McDonald's looks to sell quality: the makeover

[Rebel Rose]

article from Money of CNN

McDonald's on Monday will kick off a two-day media event to tout the quality of its food and combat critics who say its burgers and fries are unhealthy.

New print ads tout McDonald's "top quality USDA eggs" and "high-quality chicken", and the company already has a Balanced Lifestyles initiative to promote physical activity.   The company recognizes it is often criticized.

"Maybe if people think they have this terrific quality, then they'll forget about the calories and the fat," said Jack Trout, president of marketing strategy firm Trout & Partners. "Will it fix it with the naysayers? No. But what it will do is present more of a rationale for the people who take their kids to this place."

Do you believe that this new approach, which emphasizes quality, will cause some naysayers to trust the McDonald's brand?

Would an emphasis on quality products and ingredients make you more inclined to try McDonald's over other outlets?

I think all corporations this size are probably looking for the next "fresh" message that they can deliver. I don't know whether it's sad or promising that McD's is finally getting the message that America might respond more favorably to an "it's good for you," campaign than to yet more mindless hiphop.

But like I said before, with all the negativism surrounding the Supersize documentary they may be losing a significant market share to other grease chains. (For better or worse, I sometimes still take my twin nephews to McD's, but we if we order hashbrowns, we squeeze them in napkins to remove some of the grease.) Add to the Supersize publicity the whole french-fries-will-kill-you campaign, and then add in customer confusion over Paris Hilton's wet t-shirt/fast car commercial for Carl's, and I bet McDonald's has decided that they need to proactively fight for market share now in the face of increasingly wholesome offerings at other chains, and a growing consumer awareness that a nightly menu of fast food is unhealthy.

[Carrot Top]

Corporate marketing is responsible for many of the decisions we each make each day.

In a subliminal sense.

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We learn to rationalize what we crave no matter what time of the month, and there's a certain snob appeal to the bad food foodies want.

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Is there any support whatsoever in the real world for these astonishingly sweeping claims?

jsolomon is onto something. I grab my daughter's McFries because they're tasty. Not because of "subliminal" messages, whatever those are, nor because there's "snob appeal."

McD's has a great marketing strategy: their salty, fatty food tastes good.

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Sure there's support for these "astonishingly sweeping claims". The supports to these claims lay somewhere in the endless varieties of studies that universities offer those in search of Ph.D's.

If you are curious, do some research. Even the internet should provide some information if you do not have access to Lexus/Nexus.

[jsolomon]

So, if fat is so bad, where does that leave athletes like me who typically eat between 4000 and 5000 Calories a day?

Maybe my supersized is a necessary part of my performance diet.

The thing that strikes me is that there is paltry amounts of this thrust to the real solution to the quandary: consumer education.

But, the thing that strikes me is that marketing is so rarely about enabling educated choices. Especially when it comes to food.

But, if I argue down this road, I'll just expose myself as a cynic.

[MarketStEl]

I, too, have seen the book listed.  But since I generally know where to put my commas, I haven't read it.  The joke after which it is apparently named, however, is a pretty good one.  (It's a very old joke.) Only obliquely related to dining, however. 

I think there's a suitable-for-all-ages version where the action takes place at a lunch counter and the panda has a gun.

So does anyone here have any insights into corporate marketing?

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Not really, though I might if I hang around my current assignment (at a very creative Center City Philadelphia ad agency, the one responsible for the "Philly's More Fun When You Sleep Over" tourism ads) long enough.

But it seems the word "branding" gets bandied around a lot in these sorts of efforts. I remember scratching my head (internally) when the word came up in connection with graphics and logos for the University of Pennsylvania.

Then it hit me: Penn benefited from its association with the most powerful "brand name" in higher education--the Ivy League. Now it was trying to position itself as part of that brand's top crust, which consisted of three schools which were brand names in themselves: Harvard, Yale, Princeton. Branding--and much of the fuzzy sort of marketing that includes this Mickey D's campaign--is not directly about stimulating demand for the product or service; it's more about creating good feelings about the provider of the product or service, which in turn may lead to greater demand.

In this case, McDonald's has already established itself as a recognizable brand. People have definite and strong associations attached to the name. I think that what this current marketing campaign is about is convincing those who already have positive associations that their feelings about the company and its products are justified more than it is convincing its critics that their food is better for people than they think it is. After all, Coca-Cola Company products are still carbonated sugar water, Kraft cheese is still processed, and so on. (I could head out on a limb here and note that Nieman Ranch beef is still red meat, but you get the idea.)

