Sometimes it doesn’t matter how big you are or how much money you have. The outcome of “too little, too late” remains the same. But does it have to stay that way?
Apparently McDonald’s is still “lovin’ it” and wants you to do the same. From February 2, 2015 through Valentines Day McDonalds is letting a number of people pay for their food with expressions of affection – or what’s better known as “random acts of lovin”.
As part of a “Get ready for a new way to pay” promotion covered in various news stories, including an article by the Huffington Post titled, “McDonald’s Will Soon Accept Hugs As Payment“, McDonalds is out to get some major media exposure leading up to Valentine’s Day.
Ok. So all that’s to be expected as a variety of brands gear up with another excuse to promote a big holiday. But on the flip side of all that warm and fuzzy, McDonald’s CEO has recently stepped down after an extended slump in sales for the fast food giant. Interesting coincidence?
Not really. It’s pretty much business as usual because when CEOs don’t make stockholders happy, all the lovin’ goes out the window.
The timing may seem a bit strange, but when you think about it, promotional activities are usually well-thought out and planned months in advance. So regardless of what’s happening with management, the holiday event promotion is another attempt to revitalize the brand.
And it follows on the heels of their continued reputation management attempts to renew trust in a company many feel is an American institution – or at least was before their food quality issues started resurfacing.
Lately McDonalds has an updated look to their graphics. This is not only intended to appeal to current “flat graphics” design trends – especially in online media. It’s clearly part of their attempt to dress up what we call, “reset the buying criteria” for their brand.
Resetting the buying criteria is done by revealing new information that wasn’t previously available or that people didn’t have an awareness of, but that clearly should be part of the consumer’s decision-making process. Maybe not earlier, but definitely now.
And in this case it’s about swaying more people to make a buying decision in favor of McDonalds than for the increasingly popular “fast casual” food brands – a number of which either don’t focus on burgers or even have them on the menu to begin with.
Fast casual dining continues to capture more and more of the past revenues McDonalds and other long-time fast food brands have depended on.
Pay attention. This is important to your business (no matter what your specialty) because it again drives home a point we and others have been trying to make for years: You aren’t just competing within your industry and competitors for discretionary income that was always going to be spent in your category to begin with.
You’re competing against alternative choices for that money which may only be related to your category, and quite possibly for something completely different altogether.
So previously loyal McDonalds fans have been shying away from what they perceive to be a lower quality of food and going to Chipotle’s, Panera Bread, or Five Guys. But McDonalds also knows that they’ve lost more of the consumer’s discretionary income “in general” and are swinging for the fences with a multi-pronged approach to get it back.
The commercial below includes tv host Grant Imahara doing a semi-scientific watch-and-learn commercial on how “real” McDonalds food is. There are a series of these and obviously it’s reputation development and reputation building 101. It’s where you get a trusted celebrity or semi-celebrity, have them do what they are known for, and show the end result supporting whatever it is you want your new reputation to be.
You fist bump your brands and ride a spokesperson’s trusted reputation to enhance, build or establish your own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el0EDgyO39w
There’s nothing wrong with it when it’s honest. It works for most who do it right.
But their major stock decline started somewhere around 12 months ago. The question is why did it take almost a year to get it done? When a reputation is tanking why does it take so long for some companies to react?
In reality, McDonalds has been struggling with food quality issues for quite some time. That’s not new news. They’ve also made a few attempts over the years to upgrade the quality and the associated perception of quality in their offerings – which they’ve done to some degree.
But they’ve shot themselves in the foot with commercials like the one below (from six months ago) where the food looks less than appetizing, even for a college game day crowd…
McDonalds has historically not taken timely advantage of every opportunity. Few businesses do. The big problem is that it affects reputation and creates a longer road to travel before returning to a past level of trust and credibility.
Yes, McDonalds is late to the game and they know it’s a comeback story in the making (if it’s at all possible to begin with). The writing is on the wall from where we stand. You can only expect changing the sauce and choice of vegetables on a burger to take you so far when your age-old competitors have already tapped those angles.
What McDonalds really needs to start looking at is whether they want to truly revitalize and reinvent their brand and repair their business reputation, or just keep changing flavors and buns and doing beverage and dessert line extensions.
As for Grant Imahara, what are the implications for his brand and personal reputation? Well, he’s probably in good shape for now. His positioning with a big brand trying to do the right thing is a good move. It’s also a very good alignment with his personal brand – known for trying to get to the bottom of myths, rumors and urban legends.
He just needs to make sure he can continue to validate the food quality from a scientific perspective and be the first to speak up if he finds something wrong with any of those food equations – even if it’s against his contract.
Otherwise he risks taking a huge reputation hit of his own and McDonalds won’t really give a fry.