Burger Magic Patty Press — A Marketing Review

The afternoon sun is bearing down on your patio as the charcoal continues to heat, coming up to temperature.

The grill is almost ready for cooking.

Inside the house, you’re still in the kitchen preparing the food.

Tonight’s meal:  hamburgers

Cook time:  4-6 minutes

Prep time:  way . . . too . . . long

It turns out that the hamburger meat isn’t quite cooperating and the hamburger patties look like globs of Play-Doh.  Oh, if only there was a kitchen product to help make quick and easy hamburger patties.  This is just way too complicated!

According to a recent TV commercial, such a product has just entered the marketplace.  Say hello to Burger Magic!

Burger Magic website — www.TryBurgerMagic.com

Can it be?

Did somebody create a kitchen product that helps you make circular and uniform burger patties?

Let’s review at the Burger Magic TV commercial and see just what product they’re trying to sell us.

As far as I’m aware, the TV commercial is only available on the Burger Magic company website.  Visit the site and check out the commercial before continuing with this article.

Go ahead.  It’s okay.  This article will still be here when you return.  Or it can stay here while visiting the company’s website in another tab in your Internet browser.  It’s your call.  The important thing to remember is that it greatly helps seeing the TV commercial before reading this marketing review.

Ready?

Great!

Burger Magic TV commercial — Why can’t these lousy burger patties make themselves?

Here we are in 2012, and a common cooking issue for the longest of time is still plaguing many kitchens.

Why oh why is it just soooooo hard to form a burger patty?  Why do your fingers have to get messy?  Why does the meat tend to fall apart and get sticky the longer it’s been out of the fridge?

This is the future for cryin’ out loud!

According to the 1950s and 60s, we should have instant cooking machines in our kitchens by now.  All we should do is walk up to a big box, press the button for hamburger, and out pops a freshly cooked burger already on the bun, ready to eat.  The next version of the machines would recognize voice commands so you could yell at it from the living room.  The generation after that would read your mind and also begin prepping the bathroom for its inevitable post-meal visit.  Taco night would activate sound dampeners and extra air fresheners.

I can see it now.  Fifty years from now somebody will be saying, “We can put a man on Mars but I still can’t make a damn burger patty!”

Burger Magic TV commercial — These would be perfect ‘mini burgers’ to some people.

Sliders.  Krystals.  Mini-burgers.  Call them what you want, but when poorly constructed burgers shrink and shrivel up on the grill, that’s exactly what you’ll have in the end.  Then again, a properly cooked slider would still taste pretty good.  A positive way to look at this shrinking problem is to say, “Look how much extra room I have for the toppings!”

Ooh!  If you know ahead of time that your burger will look like this in the end, you could carve out notches for it in the bottom and top bun, “hiding” the burger and making a nifty little sandwich.  Add some toppings such as BBQ sauce and there you go.  That actually sounds pretty good.  There, I just created a dinner idea for you.  Enjoy!

Getting back on topic, notice how the marketers decided to use a cheap hamburger bun and no toppings to enhance the negative effect of Unintentional Mini-Burger Syndrome.  Gee, will the “correct” version of the hamburger created with the Burger Magic include toppings and a better hamburger bun?  I certainly hope so!

Burger Magic TV commercial — It’s a bowl!  It’s a UFO!  It’s Burger Magic!

And just how do you form perfectly shaped hamburger patties?

Is it time to enroll in some cooking classes and learn some tips from the chefs?

Hell no!

Thanks to the innovative design of the Burger Magic patty press, making circular hamburger patties can be an easy process.  There’s no need to learn how to make burger patties.  Now they’ll all be the same*.

*The same diameter.  The burger’s thickness will depend on how much meat you place in the Burger Magic product.

Take note of the circular rings on the lid and base of the Burger Magic.  This is what separates the Burger Magic from those “other” burger patty press products that have come and gone from the marketplace.

Burger Magic TV commercial — ‘Home, home on the range . . .’

As if it had to be seen to be believed, several hamburger patties formed with Burger Magic can fit in a pan on the range.  I will say that the burger on the top right doesn’t quite look as good or uniform as that “perfect” patty on the left side.  Perhaps the cook opted out of having the flavor rings as advertised on the product’s website.

