Revealed: How McDonald’s got just a little bit fancy
The head of marketing consultancy Growth Mantra has revealed how McDonald’s revamped its menu as part of a bid to return to growth – but rejected one of the country’s fastest growing food categories when it said “no” to noodles.
Simon Corah, founder and CEO at Growth Mantra, was speaking that the Mumbrella Finance Summit in Sydney and said the fast food giant had adopted a “left brain, right brain” approach to investigating how it needed to evolve its offer.
“The left brain and right brain play really important roles at different times,” Corah said.
“McDonald’s came and asked me a simple question: ‘what should we be selling for growth?’,” Corah said.
I wonder how much of the 9.9% growth can be attributed to the fancy burgers, which to me are off brand. As a father of 4 hungry boys, I’m often in Macca’s and I rarely see people using the kiosks, or eating the fancy burgers. Macca’s is best at value for money, which this initiative isn’t.
Didn’t Create your Taste start in the US?
And that “little bit fancy” line dates from when they introduced Angus burgers in 2009 if I recall correctly. So it’s a bit of a long term thing it seems given CYT was about 5 years later.
Valid point Dan, but you’re already a McDonalds customer. This is about the non-customers, the customers that were loyal who left to seek other alternatives viewed as being “better” than Mcdonalds, and how they get them back in the door. You see maccas for the value but how do they get the 18-35 year olds back in the door, other than at 2am for a sneaky cheese. Great horizontal shift in their positioning.
Left brain, right brain whatever. If Macca’s still doesn’t recognise the need for decent vegetarian offerings, it ain’t going to grow much further.