat has found its way back into regular diet programs. The widely accepted Atkins plan hasn’t just made hamburger meat okay, it has made it a preferred meal for many dieters, says Marilyn Raymond, new products director for New Product Works, a consulting group in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"Red meat consumption is way up," Raymond says. "There’s a big emphasis on protein, beef, and hamburgers, even though the Atkins diet shuns bread. We’ve almost gotten permission now to eat protein-rich foods, and that wasn’t always the case."

How it got started

If you still think Americans aren’t passionate about the burger, consider this: There are claims on its birth at locations all around the U.S.

Internet web sites offer up different stories as to where the first burger was made, but the oldest reference is generally in Seymour, Wisconsin. In 1885, a young man by the name of Charlie Nagreen was selling meatballs at a county fair, but realized that the food was awkward for people to eat while they walked around.

Nagreen flattened the meatballs, placed them between two slices of bread, and called his new sandwich the hamburger. Seymour residents have kept a tight rein on Nagreen’s invention–the city is home to the Hamburger Hall of Fame and each year hosts a Burger Festival that includes a bun toss and a hamburger eating contest.

Other claims come from Texas, Ohio, Connecticut and–where else?–Hamburg, Germany. And while the beef patty and bun package has remained the same, the wrapping has clearly evolved at many quick-service restaurants.

Today, at places like Fuddruckers–where hamburgers account for two-thirds of the company’s annual sales–burgers are draped in chili, corn chips, and just about anything else that will fit on the patty’s top, McCullough says.

Fuddruckers latest creation is the "Fiesta Burger," which includes a tortilla wrap, burger, grilled onions, red and green bell peppers, and guacamole.

"We’re always looking at something with ‘fun’ toppings," McCullough says. "The specialty burgers usually prove to be very popular."

The meat itself is also changing. While most chains are sticking with ground beef, many are moving to Angus beef and other cuts of meat for their burger menus.

Jeff Sterling is vice president of sales and marketing for Wisconsin-based Kenosha Beef, which supplies meat to quick-service restaurants. Sterling says he’s noticed that many companies are trying to "differentiate themselves" with consumers, and they’re using the burger to pull it off. "When you look at the trends in foodservice, ‘comfort foods’ are again in vogue," Sterling says. "Any time there’s instability in the economy and world events, people turn to things that provide comfort, and I believe burgers fit into that category."

Konasha Beef’s business depends largely on the success of quick-service restaurants, and with burgers continuing to sell, it bodes well for the company. "We go up and down with the success of the chains," Sterling says, "and that side of the business has had the opportunity to continue to show growth lately."

Hardee’s has switched to Angus beef for its line of Thickburgers, says Brad Haley, the company’s executive vice president of marketing. With a better cut of meat also comes a higher cost for the product, but Haley says consumers don’t seem to mind. Hamburgers represent about 50 percent of Hardee’s revenues from lunch and dinner sales, and the Thickburger line ranges in cost from $2.49 to $4.50, depending on the size ordered by the customer. "They carry a premium price, but we’ve found that people are willing to pay for it if the quality is there," Haley says.

Members of the quick-service industry often have "marched in the same direction," Haley says, and he points to past efforts on healthier menu items. Haley says he isn’t sure if everyone was making a renewed push for better hamburger but that Hardee’s has always revered the burger as the anchor of the restaurant’s menu. "We don’t think they ever went out of style," he says. "The attraction comes from a number of factors. It’s the quintessential American sandwich. It’s hot and it’s great-tasting, and it’s so pervasive. The quick-service restaurant industry has made burgers so accessible for so many people, and I think the industry has done the most to popularize it."

The Atkins plan hasn’t just made hamburger meat okay, it’s made it a preferred meal for many dieters.

Like Haley, Dick Rausch of Pierre Foods says that burgers never really fell out of favor with quick-service consumers. Rausch is marketing manager for the Cincinnati-based company, which supplies prepared food products to several quick-service corporations.

Some chains are going through what Rausch calls "the 99-cent wars" with their burgers. Others aren’t taking that route and are beefing up the product. "If you compare the higher-quality burger to the one for 99 cents, it’s night and day," Rausch says. "The cheap ones are paper-thin compared to the upscale versions. The customer sees the difference and they’re willing to pay for it."

Rausch says there will always be a demand for burgers big and small, but currently, consumers are opting for the deluxe models. "When people go out to eat, they’re going to enjoy a meal and not spend time counting calories," Rausch says. "They’ll go for the best quality product."

More product, more demand

One overlooked factor in the burger’s current wave of popularity might be the availability of quality beef. Gustafson, the USDA economist, says feeding conditions for cattle were among the worst ever in early 2001, due largely to foul weather that prevented cattle from bulking up their weights.

At that time, the average member in a herd was down 12 pounds from an ideal weight for liquidation. Average weights for cattle have increased 31 pounds in the past year. "When feeding conditions are better, you’ll simply have better-sized cattle," Gustafson says.

Executives at Tennessee-based Back Yard Burgers had a bigger, better burger in mind long before the current changes at some restaurants, says Mike Myers, the company’s president and chief operating officer. Back Yard switched to Angus beef about three years ago after some lengthy market research. "The hamburger is part of Americana; it’s part of the history of this country," Myers says. "We knew it wasn’t going away. We wanted to come out with burgers that you rant and rave about, the kind people talk about after they took a vacation and visited one of our restaurants."

In various test groups, Back Yard researchers provided a Black Angus beef burger and a ground beef hamburger to each participant. Without telling them which burger had which cut of beef, participants favored the Angus burger by a 4 to 1 ratio, according to the company’s research. In other tests, participants were told the difference between the beef, and the Angus burger was preferred by an 11 to 1 ratio.

"We made that change in 2000 and we haven’t looked back," Myers says. "Consumers’ expectations have changed, and I think this is what they want. There was a cost increase for us, but we adjusted the prices and still saw a 10 percent increase in sales."

Since it started in 1987, Back Yard has expanded its menu to include specialty chicken sandwiches, but burgers are still the top dog. The chain’s signature "Back Yard Burger" accounts for 32 percent of annual sales. "It’s in our name," Myers says. "There’s no guesswork with what we serve."

Raymond, of New Product Works, says the concept of "rational indulgence" has definitely helped burger sales recently. Dieters who give themselves permission to temporarily stray from their eating regimen often learn toward a burger for a little guilty pleasure, she says.

And with many patties coming with vegetable toppings like mushrooms, onions, tomatoes, and guacamole, the burger suddenly isn’t such a stretch from semi-healthy eating, she says.

"People tell themselves, ‘Look, I’ve been good all week eating salads, and now I’m going to splurge on something,’" Raymond says. "It’s a case of saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to pig out today and get away from the diet, and it’s going to be something good.’"

Josee Daoust says she was convinced that the hamburger was back when she took a recent trip to New York City. While walking by a restaurant and checking out a menu, she saw hamburger being sold for "an obscene amount of money," but patrons didn’t hesitate to buy the product.

Daoust is the public affairs manager for the American Meat Institute, a Washington, D.C.—based trade organization for meat processors and packing plants. She says many restaurants have discovered "a dozen ways to dress a hamburger," and it’s working for them.

"If you walk into a typical quick-service restaurant today, you’ll have a hamburger canvas in front of you," Daoust says. "I think over the past decade, common sense has returned to people who feared that the burger was too fattening or not good for them. If you eat it in moderation, a hamburger or beef in general will not kill you. It can be part of a balanced diet, and it’s like the hot dog. It’s one of America’s favorite foods."