Burger Magic TV commercial — It’s cheeseburger time!

Notice how in addition to looking much larger than those “other” hamburgers, the buns have also changed!  Now the hamburger bun is of significantly higher quality.  I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the bun’s quality also improved when demoing the Burger Magic product.

Ignore the unmelted cheese.  We’re focusing on the presumed perfectly cooked burgers and not the cheese.  Then again, if we were meant to be focusing on the burgers, perhaps the two up front shouldn’t be hiding under the layer of cheese.

Burger Magic TV commercial — Om nom nom nom!

Look!

She’s actually eating her dinner and not complaining like she normally does for those shrunken and uneven burgers.

Yay!

Of course we know nothing about the burger itself, how well it was cooked, if it’s juicy, quality of the meat, or if any other seasoning was involved.  What we do know is that the kid is enjoying her hamburger, complete with the toppings underneath the hamburger patty.

Those are just minor details.  At least she loves her hamburger.  Hooray!

Burger Magic TV commercial — Forming round burgers one patty at a time.

As it claims in the TV commercial, just scoop the meat into the Burger Magic, give it a good press, and then pop out the circular burger patty.  I wonder if the instruction manual gives tips on how to keep the meat from sticking to the scoop and Burger Magic device.

Is this one of those “one size fits all” burger press, or can you make smaller (diameter) burger patties?  Children and less hungry people may not be able to handle burgers of that size.  Are you supposed to use a knife and trim a “ring” off the burger to make it a smaller size?

So how large are these uncooked hamburgers?  Quarter pound?

Burger Magic TV commercial — Grilling — the REAL way to cook burgers!

Cooking burgers on the grill is always a pleasure.  It’s too bad the commercial didn’t have the sizzling sound of the burgers hitting the hot grating to really get your mouth watering.  Mmmmm.  Burgers.

Burger Magic TV commercial — Cooking burgers faster and easier than ever before!

At this point the commercial claims “. . . that because of the grooves, the burgers cook faster and easier than ever before.”

Oh, really?

How is this easier to cook than without the grooves?  Are the rings going to start singing when it’s time to flip the burger?

I get it that the rings are there to help stop the grease and seasoning from running off the burger as it swells while cooking.  A different cooking style can help seal the juices inside the burger, without the help of any grooves.  But going so far as claiming that the small grooves also make it faster to cook the burger, well, that’s debatable.

The burgers at White Castle have holes punched through the patties to help speed up the cooking time and allow more of the onion flavor to permeate into the burger.  The circular indentations (a.k.a. grooves, Flavor Rings) created with the Burger Magic are going to have a similar effect, but without going deep into the hamburger patty, that difference in cooking time and ultimate flavor is going to be debatable.

It’s possible that the narrator is speaking to complete grill novices in this section.  If a person is used to throwing thick globs of meat and always taking too long to cook it, then that person will see a reduction in cooking time if all the burgers are now uniform size and thickness, AND if proper cooking time guidelines are followed.  Looking at it from that perspective, then yes, a person will most likely see an improvement in cooking time and ease of cooking hamburgers.

But that’s talking about a complete novice now using essentially preformed burger patties and what I would assume to be a chart with cooking times.  Those two elements alone will speed up the process and produce a better finished product.  How will the grooves help that person cook burgers faster and easier?

Just blindly making a statement that the shape and surface texture of the burgers will both make them cook faster and easier, without offering any additional details, is insufficient.  This is a powerful claim, and without any supporting evidence in the advertisement or website, then it’s going to be deemed as controversial.

Burger Magic TV commercial — Quadruple om nom nom!

Now that’s what I like to see.  Everybody is loving their burgers.

Again, we have no idea why they like their burgers so much.  It can range from anything from how well it’s cooked to the seasonings.  All we know is that A) they ALL put their toppings below the burger patty, and B) they ALL love their burgers.

Here the commercial is claiming that these are the “. . . most flavorful, juiciest burgers you’ve ever tasted.”

