America's Math Skills Doomed A&W's Third-Pound Burger

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tay

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Americans have loved McDonald’s Quarter Pounder ever since a franchisee introduced the iconic burger to the country in 1972.

In the 1980s, A&W attempted to capitalize on the success of the Quarter Pounder—and drum up a little competition for Ronald and friends—by introducing a third-pound burger. The bigger burger gave consumers more bang for their collective buck. It was priced the same as the Quarter Pounder but delivered more meat. It even outperformed McDonald’s in blind taste tests, with consumers preferring the flavor of A&W’s burger.

But when it came down to actually purchasing the third-pound burgers, most Americans simply would not do it. Baffled, A&W ordered more tests and focus groups. After chatting with people who snubbed the A&W burger for the smaller Quarter Pounder, the reason became clear: Americans suck at fractions. Alfred Taubman, who owned A&W at the time, wrote about the confusion in his book Threshold Resistance:
More than half of the participants in the Yankelovich focus groups questioned the price of our burger. "Why," they asked, "should we pay the same amount for a third of a pound of meat as we do for a quarter-pound of meat at McDonald's? You're overcharging us." Honestly. People thought a third of a pound was less than a quarter of a pound. After all, three is less than four!
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Not understanding that a fourth is actually smaller than a third, many consumers eschewed the better-tasting burger in favor of the one they thought was the better deal. According to Taubman, A&W recalibrated their marketing, saying, “The customer, regardless of his or her proficiency with fractions, is always right.”


Why No One Wanted A&W's Third-Pound Burger | Mental Floss
 
TenPenny

TenPenny

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Location, Location
More just marketing.


It's easy to say 'quarter pounder', but not as easy to say 'one third pounder'.


At least in Canada, they could have called it the '733', for 733 grams, that has a ring to it.
 
Jinentonix

Jinentonix

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The problem isn't just in the US my friend. Some years back I knew a girl who, despite being a high school graduate apparently, had no idea why a 25 cent piece is called a quarter.
 
Jinentonix

Jinentonix

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TenPenny said:
More just marketing.


It's easy to say 'quarter pounder', but not as easy to say 'one third pounder'.
Click to expand...
Which might be pertinent if they were sold at the same establishment. I doubt anyone has ever said, "Let's go get a quarter pounder at McDonald's because A&W's one third pounder sounds awkward".
 
Locutus

Locutus

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'merica.





I hear y'alls made it to the moon.
 
Jinentonix

Jinentonix

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TenPenny said:
I guess you don't understand the concept of advertising.
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Yeah, that's it. The problem had absolutely nothing to do with people's horrid math skills and everything to do with the awkwardness of the name.
So what you're suggesting is more people would purchase say, A "Slip 'n' Slide" as opposed to a "Slide 'n' Slip" because "Slip 'n' Slide" rolls off the tongue better, despite the fact the "Slide 'n' Slip" is one third longer and better quality for the same price?


There's also the factor of brand power. Ask the average person to list the fast food franchises and I'll bet dollars to donuts they mention McD's well before A&W. Not to mention company presence. McD's is pretty much ubiquitous in North America. They've been around for decades now. They're even in department stores and along the highways at rest stops.
And finally there's brand loyalty. We've seen that same mentality when it came to North American made cars in the '70s, '80s and '90s when they were producing utter rubbish for the most part. People still bought the cars despite the fact they could get a better quality foreign built car for a comparable price.
 
Walter

Walter

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TenPenny said:
More just marketing.


It's easy to say 'quarter pounder', but not as easy to say 'one third pounder'.


At least in Canada, they could have called it the '733', for 733 grams, that has a ring to it.
Click to expand...
A third of a pound is 151.3 grams.
 
C

Curious Cdn

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Tecumsehsbones said:
Maybe you're as dumb as we are.

Or maybe the OP author's just on a "Murkans are stooooo-pid" rant.

Either way, who really cares?
Click to expand...

During WWII my father and his three brothers were in the RCAF. Two became air crew, one ground crew and one started out as a teacher on British Commonwealth Air Training Plan base in Western Canada (He ended up commanding it). He was charged with teaching remedial math to the Yanks.The American "College Boys" in the Air Corps all came here with the equivalent of Grade Nine math in the Canadian system so he had to bring them up to speed, specifically by teaching them all Trigonometry so that they could navigate. Now I grew up in a neighbourhood where every single father was a veteran and oddly, they were almost all pilots or air crew. Neighbours on all sides three houses deep were call fliers. Something that they said quite often (and obviously believed) was that the the USAAF flew in the day time because they couldn't navigate at night. That would be consistent with the lack of high school matriculation level math in their educational system and is very likely true.
 
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