All Food Retailers Know that McDonald’s is an Aspirational Brand

Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions® continues to say “Don’t listen to the Naysayers who filled the airways, newspapers, blogs, social media, and trade magazines when McDonald’s reported soft sales numbers once again calling for ‘change’ or simply calling out McDonald’s for their personal priority.  The naysayers are for the most part uninformed Micro analyst wannabes wonderful space filler for the press, and nothing more than a distraction for industry according to Johnson.

While McDonalds continues to evolving, it is garnering contemporized customer relevance.  Many of you seem to forget that McDonalds has led the industry breaking long traditions of chain restaurant brand protectionism as regular readers of this blog know.

Monthly sales numbers aside, McDonald’s AUV’s are the gold standard of the QSR industry, not always number one but still the gold standard where all other are judged.  The simple fact that there is not another QSR that would not like to trade AUV’s numbers with them should be enough. 

In September, Foodservice Solutions® will once again released it’ Top 10 Grocerant Retailers list and McDonald’s I’m sure will make the list. McDonald’s is evolving with the consumer as fast for faster than most other legacy chain restaurants. Technology has evolved, and consumers are more time starved, than ever before leveraging new technology for food information, and finding new points of fresh food distribution at the same time. 

This year there are approximately 36 million consumers who are receiving food stamps, the  Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) assistance. These consumers can’t afford to dine out or order a meal in. Year after year Foodservice Solutions® Grocerant Guru® believes the primary reason McDonald’s was found to be the restaurant chain grocery shoppers would like to visit more often is speed of service, convenience, and price.  Simply put; for millions of Americans McDonald’s is Aspirational.

The Micro analyst wannabes just might take a minute to reflect on what a treat it would be for a single parent and child to go out for a meal.  McDonald’s is a powerhouse of a brand and while overlooked by the elite, it is a treat for the street. Did your kids get to go to McDonalds?

McDonalds is a dynamic company not static.  They have tired, bone in wings, mix and match game day meal boxes, and customized touch ordering, delivery, digital marketing.  No company is perfect, but no one can fault McDonalds for being static, for brand protectionism, or for having the aspirational AUV’s.  Success does leave clues and everyone else is following McDonald’s. 

Are you trapped doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions 5P’s of Food Marketing can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.

Battle for Share of Stomach