At McDonald’s Partnerships Help in Looking A Customer Ahead

Success does leave clues. Regular readers of this blog understand that looking at relevant success clues provide a sound platform when looking a customer ahead to edify your brands relationship for the long term according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.  

So, when Ford Motor Company and McDonald’s USA announced a new partnership that will be giving vehicles a caffeine boost by using part of a familiar staple in the morning routine, coffee beans, in vehicle parts such as headlamp housing. Note:(This is the first time Ford has used coffee bean skins that will be upcycled for select vehicle parts.)

You knew that McDonald’s was looking far beyond today, with the goal of driving a deeper relationship around the ‘halo’ of ‘better for you’ that today’s consumers are looking for while creating a platform for new brand electricity.

Given that every year, millions of pounds of coffee chaff, (the dried skin of the bean that naturally comes off during the roasting process—are turned into garden mulch or charcoal in North America. Together, Ford and McDonald’s can provide an innovative new home to a significant portion of that material. The companies found that chaff can be converted into a durable material to reinforce certain vehicle parts. By heating the chaff to high temperatures under low oxygen, mixing it with plastic and other additives and turning it into pellets, the material can be formed into various shapes.

So, get this, the chaff composite meets the quality specifications for parts like headlamp housings and other interior and under hood components. Now who in the world would have ever thought of such a thing?  The simple fact is, someone looking outside the box.  If your brand doing what you have always done and doing it the same way?  Just, how is that working for you?

The resulting components will be about 20 percent lighter and require up to 25 percent less energy during the molding process. Heat properties of the chaff component are significantly better than the currently used material, according to Ford.

So, Debbie Mielewski, Ford senior technical leader, sustainability and emerging materials research team has the ability to look outside the box.  Mielewski stated, “McDonald’s commitment to innovation was impressive to us and matched our own forward-thinking vision and action for sustainability,” says “This has been a priority for Ford for over 20 years, and this is an example of jump starting the closed-loop economy, where different industries work together and exchange materials that otherwise would be side or waste products.”

McDonald’s is expected to direct a significant portion of its coffee chaff in North America to Ford to be incorporated into vehicle parts. “Like McDonald’s, Ford is committed to minimizing waste and we’re always looking for innovative ways to further that goal,” adds Ian Olson, senior director, global sustainability, McDonald’s. “By finding a way to use coffee chaff as a resource, we are elevating how companies together can increase participation in the circular economy.”

The collaboration with Ford and McDonald’s is the latest example of the innovative approaches both companies take to product and environmental stewardship. The project also involves Varroc Lighting Systems, which supplies the headlamps, and Competitive Green Technologies, the processor of the coffee chaff. Ford is progressing toward a goal of using recycled and renewable plastics in vehicles globally, with an increasing range of sustainable materials. How are you creating new electricity around your brand?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply chain and includes such things as fresh foods, plant based foods, sustainable supply chain, sampling, toy’s, beer, BMW in car online ordering,  unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All food and beverage retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food and beverages that are portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different.  Does your retail path forward look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? Do you need a new partnership?

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, www.Linkedin.com/in/grocerant/ or www.twitter.com/grocerant/

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