Certainly, that very funny Mike Luckovich cartoon cuts to the quick about both Mickey D's efforts to present itself as concerned about health and the quality of its food and what really concerns most Mickey D's customers. It's as cynical as any of the posts I've seen on this thread, if not more so.

--Sandy, who succumbed to the lure of the brand name himself when it came time to decide where to go to college; he had been leaning towards the University of Chicago

[gruyere]

Isn't discussing this supplier of industrial body pollutants rather below this fine and somewhat sophisticated site? Add to this a reputation for severely wounding the landscape of some of the world's great cities by way of its plastic arches and it makes this a rather distasteful ‘nugget’ within an otherwise useful and most interesting forum.

[jsolomon]

As long as Bud light is in my fridge, I'd be a hypocrite to not allow myself to discuss McDonald's on this website.

[Carrot Top]

Isn't discussing this supplier of industrial body pollutants rather below this fine and somewhat sophisticated site?  Add to this a reputation for severely wounding the landscape of some of the world's great cities by way of its plastic arches and it makes this a rather distasteful ‘nugget’ within an otherwise useful and most interesting forum.

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The 'nugget' exists and we will either digest it or kill it.

If destruction is the plan, the we must discuss it and become educated in its Ways.

[Chris Amirault]

Isn't discussing this supplier of industrial body pollutants rather below this fine and somewhat sophisticated site?

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Not only in my mind is Carrot Top right about knowing the ways of the nugget, but this fine and somewhat sophisticated site has a commitment to being a place where people can debate topics as varied as Alinea's tableware, Fresca, Hong Kong street food, and Michelin stars in NYC -- and, as this thread indicates, can discuss those topics from varied perspectives.

[Megan Blocker]

As long as Bud light is in my fridge, I'd be a hypocrite to not allow myself to discuss McDonald's on this website.

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IMHO, food is food - be it fine cuisine or a McNugget. I can eat at Jean-Georges and at McDonald's, and talk about both with equal enthusiasm. Is Mickey D's on the cutting edge of "cuisine?" Of course not. Does it hit the spot from time to time? Yes, indeedy.

As Chris has mentioned, the beauty of eGullet is its appreciation for all things food and drink and the way it manages to embrace such huge, diverse topics.

McDonald's may pollute my body (so do many other things - alcohol comes to mind), but it's yummy, and, in many ways (though some may lament this) a bastion of American food culture. What's most interesting to me is the "why" of this last bit. Is it because Americans fall for marketing campaigns like these? Or is it because they just don't care one way or the other how "healthy" something is, and just like McDonald's because it's fast, cheap, tasty and hot?

Edited November 9, 2005 by Megan Blocker (log)

[gruyere]

Isn't discussing this supplier of industrial body pollutants rather below this fine and somewhat sophisticated site?

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where people can debate topics as varied as Alinea's tableware, Fresca, Hong Kong street food, and Michelin stars in NYC -- and, as this thread indicates, can discuss those topics from varied perspectives.

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Alinea's tableware, Hong Kong street food and Michelin stars in NYC are exactly why I love this place. I have not figured out how "this thread indicates, (people) can discuss those topics from varied perspectives." I could even be intrigued by the cult Fresca following, but an MBA like discussion on McD's corporate strategy simply doesn't do it for me on the eG Society for Culinary Arts and Letters. However I will admit to being influenced by a severe dislike of the American fast food industry.

I checked the number of viewers and replies and there is indeed a large number of participants in this thread so I think I will simply butt out and find my way to more 'eGullet-like' topics (IMHO).

[Megan Blocker]

Anyone care to disconstruct the current ad that places four Desirable Demographiques in a car, three dudes and one like girl?  "CheekON!" they exclaim, one by one.  Megan, this promotes your beloved nuggets, by the way.

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I just saw this one, Pontormo! It actually pushes the Chicken Selects, which, being made with "all-white breast meat," are the antithesis of everything I love about my McNuggets.

However.

Interestingly lame ad, though I can see how they're trying to target wannabe hipster young 'uns...I wonder if yuppies-to-be are the new McDonald's targets?

[akebono]

Isn't discussing this supplier of industrial body pollutants rather below this fine and somewhat sophisticated site?

←

where people can debate topics as varied as Alinea's tableware, Fresca, Hong Kong street food, and Michelin stars in NYC -- and, as this thread indicates, can discuss those topics from varied perspectives.

