McDonald's is Still Leader of the Pack

When your average unit volumes are $1 Million Dollars higher than your peers everyone takes a shot at you every time you try something different.  Clearly McDonald’s understands that with great results come great expectations. 

McDonald’s had a good year in 2015 driven by a ‘better for you’ menu that was focused on customer expectations, desires and request. Specifically by adding all-day breakfast menu renewed, refreshed, and edified customers perception of the brand promise.

Steve Easterbrook  CEO of McDonald’s  stated “Our operational growth-led turnaround is focused on appealing to customers in the areas that matter most to them – great-tasting, high-quality food, convenience and value,”  all day breakfast did just that and more.  

In a study last December by The NPD Group found that ”30 percent of customers who ordered breakfast menu items after the traditional 10:30 am cutoff hadn’t visited McDonalds at all in the month before the October roll-out”. NPD industry icon Bonnie Riggs stated “That’s pretty significant,”

Not only did the study find that the breakfast menu drew in “new customers, but the same customers also bought more than just McMuffins. Among the post-breakfast, breakfast food consumers, 61 percent purchased more than just breakfast foods during their visit and they typically visited the restaurant during lunch hours.” 

The consumer is dynamic and so is McDonalds. This month McDonalds expanded the halo of ‘better for you’ by adding cuties once again as an option for the kids meal. McDonalds is always evolving with consumers and is currently testing macaroni and cheese in Ohio, breakfast bowls in California, and sweet potato fries in Texas.  The company also plans to test menu items not typically associated with fast food, such as kale and quinoa. 

Success does leave clues and McDonald’s has never been static.  Not all LTO’s or test items work out but McDonalds average unit volumes exceed its peers by close to a million dollars a year for all of the right reasons a brand promise that focuses on the customer.  

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