I’ve never eaten a McDonald’s (or a Burger King) burger, but I’ve heard that a regular staple on the menu is the quarter-pound hamburger.
Some refer to it as a quarter-pounder.
That suggests a heftier burger than a mere “normal” hamburger. I call a hamburger “normal” when the menu does not specify the patty’s size or weight.
Back in the 1980s, one fast-food competitor tried to compete with the quarter-pounder.
The fast-food chain A&W in 1985 created a third-pound burger.
The idea was brilliantly simple: A&W would match the price of the quarter-pound burger but provide a third-pound patty instead of a quarter-pound patty.
The owner of the A&W chain at the time was A. Alfred Taubman. His campaign for the new burger was called “Third Is the Word.”
Later on, in a book called “Threshold Resistance,” Taubman recalled what happened:
“We were aggressively marketing a one-third-pound hamburger for the same price … but despite our best efforts, including first-rate TV and radio promotional spots, they just weren’t selling.”
He couldn’t understand why. After all, the A&W burgers were priced at the same price as the competition’s and were clearly marketed as such.
To try to get at the root of the problem, Taubman brought in a market research firm to study the matter. As such firms often do, they conducted a focus group filled with so-called typical consumers.
The focus group confirmed that no consumers misunderstood the pricing of the two burgers as being identical.
Then there was a taste test. According to Taubman, the focus group clearly preferred the taste of the A&W burger.
Which means they understood the taste was better.
But still, the group said, they would refuse to buy it, because to them it didn’t provide enough value.
The focus group, by and large, expressed concern that the consumer was expected to pay the same amount for a third-pound burger as the customers down the street paid for the quarter-pound burger.
The typical focus group reply was, “Why should I pay the same and get a smaller burger?”
It turns out the majority of the participants incorrectly believed that one-third of a pound was smaller than one-quarter of a pound.
And to appreciate the deal A&W was offering, a consumer would need to realize that one-third is greater than one-fourth.
Most of the focus group consumers failed to realize this. They had a weak grasp of basic math.
Because one-third has a three in it, and one-fourth has a four in it, and four is larger than three, the majority of the consumers thought that one-quarter was a larger quantity than one-third.
But that isn’t reality.
Just as a third of a dollar is $33.33 cents, whereas a quarter of a dollar is .25 cents, a third is more than a fourth.
But the consumers then didn’t get it.
And nowadays, far too many consumers still wouldn’t get it.
I see them all the time at the supermarkets, not knowing which size of a product provides a better value.
They wouldn’t know offhand that a quarter of a pound is four ounces, whereas a third of a pound is five and one-third ounces.
This is not trigonometry or calculus. This is basic fractions.
Today’s high-school graduates possibly don’t even learn fractions anymore. Because of computers, all numbers must be entered as digital entities, with decimal points; not as fractions, with numerators, bars, and denominators.
Earlier this year at a local supermarket’s deli counter, I tried to order two-thirds of a pound of sliced cheese. The young fellow behind the counter was totally stumped. He knew how to fill quarter-pound and half-pound orders, but thirds? He had no idea, so I translated the fractional amount into decimal form for him.
Unlike me, A&W didn’t want to have to educate others about basic fractions. They abandoned the third-pound burger, until 2021. Then A&W, nowadays more known for its root beer than its restaurants, gave it another whirl. They brought back the third-pound burger.
But they had learned their lesson. This time they billed it as the 3/9 pound burger.
After all, nine sounds like more than four.
Can’t say they don’t have a sense of humor.
The lesson A&W has taught us: To be an exemplary consumer, one must be sufficiently skilled in math.
