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Analyzing “Two New Ways McDonald’s is Trying to Win Over Millennials”

By Edward Moss

Abstract:

The article “Two New Ways McDonald’s is Trying to Win Over Millennials” by Brad Tuttle acknowledges McDonald’s decline in sales in Fall 2014 and describes ways the company is working to reach the millennial generation and increase revenue. The article describes the millennial generation as the new consumer base that McDonald’s must now target and how it is a much more technological and fast paced generation than the past one. As the baby boomer generation gets older, McDonald’s has to change its marketing plan towards the millennial generation and two ways it does so is a new “Build Your Burger” option and the McBrunch. The article describes these two options and the future of McDonald’s

Description: 

The article begins by stating, “McDonald’s has a millennial problem. Globally, same-story sales fell 3.7% in August, the largest monthly dip in a decade” (Tuttle). The article states the problem with McDonald’s and provides a fact to show the company has been slipping of late. The problems are not occurring in just one country or region in the world, but globally. The article continues to provide more information that McDonald’s has not been marketing well to the millennial generation. According to Fortune, “since 2011, the number of U.S. consumers ages 19 to 21 that ate at McDonald’s at least once a month was down 13%. In a study about millennials’ favorite fast food brands published earlier this year, McDonald’s was ranked fifth, after Taco Bell, Subway, Panera, and Chipotle” (Tuttle). McDonald’s is slipping, and its competitors are taking advantage, but the rest of the article details how McDonald’s is working to not fall behind when working to get the millennial generation to eat at its restaurants.

            The next couple of paragraphs describe the millennial generation and what it enjoys and looks for in a restaurant. Millennials enjoy Chipotle and Panera Bread because they can easily customize their orders even if they have to pay more than they would at McDonald’s. Customers enjoy being able to get exactly what they want, not just what is offered. They look for the ability to mix and match, combine, and alter orders, given that they can do so at many other restaurants. McDonald’s acknowledges the ways that other restaurants work and thus the corporation thinks about their next marketing plans. This generation is also very technological and does not like to waste time. Most people of this generation use smart phones and are constantly using them. So any way that McDonald’s could use smart phones to help millennials order and to make everything faster in their restaurant, the company is going to do so.

            The first new idea McDonald’s has introduced is the “Build Your Burger” program. It is being tested in Southern California at a couple San Diego based McDonald’s. The article says that customers order using a tablet to personalize their burger from the type of bun and toppings to everything included in it. Then the customer is served the customized burger in a shiny metal basket. It is a way for consumers to choose exactly what they want while also using technology and getting to eat a burger than is expected to be above the typical McDonald’s standard. The price of the burger is also above the normal McDonald’s standard. According to the article, “The food and the overall experience are meant to come off as fresher, personalized, high-tech, and higher-end… It’s easy to see how the concept would appeal to many diners, but especially to millennials, given what we know of their preferences” (Tuttle). While more expensive, as meals could add up to close to ten dollars with fries and a drink, research shows that millennials care more about eating what they want than paying a lower price.

            The second campaign McDonald’s is coming out with directed at the millennials is the McBrunch. The new items on the menu, for a generation obsessed with the mid-morning meal, are influenced by the already established morning items such as the Egg McMuffin. Additionally, “a McDonald’s brunch could feature many menu items that are already available in different parts of the world, including the Tsukimi Burger from Japan (egg and burger patties topped with bacon and creamy tomato sauce) and the McMorning that’s sold in Croatia (pork, bacon, potatoes, and cheese on a torpedo roll)” (Tuttle). The McBrunch menu has not been launched yet, but it will soon as an effort to reach millennials in the mid morning food rush.

Commentary: 

My group is looking at the marketing campaigns of Taylor Swift and McDonald’s, analyzing the differences of how an individual can be marketed as a product and how an international corporation markets its self. McDonald’s has been marketing its products since McDonald’s Corporation opened its first restaurant in Des Moines, Illinois in 1955. Therefore for this project we decided to write a summary of marketing plans and international growth from 1955-2000 and go into more detail of a few marketing strategies of the twenty first century.

            The article describes the future of McDonald’s as it changes its consumer population from the baby boomers to the millennials. The “Build Your Burger” and McBrunch campaigns will be fully implemented soon and we will see what kind of impact they have on McDonald’s sales in the US as well as globally. Before these two campaigns, the McCafe campaign of 2009 and the “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign of 2003 were two of the biggest for McDonald’s in the last 14 years so our group will plan on analyzing those two and comparing them to past campaigns from the twentieth century such as the Big Mac, introduced in 1968, and the McBreakfast in 1975.

            We plan to use these marketing campaigns as examples of current and future marketing plans for McDonald’s. We will look at similarities and differences between these campaigns and the former campaigns. Also, we will look at other articles and statistics for these campaigns and try to predict the impact they will have on the McDonald’s corporation’s growth or decline in the coming months.

            For our project as a whole we plan to look at the similarities and differences between how McDonald’s markets itself and how Taylor Swift markets herself. We will look at their international history as well social media impact on sales and promotions. Taylor Swift is an individual celebrity so we are interested in seeing how she markets herself differently from a corporation and how she markets herself differently for her most recent album, 1989, from how she did from her self-titled premiere album.

McDonald’s has over 33,000 restaurants all over the world and it must market to them all differently. The article by Brad Tuttle describes two of McDonald’s most recent marketing campaigns in the US, but there are many more campaigns being used all over the world. We plan to story-map campaigns being used internationally and focus on the most recent ones in the US more deeply.

Resources for Further Study.  

Horovitz, Bruce. “McDonald’s could put McBrunch on the menu.” USA Today. Online. 11/24/14. http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/09/10/mcdonalds-fast-food-restaurants-mcbrunch-trademark/15385889/

Wong, Vanessa. “The McBrunch Frontier: Is McDonald’s Moving Its Breakfast Battle Into the Weekend?” Bloomberg Business Week. 11/24/15.http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-10/mcbrunch-is-mcdonalds-taking-breakfast-battle-into-the-weekend

Ferdman, Roberto A. “McDonald’s to Trademark McBrunch For a Bigger Bite of the Breakfast Market.” The Guardian. 11/24/15. http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/sep/16/mcdonalds-mcbrunch-trademark-breakfast-food

Choi, Candice. “McDonald’s Build Your Own Burger Experiment to Expand.” The Huffington Post. 11/24/14. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/27/mcdonalds-build-your-own-burger_n_4867070.html