McDonald's Appeals to the Young at Heart

For every four minutes a customer spends looking at an ad, he spends 40 minutes inside a McDonald's restaurant, said Bill Lamar, senior vice president, chief marketing officer for fast food leader McDonald's Corp. In a presentation delivered May 18 at the In-Store Marketing Summit, Lamar stressed the importance of the McDonald's restaurant environment, which he said needs to be inviting and relaxing to adapt to the new consumer.In many ways, the restaurant is the focal point for McDonald's marketing, as evidenced in the design of its future stores. Lamar showed a sneak peek of the stores, which have LCD TV screens, a modern decor and WiFi hookup. Being contemporary is at the heart of Lamar's message. "A great brand can literally not afford to grow old," he said. "Great brands must always look, act and feel contemporary if they're going to remain genuine."Through print, television, P-O-P and retail design, Lamar said McDonald's strives to be "forever young.""Familiar, predictable, traditional, trusted.... That's where old brands go to die," he said.Lamar said nearly 23 million people visit McDonald's restaurants daily, so there is power and potential in the retail experience. "We must be familiar and surprising; constant and contemporary; timely but also timeless. Forever young is not an advertising slogan, it's an attitude."However, Lamar noted that along with this charge to be forever young was a realization that McDonald's had to change who it truly was targeting."We now realize that we can't be all things to all people anymore," he said. "For us at McDonald's, that's a significant change in our thinking."Through research the restaurant chain narrowed down three key consumer groups: kids, women (particularly women with kids), and young adult males. Kids will always be a focus, Lamar said. To market to women, the chain must avoid stereotypes. Young mothers are increasingly independent and on the go, he said. The restaurant can't just be a place for their kids; it must meet their needs as well. He said the McDonald's premium salad line hit the bullseye with this target. Finally, young adults "are the people that set the patterns for the family and society. Where they lead, we all follow," he said.Lamar feels the "i'm lovin' it" campaign presents the global brand as young at heart, encompassing the brand and its communication. "It gives humanity to the language, and simplicity to the design."Marketers need to have insight-driven ideas to reach individual customers. He said less TV is needed, and more targeted media such as print should be used. "To build a great brand today regardless of the industry is a huge challenge," he said. "And to keep a brand great is just daunting."He said a quick look around will reveal that many great American brands are under stress, including McDonald's. "I'm sure it's not news to many of you that McDonald's had difficult times at the start of this millennium. We lost some of our focus; loyalty to our brand suffered; customers were visiting us less often, and as a result, our profitability suffered. What was happening that was most damaging was that the image of our brand was being tarnished."Lamar feels that traditional methods of advertising are losing power to change consumer behavior. "Ad awareness and credibility are declining, consumers are zapping commercials -- when they haven't set their TiVo to avoid watching commercials altogether. Marketing dollars are being drained by dramatically escalating property and sponsorship costs that deliver less than they have in the past."He cited the upfront market for the U.S. broadcast media as a problem. "Very few businesses in the world are able to charge more and deliver less," he said. "Media has become more and more fragmented, and some of our best prospects are staring at computer screens instead of television screens and newspaper pages."

McDonald's Appeals to the Young at Heart

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