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Alinea's tableware, Hong Kong street food and Michelin stars in NYC are exactly why I love this place. I have not figured out how "this thread indicates, (people) can discuss those topics from varied perspectives." I could even be intrigued by the cult Fresca following, but an MBA like discussion on McD's corporate strategy simply doesn't do it for me on the eG Society for Culinary Arts and Letters. However I will admit to being influenced by a severe dislike of the American fast food industry.

I checked the number of viewers and replies and there is indeed a large number of participants in this thread so I think I will simply butt out and find my way to more 'eGullet-like' topics (IMHO).

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ah,

I always wondered if Lovey and Thurston made it off of Gilligan's Island.

I can rest easy now.

Edited November 10, 2005 by akebono (log)

[jsolomon]

Since the creation of the FDA effectively removed real street food from America, doesn't that really mean that McDonalds is de facto USA street food?

[Carrot Top]

Good point.

Tell you what, though.

McDonald's is one place (as opposed to coffeehouses)(with good reason, granted) where children - in all their difficult decadent surprisingly endless messinesses, startling sudden loudnesses and unfinished imperfections - are welcome.

Their siblings are even welcome, and that is really taking a risk.

And thank god for that.

At least there is somewhere they can go without the parent needing to watch warily with the stern disciplinarian cap on, ready to jump. That cap can be quite tiring to wear twenty-four hours a day.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Carrot Top (log)

[Chris Amirault]

That's of course their genius: bring the kiddies and turn 'em on to the "quality" food. Mea culpa, too: my 8-year-old would eat McD's three meals a day, 365.

[Carrot Top]

Yup, it *is* an evil genius indeed.

I'm still on the lookout for the good guy geniuses to come and save the world.

They must have gotten stuck on the subway or perhaps had to finish watching their favorite TV show before showing up.

Still, I wait.

[MarketStEl]

Hey, I also ate lots of McDonald's hamburgers growing up. And this was in a city that boasted the world's best hamburger (or so said Calvin Trillin, writing in Life in 1971 about Winstead's just off the Country Club Plaza. Of course, Trillin also wrote, "Anyone who doesn't believe the world's best hamburger is served in his hometown is a fool").

I don't think the experience has left me brain-damaged, numbed my taste buds or caused excessive weight gain (I blame alcohol and cheese for that).

I hadn't heard that certain kinds of food were beneath our discussion. Sometimes, a Mickey D's burger is all that and a bag of fries. More often, it's not. So what? It's still food.

[Carrot Top]

I'm with you on the idea that no food should be beneath our discussion and with you on the fact that McDonalds will not kill off people from eating it.

There *is* "Fast-Food Nation" and "Supersize Me" to consider though.

I grew up eating a lot of junk food. A lot. Till I was grown. I have no health problems and am not overweight.

My problem with McD's is that:

1) There *do* seem to be an awful lot of unhealthily obese people walking around and a lot of them *do* seem to congregate at fast-food havens. Is it the fault of the fast-food havens that they are unhealthily obese? I don't really know.

2) People use McD's and places of its ilk to the point where they do not seem to know anything *else* about food. That is not only their loss, but it is frightening to me in ways in some larger sense.

3) There is something rather awful to me about the idea that many children do not know how to peel a carrot or eat an apple without caramel sauce or a salad without ranch dressing. Again, McD's fault? Hmmm. (?)

And now McD's wants to pretend to be "gourmet"? Give me a break. At this point it seems that even McD's thinks its not good enough for our *supposedly* health-conscious, foodie society.

And it will pay lip service to the idea just as many individuals pay lip service to whatever idea seems the new and upcoming thing.

And *some* naive individuals will be somewhat fooled by it.

It is the way of marketing - it is the way of corporate America - it does not show a great deal of respect for people - but it does make $$$.

Que sera sera.

...........................................................

McD's should stick with its core competencies and be honest about it.

And as for the idea that it is a *bad* place to feed kids - until this society decides that children need to be paid as much attention to for their basic needs (time to play, neighborhoods to play *in* with other children, the ability to go out for a walk in many places without fear, a world that is filled with "concerned and caring" adults who they can turn to who are not too busy with their own *needs* and desires, parents who have the time and resources available to dedicate to taking time with their children for healthy meals and the teaching of etiquette and proper behavior) until this society decides that this will happen *somehow*, that resources *will* be dedicated to children, McD's provides a certain service within this society.