Again, there’s not enough information in the advertisement and website to back up those claims.  There are about a hundred different variables from the time you form the patties in the Burger Magic device to the time that people begin to eat their meal.  Claiming that the burger patty forming tool is responsible for this delectable final product, all without giving any solid evidence on why it supposedly works so well, is a huge pile of B.S.

The fact that the ring design was given a U.S. patent is fine for advertising, but that’s about it.  Having a patent doesn’t mean that you’ve got the greatest product.  It just means that you have a unique idea and you’re protecting it.  But when it comes to advertising a product such as this, mentioning the patent IS going to help convert some thinkers into buyers.

Burger Magic TV commercial — Shoddy burgers and cheap buns.

Again we’re faced with that dreaded, “I can’t cook hamburgers” syndrome.

This poor woman just wants to have a hamburger or two for dinner, but the damn things keep falling apart and looking like crap.  Can the Burger Magic turn her pitiful excuses for hamburgers into restaurant quality, culinary masterpieces?

Will the Burger Magic also tell her to purchase better hamburger buns and have nothing but the freshest spices and toppings?  Will it also tell her to cook the same number of patties as sets of buns?

Burger Magic TV commercial — Complete with a big book of burger recipes!

To help sweeten the deal, the company is also throwing in a recipe book full of tasty burger options.

No problem there.

But if the people in this commercial don’t know how to form hamburger patties or, presumably, how to cook them properly, perhaps the recipe book is too advanced and they’ll benefit more from a basic how-to guide.  And a how-to video.

Burger Magic TV commercial — Time for the sale!

At the end of the commercial we’re hit with the final part of the sales pitch.  As usual with these as-seen-on-TV promotions, the company wants to send double the product to your home.  That’s two of the Burger Magic patty presses, two measuring cups, and two copies of the burger recipe book.

In the end, the total cost of this promotion comes to $25.93  ($14.95 + $6.99 (S&H) + $3.99 (S&H for “free” set)).  Take note that they don’t double the initial cost of S&H for the “free” set unlike other as-seen-on-TV promotions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Forming hamburger patties is not the most challenging task in the kitchen.

Personally, I prefer slightly misshapen patties.  It gives each burger its own unique characteristics.  It also just feels more like home cooking.

Many grocery stores do sell preformed hamburger patties, sometimes at the same exact price as just buying a chunk of ground meat.  This alone is a great help for those looking for the convenience of going quickly from prep to cooking.

As far as the Burger Magic advertisement, I would have liked to see why the grooves are so special.  The commercial acts like the grooves are everything in these burger patties, but without any solid examples of how they work, then the claims are virtually meaningless.  An animation would probably work best here.

The Burger Magic website is extremely simple.  Apart from playing the TV commercial and having a few pictures of the product in action, that’s about it.

The Burger Magic’s web developer should take note of a typo in the page’s description:  “Try Burge Magic Today”

Like the website, the product itself is extremely simple with no moving parts and nothing to sharpen.  It’s the arguments made in the commercial and on the website that need further explanation.

In the end, it clearly feels that the advertisers are trying to push a product that may not necessarily be a major issue for most people.  Many of the scenes were of either improperly formed burgers (those “other” burgers), or random happy people enjoying their finished meals.  There wasn’t much focus on the product itself.  Perhaps this is because its simplicity may scare away potential buyers.  As it was stated earlier, there are so many variables in the preparation, cooking and serving process that implying that the shape of the burger alone is going to cause a big improvement is really a stretch.

• Step 1 – Form burger patties.

• Step 2 – ????

• Step 3 – Profit.

Remember that the Burger Magic is not a cooking tool.  It’s a preparation tool.  That’s it.  How you ultimately form, season and cook the burger is up to you, and there are still way too many ways to screw up those parts of the process.

When advertisements resort to generic and debatable statements to sell a product, then perhaps said product is not the best answer to solving the initial problem.

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All of the Burger Magic commercial images were screenshots of the TV commercial available on the product’s website.  For more product information, please visit the company’s website, www.TryBurgerMagic.com.

Burger Magic and Flavor Rings are registered trademarks.

RellimZone.com is not affiliated with Burger Magic.