The genesis came from a Burger King restaurant in Germany that had a walk-up window in the back. It was like the Burger Kings of the ‘50s, back when it was just burgers, fries and a drink.

As our marketing strategy team put their heads together with the business guys like me, we talked about a simplified format that focused on the most engaging part of our menu, which is the Whopper sandwich.

So, this concept was born to capitalize on a simplified menu and ease of ordering. It takes the classic “Have It Your Way” and Whopper brand experience to another level with the varieties of sandwiches that you can build. It is a chance for us to create a new, engaging experience for the guest.

What makes the Whopper Bar experience different?

The Whopper Bar brings a sense of innovation and personalization to the guest without too much complication. We just serve one size of sandwich: there’s the Whopper and the XT, which is a thicker, heartier, steakhouse-style burger, and chicken.

But then it adds the ability to have toppings — from crispy onions to blue cheese to peppers to sauces like A-1, barbeque, guacamole — you name it. It puts all of the special toppings that we’ve offered on a limited-time basis over the years in a single location. It puts “Have It Your Way” on steroids.

How does the Whopper Bar design fit into the scheme of things?

It was really a chance for us to start with a fresh, clean slate and a completely new palette. Our design team did a fair amount of research on how to present our brand equities of flame broiling, the Whopper and “Have It Your Way.” We brought a little bit of theatre to the building of a made-to-order customized sandwich. All of those elements are brought to life in this new design.

If you’ve ever been to a Ruth’s Chris, Morton’s or Tony Roma’s, you see a lot of the steakhouse black-and-red color palette. Those kinds of steakhouse colors are incorporated into the Whopper Bar. It also has a more modern décor, with crisp edges and a softer, circular floor design and seating. It’s more contemporary, with high-top counters and flat-panel televisions.

It all comes together to resonate the flame grilling aspect of what the Burger King brand has always represented. The hipness of the brand, if you will, comes through much more visibly in this design. Having a more comfortable, contemporary design also invites people to hang out more than the hard-plastic booth seating in traditional Burger King restaurants.

Are there any surprising things that you’ve learned from the Whopper Bars to date?

We’ve gained some insights into simplifying the menu and seeing how that plays with our guests — or whether it does, for that matter. Maybe people are looking for variety in a different way than through the Whopper Bar menu construct. Those are some observations that we’re keeping a close eye on.

The Whopper Bar serves as an innovation lab for products. It’s a nice, safe environment where we can try new products. To roll out products to 7,500 locations across America is not easy.

So, we’re very excited about the innovation opportunities the Whopper Bar brings to us. It’s not just about the Whopper or an XT. We have the opportunity to innovate with sizes and drinks, as well.

Will the Whopper Bars significantly change Burger King’s identity?

It’s actually been a catalyst for some image changes. About a year ago, we announced our new image, called 20/20, which takes many of the elements that were innovated through the Whopper Bar and brings them to life in our newest restaurants.

This isn’t a total revamp of the system overnight, but it’s our standard for new builds and we’re also encouraging our system to remodel into this new image, which is very similar to the Whopper Bar. So, it really has been a way for us to innovate and test to refresh and reinvigorate the Burger King brand.

Will it attract a different kind of customer?

I don’t necessarily think so. It really will depend on the venues. We have a lot of appetite for Whopper Bars in high-traffic areas like Times Square, South Beach and Universal Studios, or in a sports complex, a cruise ship or casino, where people are looking for something other than the traditional fast-food chain.

So, to the extent that there’s a different demographic in those environments, it will attract a different kind of customer. This just really gives us much more flexibility to address local needs or site-specific opportunities.

Will the Whopper Bars create a different kind of loyalty?

Perhaps. The Whopper is America’s favorite hamburger and we are hoping to learn how much loyalty there is to the Whopper. There must be some loyalty inherently for people even to walk in the door.

“Have It Your Way” has been a brand-equity of ours for a very long time. We were one of the first to innovate with made-to-order sandwiches and it has a loyal following. We hope to learn more about that with the Whopper Bars. Time will tell.

Where does loyalty start within a brand like Burger King?

Loyalty today takes many different forms, but I think it starts with the history and the awareness of the brand. Right behind that is the consumer’s perceived value for the money that they’re paying, which takes multiple forms.

Loyalty is in the price you pay. It’s in the experience you have. It’s in the emotional connection you feel if you still remember the first time you rode your bike to Burger King when you were a kid.

Our ability to deliver consistent value for the money and a reliable experience — that’s, at a minimum, where loyalty starts.

How do you cultivate loyalty from within the organization itself?

Our culture is one of the most appealing that I’ve experienced in my professional career. It dovetails so nicely with the brand’s message and who we are because our internal culture is built around four pillars: being bold, accountable, empowered, and fun.

Being bold and fun are very similar in their definition, and then accountable and empowered are, as well. Those are the cultural pillars that we live by.

They resonate very effectively with the swagger that this brand has had over the last seven years and our willingness to speak directly to our guests about how this brand should look and feel to them. We cultivate that loyalty internally by who we are externally. I think one feeds and supports the other in a virtuous cycle.

