CHICAGO -- ampm is hoping to take a bite out of the competition with its new bigger, better burger, which made its debut in ampm locations across the country on June 4. Customers were offered free samples of one variety of the new burger—the cheeseburger—in selected markets on June 11. It will offer the samples again on June 18.
"We believe our new bigger, better burger is significantly better than the previous patty," said Andrew Baird, vice president of marketing for BP US Convenience Retail. "It looks homemade and tastes like something you might barbecue at home."
The [image-nocss] hamburgers are all beef and are larger than the old patty. The hamburger patty weighs 2.5 oz. post-cook; other hamburger purveyors generally highlight precooked weights. The double cheeseburger meat patties are a total 5 oz., post-cook weight, as opposed to similar products that weigh a quarter pound (4 oz.) precooked weight.
Free sample of the new cheeseburger will be available at participating ampm locations on the West Coast as well as in Chicago, Atlanta and Indianapolis on two subsequent Wednesdays. Radio ads in those markets will invite hungry consumers to stop into their local ampm locations and try the new cheeseburger between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. on June 11 and 18.
And during June and July, the double cheeseburger will sell for a suggested retail price of $1.59 at participating locations.
ampm's tongue-twisting nickname for the hamburger came out of market research in which consumers overwhelmingly chose the "bigger, better" description of the burger, which hadn't changed since 1993. Though sales of the old hamburger were respectable—1.6 million burgers sold from May 1, 2007, to April 30, 2008—ampm wanted to improve its burger category.
Customers familiar with the old ampm hamburger will also discover new, more tempting packaging for the burger. The packaging for the hamburgers, cheeseburgers and double cheeseburgers now sport new, colorful graphics.
"We decided that it was time for a change to better meet what customers were looking for," Baird explains. "Hamburger popularity is extremely high, and we believe we do hamburgers better than other convenience stores."
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