Next to the multinational legacy brands McDonald’s and Burger King, Belgian has its own local fast-food brand, that was founded in 1972: QUICK.

However, in 2016, Quick was slowly dying.

-Years of generic communication led to a radical drop in sales, and to closures of 30% of its restaurants.

-Competition from multinationals was massively increasing: with Burger King entering Belgium (in 2016) and McDonald’s reacting by investing even more (+35% increase in outlets, +40% media-investment)

-While Quick had no differentiation whatsoever: not as a brand and not at all in its products offer, which were mainly copies of McDonald’s product range.

For local brand QUICK, it was ‘do or die’ really. In 2016 the local press therefore predicted a clear potential takeover and the disappearance of this once so attractive local fast-food brand.

Let’s turn the very core of the QUICK business – their burgers ) into their biggest brand asset and brand equity builder by bringing 5 limited edition ‘BELGIAN TASTE BURGERS’ per year, always filled with typically Belgian ingredients, typical Belgian cultural references and typically Belgian humour. Burgers that truly embody what Belgians love to eat. Because no matter how huge our competitor’s firepower, they will never be able to understand Belgians better than a Belgian brand. The longevity and the differentiating strength to keep suprising with 5 Belgian burgers per year (for 8 years now, meaning already 40 (!) different burgers) turned a battle that Quick couldn’t win into a battle that the multinationals could never win. Sharing all 40 would take too many words, but here’s a few of them: Burgers with Belgian Waffle, with chocolate bun, with Belgian Beer, Belgian Stew, Belgian chicory, Belgian ‘tiger-pistolet’, Belgian fries, ...

Strategic decision 1: the key was to re-legitimate QUICK on its core DNA, a local BELGIAN brand. So we decided to put the very distinctive but locally extremely relevant ‘Belgian taste and culture’ (known as ‘Belgitude’) at the very heart of the QUICK brand. Because who better than the local Belgian fast-food brand could understand this very special breed of people, called Belgians?

Strategic decision 2: then we want all-in on that strategy and not only changed the content of the Quick campaigning, but also completely transformed the very core of the QUICK business: its burgers.

While before 2016 Quick brought limited-edition burgers with ‘double bacon’ or ‘extra cheese’, just like the competition does, it now reinvented its operations and product design, to keep surprising Belgians with 5 ‘Belgian Taste Burgers’ per year. Burgers that truly embody what Belgians love to eat and are anchored in Belgian culture.

Local fast-food brand Quick went from a dying brand in 2016 to thé most differentiating brand in Belgium today (nr 1 ‘most differentiating in the category in ‘18, ‘19, ‘20, ‘21, ‘22, ‘23, consecutively), with the largest fanbase-community (+400% growth of the online community) and a record growth in traffic, net sales and profitability since the introduction of the ‘Belgian Taste Burgers’: +120% growth in traffic. +80% net sales increase. +100% growth in profitability. And this all with 40% less media share than McDonald’s and after losing 30% of their Quick outlets to Burger King. Turning Belgium into the only country in the world where the local fast-food brand is able to beat the legacy multinationals, for 8 years in a row now. Transforming a dying local brand into the most successful business result since their existence (founded in 1972). Who’s loving it?