Rather a twisted one, yes. But better than nothing.

And so it goes.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Carrot Top (log)

[Gifted Gourmet]

and what became of those little kids who grew up eating knishes and schmaltz in their chopped liver?

"Rose, Grandma Gourmet" lived to a hearty, healthy 104 ....

Soooo, maybe fast food + exercise is the hidden secret to long life?

[Carrot Top]

I don't know what the secret is, for sure, GG.

"Rose, Grandma Gourmet" with her knishes and chopped liver had one thing that those who dine "mostly" upon McD's and other fast-food do not have though. She had a direct and meaningful connection to a rich cultural heritage through the foods that she ate.

It not only breaks my heart to see the ways in which corporate America erases these heritages but it also just plain scares me a bit in some emotional or philosophic way.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Carrot Top (log)

[Pontormo]

Nice exchange, there, Gifted & Carrot!

[Pontormo]

Anyone care to disconstruct the current ad that places four Desirable Demographiques in a car, three dudes and one like girl?  "CheekON!" they exclaim, one by one.  Megan, this promotes your beloved nuggets, by the way.

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I just saw this one, Pontormo! It actually pushes the Chicken Selects, which, being made with "all-white breast meat," are the antithesis of everything I love about my McNuggets.

However.

Interestingly lame ad, though I can see how they're trying to target wannabe hipster young 'uns...I wonder if yuppies-to-be are the new McDonald's targets?

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Oh , I had forgotten that when you slum, you slum, Megan !

Actually, I saw that commercial again yesterday, too, before I switched the channel to PBS to see Diane Keaton serenade Steve Martin.

In part, what McD's is doing is courting, too, but in a transparently slick way, trying to appeal to the slacker, older teen/college age crowd which is supposed to be too savvy to the traditional ploys of advertizing to take them seriously. So, the company winks back. See, we're not taking ourselves too seriously, either, ya know. It's a bit of a take on car ads that have the same kind of guys driving around town in their VW (? Honda, whatever) picking up couches from the curb. It is not trying to grab this crowd. As Chris and Carrot Top have pointed out, that crowd was bought in childhood. It is trying to retain them, as you say, by bringing them into their young adulthood when they get their first jobs.

It's also playing with gender roles, foregrounding sexual difference while catering to the young male (in this case heterosexual) viewer who has a keen interest in what makes girls girls and desperately wants to crack the code before they're all men and women.

So, it's all just you know, low key, playful, a bit of a narrative going on here, just hangin' out.....until suddenly, the girl tries to be one of the guys by joining in and riffing on the word "chicken" which all three of her companions have done.

All of a sudden, the atmosphere changes. It's charged. SHE cannot play the same game. When she utters, "Sheek-ON!....On!" it sounds like a woman satisfied in bed to them....or what they've heard happens there. Ut oh. They look at her. She looks at them, as if saying "Oh, wadda I do?"

What is interesting in the midst of all of this is the product that is being hawked. You'd think it would McNuggets. They're all not into pressed button-down shirts. They're cool. But, no, it's Chicken Selects! The more refined, more sophisticated, more adult version of the nuggets that they had as kids. Now, I don't want to make too much of the fact that we're talking breast meat here, in the age when sitcom writers think you only have to talk about hooters, boobs and so forth and man, are you funny....no, that really isn't the point.

Instead, this is intimations of maturity. These kids are still kids. But they're moving up.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Pontormo (log)

[Carrot Top]

Pontormo Posted Today, 12:05 PM

Nice exchange, there, Gifted & Carrot!

Put us together and you've got a Top Gifted Gourmet Carrot.

Suitable for many purposes but not for sale at McDonalds.

Edited November 10, 2005 by Carrot Top (log)

[Megan Blocker]

Fabulous analysis, Pontormo!!!

Yes, I do enjoy my slumming - if I'm going to go declasse, I'm going declasse all the way.

[PopsicleToze]

Great thread. I admit that I take my nieces/nephews there -- every since they were toddlers and saw the big M in the sky and cried "frees - frees". Yep, I'd pull in and buy them french fries, because that's what an aunt does. (Spare me. They are fine and not one of them is overweight nor unhealthy.)

But I never ordered anything there myself. Sure, I'd steal a fry, but I never actually ordered anything.

So, if they put something edible on the menu that I felt good about ordering, I might order it. That's what they want. They already have their niche; they want us, too. They want us all.

Rhonda