Bodonation

Welcome to the new McDonald’s.

My early childhood memory consists of my aunt bringing me to McD for quarterpounders and Big Macs whenever I visited KL. For a Penang boy who grew up with Koay Teows and Mee Hoons, McD was a nice treat. McD was posh, glamorous and ang moh to the max. Later McD started its first branch in Penang Komtar - it became the meeting place for many teenagers.

My craving for McD died as I grew older. Let’s be honest. Ramly made the best burgers (otherwise known as "burger special") - tasty, juicy, yummy and oily. In comparison, quarterpounders and big macs were expensively bland.

But the power of this global megabrand has had its tremendous impact. Whenever I am in an unfamiliar country - whether it is Frankfurt, London, Holborn, Arkansas or New Orleans - McDonald’s is the symbol which I recognise. I have known it from young that the Golden Arches promised me the same Big Mac to fill my stomach at an inexpensive price. I have been caught in situations where I am standing in front of some foreign restaurant, hesitant to step in as I don’t know how much my meal would cost (in Euros!) I know I wouldn’t pause to think about entering McD. My foreign friends had said the same - in an unfamiliar territory and if they have no tour guide with them - to play safe, they would rather settle for Big Mac than say, Pangkor Curry Fishhead.

Despite its brand power, McD is facing huge problems. The share prices has plummeted 60% over the past 3 years. The movie Super Size Me highlighted the horror of surviving on McD. Health issues aside, McD is an aging 55-year-old brand. Young kids who used to love french fries and Ronald McDonald had grown into old farts like me. We just don’t find it fun or interesting or "lovin’ it" to meet people and friends at McD. Even the burgers and fries had become our "we don’t really know what to eat today hence…" food.

Let’s face it. I rather be meeting someone at Starbucks or San Francisco coffee. If I needed a place to talk crap, maybe the mamak at the corner would be a better place. "Let’s meet at McDonald’s" sounds awfully awkward.

So how does a slumping giant do to wake itself up? Reinvent itself via a new branding programme titled Forever Young.

Out goes the familiar McDonald’s kiddies playgrund and birthday party areas. McDonalds is going upscale. The new target audience: young adults/ young professionals/ businesspeople - people with higher disposible income. Snobbish people who probably nitpick on health, ambience and the beans that make their coffee.

The new features:

• Wi-Fi service
• Flat screen TVs
• Music Zone - with music domes spinning new songs, all downloadable at 99 cents
• Meeting rooms for business gatherings
• Cafes serving espresso, latte and cappuccino, as well as a whole range of pastries

This ambitious rebranding programme involves renovating many outlets with fancier interiors, much like the photo above. By year end, about 2500 outlets worldwide will be renovated.

Very interesting approach, but would this really bring young people back to McD?

There can only be one Starbucks. Would I be convinced to go to McD to experience "something like Starbucks"? Didn’t Blue Ocean Strategy propose that modern businesses should develop uncontested market space, instead of competing in existing space and trying to steal rival’s customers?

Somehow, I am betting that this new McD strategy will not work. Not in Malaysia.

————————————————

For further reading:

1) Fancier Franchises: The Orange County Register

2) Brand Avenue

3) Burgers and CD Burners: USA Today

4) McMakeover: Sign on San Diego

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 7th, 2006 at 1:59 am and is filed under design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.