Marketing
Issue No. 41 - June/July 2008
Low-fat reform keeps arches golden
McDonalds serves 1.2 million Australians a day, but back in 2002 the world’s most recogniseable brand was looking down the barrel in Australia.
According to McDonalds executive Steve Shillington, the chain was “trading under immense pressure” and losing market share to food courts and readymade meals on offer in supermarkets rather than fast food competitors.
Steve, who is McDonalds Australia’s Regional Manager for Victoria, Tasmania and SA, addressed the Nutrition Society of Australia’s Fast Food and Health seminar in Adelaide last month, telling a fascinating story of brand renovation. Rather than resisting the clear trend its customers were signalling, McDonalds recreated itself to address customer complaints and adopt customers’ values.
Steve rose through the ranks from worker to restaurant manager to member of upper management. Today he handles all aspects of McDonald’s business in Victoria, Tasmania and SA including franchising, operations, sales, profitability advertising, marketing and sponsorship.
He says in 2002 the fast food giant resolved to become a “leader in social responsibility”.
Overhaul was overdue, because McDonalds was a brand in decay.
Customer surveying showed McDonalds was seen to offer “robotic” service in a “plastic” environment. But more disturbing was the snyde refrain, “Would you like fries with that?”
“A cover in Fortune magazine was, Is Fat The Next Tobacco?” Steve recalls.
“I grew up with McDonalds but I didn’t want to eat anything that was on the menu.”
Prevalent myths were that McDonalds shakes used pig fat as thickener and McDonalds owned a company called 100% Australian Beef so it could use the name to mask its meat imports.
And a nutrition report concluded snacking on junk food was addictive as heroin.
“It’s scary when fast food and heroin are being mentioned in the same sentence,” Steve says.
In December 200...