Is there anything about the Burger King culture that lets you do things that McDonald’s couldn’t?

Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it. I used to work for Avis, and as everyone knows, we tried harder! It was nice being the underdog because we had somewhat of a license to break out.

Burger King has that ability to twist itself into places our competitive set can’t afford to go because they can’t afford to be irreverent. The Whopper Bar is a great example of that.

Is the result a different kind of loyalty than McDonald’s has?

It probably is. I’m sure we have loyalists who are very similar in their reasons for their loyalty. But we probably capture more of the fringe than maybe our competition does.

Have franchises like Five Guys influenced you in any way?

Five Guys seems to be resonating with freshness cues and a little bit of theatre. The food is cooked in front of you and it’s a comfortable atmosphere. Those are things that we look at in addition to other competitors as to how that might dovetail into our message and brand.

I wouldn’t say that Five Guys, in particular, is an influence, but we look at ways to capture competitive opportunities. The desire to create a more comfortable environment in which to dine in is something that our 20/20 image does a phenomenal job of doing that our old image does not, for example.

Did the recession change the way that you think about loyalty?

Not dramatically. It mostly reinforced our view that out-of-home eaters, who dine in fast-food restaurants, are a somewhat promiscuous bunch that shops around a lot.

It also compelled us to look more closely at the behavior of core customers — a heavy user versus a price shopper, for instance. It challenged us to try to look in a more segmented fashion around how those components of the core customer base behave.

How important is having a database?

Historically, I wouldn’t say that it’s been that important. We have databases and loyalty cards. It’s not easy to get meaningful information at the customer level in our industry, per se. But there are quite a few opportunities popping up, especially in the internet space.

Having a database does create a significant opportunity to enhance and track loyalty. Burger King’s capabilities in that regard are growing by the day and it should be a very helpful tool for us to build loyalty. But it hasn’t been as big a capability in this industry as it has been in other industries.

Can television advertising create loyalty?

It can be a gateway to a component of loyalty. So long as you can ensure that you follow through on the expectation that TV advertising is creating, or have the opportunity to create, then the potential for enhancing loyalty through TV advertising can be meaningful. But I wouldn’t say that television is more meaningful than other media when it comes to creating loyalty.

How do social media build loyalty?

We’re pretty excited about that space. We’ve been one of the first fast-food organizations that has let our core consumers have a helping hand in defining the brand through social media.

The opportunity for social media is to capitalize on that emotional connection with the guest and letting them help define our brand. If you go onto our website, you can build your own sandwich. We have people who go online, build their own sandwich, and then bring it into the restaurant and order it.

Social media might be one of the most attractive loyalty generators out there. We’ll know more as we perfect more social media platforms, but creating that emotional connection with the guest is the great opportunity there.

You’ve been at the forefront of viral videos, too.

Right, with the Subservient Chicken and the Whopper Freak-Out campaign from a couple of years ago. Did you ever see that? We took the Whopper out of the restaurants and we said we were no longer selling the Whopper.

Talk about loyalty — holy cow! That showed what the Whopper at Burger King meant to loyal consumers. If you went on YouTube you would see dozens of parody videos that loyal customers made on their own because they so connected with that campaign and the brand.

Do cause-marketing programs really create loyalty?

It’s certainly a growing phenomenon. Burger King is an aggregation of franchisees who have enormous affiliations with numerous charities and organizations all over the country. We have the Have It Your Way Foundation, under which our franchisees and communities support college students with scholarships.

There’s a real emotional attachment in the Burger King community to the Foundation and there’s probably an incremental sales benefit in it. It’s just not to the scale that there is in other promotional or media environments.

Cause marketing doesn’t necessarily drive a sustainable business proposition, but there is a balance. Respecting the opinions of our guests and our franchisees, is something that is, in general, a positive influence on the business. But does it turn the needle dramatically? I have yet to see that.

Is loyalty more about product or service? And don’t tell me it’s both.

That’s a no-win question! Both of them are fatal flaws if you get them wrong. Service can help you recover, but an uncompetitive product will not keep consumers coming back. Service will keep them coming back to a point, but without both — I mean, I love how you asked the question!

Without both you’re dead in the water. So, let’s face it, we all have those places where we love the people … it’s the bar downtown, right? I’ll have a drink there, but I won’t eat their food. Those situations happen all the time and it’s not a sustainable business model to present an either/or choice.

Thanks for playing along with me on that question.

That was very good.

What excites you the most about Burger King’s future?

What’s exciting to me is there are so many opportunities where we’ve only scratched the surface. When we put a solid location with a good management team with that 20/20 image on it, Burger King can compete with anybody. That’s what makes me so excited about the opportunity for this brand.

We continue to move towards a higher set of expectations and making those kinds of investments with this brand. With all that infrastructure — and operating expertise with the brand positioning that we have today, I just feel like there is enormous opportunity here.

These are tough times and it’s a frustrating environment when there’s high unemployment. We’re all living through struggles. But this is a damn resilient brand and when we put the right investment assets and message behind it, it works. That’s exciting.