Home Burgers was launching in one of the most competitive categories in food & beverage: premium fast-casual burgers. The founders wanted to scale aggressively while maintaining: Accessibility and simplicity Strong brand differentiation Operational efficiency High profitability per location The challenge was clear: How do you build a premium burger brand that feels accessible, scales rapidly, and maintains strong unit economics in a saturated market? Core Insight We started with a couple of contrarian truths: “Nobody buys a plain burger.” “Why every burguer Brand has Cmbos”? Customers may enter attracted by price, but they naturally personalize, upgrade, and complete their meal. Using first-principles thinking, we deconstructed traditional assumptions about pricing, menu design, and profitability in the burger category — allowing us to rebuild the model based on real customer behavior rather than industry conventions. This insight allowed us to rethink the entire economic and behavioral architecture of the business — not just the menu. Entry Price Strategy The plain hamburger was positioned as a deliberately low entry price to: Create immediate perceived value Reduce purchase friction Increase volume and accessibility Anchor the brand as affordable premium This low headline price became the psychological gateway into the brand. Menu Unbundling & Food Cost Engineering The strategy went far beyond unbundling. We: Separated add-ons, toppings, fries, and beverages. Strategically increased pricing on add-ons and extras. Our client redesigned ingredient structure to significantly lower food cost in complementary items. Margins were intentionally redistributed: Lower margin on the entry burger. Higher margin on customization and complementary products. This created: A healthier overall food cost per customer purchase. Increased average ticket size without increasing perceived price. A scalable and efficient economic model aligned with real customer behavior. Behavioral Menu Engineering The menu was designed as a decision architecture: The low price of the core burger was highly visible. Add-ons were positioned as natural and attractive upgrades. Customers felt autonomy while the system guided higher-value choices. Founder Camilo Peláez described the early customer behavior: “Customers would walk into the store, look at the menu, be surprised by how simple it was, and say, ‘Alright, let’s do it — it’s just a burger.’ They would sit down, eat their burger, and then order a second one. If they were ordering a second burger, it meant they genuinely liked it.” This simplicity reinforced trust, reduced friction, and increased repeat purchases within the same visit. Operational & Brand Integration The concept extended beyond pricing into the full brand and operational system: Radical simplicity in brand universe and communication. Minimalistic spatial design enabling rapid scalability. Operational efficiency aligned with the economic model. Early traction validated the strategy. As co-founder Pablo noted: “Our break-even point was selling around 80 burgers per day, and just two months after opening, on a good Friday we were selling 1,000 burgers in that small little location.” Scale & Performance Operational indicators demonstrate the strength of the model: Approximately 6 tons of meat processed weekly, equivalent to around 56,000 burgers. Positioned among the top 5 burger chains in Colombia by market participation. Strong expansion driven by a scalable economic architecture. Current footprint: 32 locations in Bogotá 6 locations in Medellín 2 locations in Cartagena 2 locations in Madrid, Spain What This Case Demonstrates This was not a branding project. It was: Behavioral economics applied to food & beverage. Pricing architecture aligned with real consumer behavior. Menu engineering combined with food cost strategy. Strategic creativity transforming category dynamics into a scalable growth system. We didn’t just create a brand. We redesigned the logic of a burger concept to unlock scalability and profitability. We redesigned the economic logic that enabled scale.
