Photos: McDonald’s
McDonald’s newest restaurant has international flavor
On the ground floor of McDonald’s new headquarters building in Chicago, its restaurant is now featuring menu items from the fast-food chain’s businesses from around the world.
Among the items on the menu are the Mighty Angus Burger from Canada, the McSpicy Chicken Sandwich from Hong Kong, Cheese & Bacon Loaded Fries from Australia, the Mozza Salad from France and the McFlurry Prestigio dessert from Brazil. International items will be rotated on a regular basis. The restaurant also offers choices such as Big Macs and Chicken McNuggets that are familiar to McDonald’s patrons in the U.S.
The new restaurant, which offers table service, is one of McDonald’s Experience of the Future (EOTF) models. McDonald’s plans to transform most of its U.S. locations to the EOTF format by 2020. While it doesn’t have a drive-through, the restaurant has designated spaces in front for customers to pick up online orders. Customers can also have orders delivered from the restaurant via UberEats.
“Everything we have done to modernize the brand over the past several years is exhibited in this restaurant,” Robert Gibbs, McDonald’s chief spokesperson, told Eater.
Discussion Questions
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: Do you see McDonald’s new Experience of the Future restaurant in Chicago with its international menu as a concept that could be replicated in other U.S. cities? Do you think it is likely that international menu items will be tested in the U.S., should they sell well in Chicago?
Poll
BrainTrust
Mohamed Amer, PhD
Independent Board Member, Investor and Startup Advisor
Chris Buecker
Founder & Chairman, International TCG Retail Summit
It’s hard to say how well the new McDonald’s menu will work but it’s smart to try something different. People love change, and they like new opportunities. Customers will try out the unique experience at McDonald’s because they’ll be curious — no different than a customer trying out the fresh, flavored coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts. The deciding factor will be if the majority of McDonald’s customers like the products being offered and choose them over the more traditional items. If so, we’ll see a whole new McDonald’s transformed before our eyes, and we’ll all be telling our grandchildren someday about what McDonald’s was once like back in the day.
McDonald’s, which has been reinventing itself over the past several years, appears to be accelerating its transformation with the new international menu. The potential negative is the dilution of its brand offerings, sending customers to other more focused burger or chicken options. However, the upsides will come from customers seeking new menu choices. These added items will help to reduce the “visit veto” phenomenon that often occurs when a member of a multi party group does not find something of interest in a particular restaurant destination. With the added international options there should be something for everyone’s tastes at McDonald’s.
Retailers cannot rely on their original business model forever. Consumer habits change and retailers need to reflect these changes in their value proposition. Yes, I see it as a concept to be replicated elsewhere if the test restaurant turns out to be successful. However, it would be important for the core menu items such as Big Macs to always be available as well. That´s what McDonald´s stands for.
McDonald’s knows that in order to be successful it has to have an element of change. With this concept in mind, certain aspects of it can work in other parts of the country, in major cities with communities of a certain background, putting items on the menu from their home country would help McDonald’s compete with the local restaurants. It would also work in other places but more on a rotating basis, again to be more competitive and different.
Even if these items do not sell well in Chicago, McDonald’s should try them in other parts of the country. It is a significant investment to change a menu item so it pays to test them first and then go elsewhere too. Some change is good but never forget your roots!
I love the Experience of the Future (EOTF) model because it frames a program of analysis, investment and refinement toward broader applicability. Consumers welcome “new” and stepping beyond incrementalism is what really gets noticed, examined and trialed by customers.
The U.S. is a polyglot country. McDonald’s is almost everywhere in the world. Why not share the successes of other countries? Not every international menu item will sell well in the U.S., but many may stick and become regular features. The least this concept can do is get people to visit McDonald’s to see what’s different and try new items.
McDonald’s new Experience of the Future restaurant is sufficiently different (strategic distance) from current offering so it creates real challenges and ample opportunities for the company.
Initially, in a learn-as-you-go approach, it can become a destination on its own if it is limited to cities with demographics that value the higher service level and seek more adventurous menu choices. The challenge is that the consumer doesn’t want to juggle two distinct sets of expectations or images of what the brand means to them, so a pivot to higher service and menus will take some time (years) and carry inherent risk. Alternatively, the company could roll out the future concept as a separate but related banner that allows for growth with new formats and customers without alienating their core customers and franchise partners.
Regardless of the speed or path forward, I applaud McDonald’s for not resting on past success and for constantly pursuing options for growth and relevance. Keeping the brand modern is crucial and the challenges associated with such strategies are much more desirable than alternatives imposed by strategic stagnation and inaction.
I love what McDonald’s is doing culturally and business transformation-wise. The move to downtown was to attract younger, more skilled talent, the work they’ve done with their mobile order and pickup is very innovative, and mixing up the menu is another unique way to test and learn and potentially expand their base.
This reminds me of grade school, where the cafeteria would have, say, “Mexico Day” by some token gesture like offering a chunk of avocado along with your mac’n’cheese and chocolate milk.
So will it “work”? I think some of the individual items might be added to menus, but together they don’t seem to represent anything coherent, so I don’t see the specific restaurant concept itself being repeated.
McDonald’s — for me and my friends, anyway — isn’t going to get me in there to buy anything, as the quality of the food is awful. They are a price conscious fast food restaurant. Their trying to create an international cuisine gives me pause, as what level of quality can they possibly produce to make anyone with a refined palate want to buy it from McDonald’s? Does this make me a food snob? Maybe, but I don’t see this as a huge success.
McDonald’s, like many other long-standing iconic brands, has a growth issue to solve — they must find new ways to bring in new customers. If they don’t change things up in their menu, they can’t expect their customer base to change either.
Consumers who don’t frequent McDonald’s today, won’t start doing so until they see something in the menu that intrigues them and leaves them with a perception of quality they don’t normally associate with McDonald’s. Much of their base is built on convenience, but the food service industry has evolved substantially based on changing consumer taste and desire for higher quality meals at a fair price and sufficient convenience and speed. Experimenting as they are with international menu items is a great idea to try and change those consumer perceptions of people who don’t normally eat there.
This is a terrific strategy for all the big fast food restaurants to employ. The real issue is being able to create menus for specific locations based on customer demographics and most importantly, individual transaction data using data analytics. What was once the great strength of fast food — menu consistency anywhere you go — is now often a negative. My unscientific observation is that most of us like a combination of newness and consistency. So the idea that I can begin thinking of McDonald’s as a place I can get what I’m craving (a standard menu item), but also as a place I can discover something new is compelling. So it isn’t about rolling out an international menu item across thousands of locations, but rather to those locations that have customer characteristics that the data analytics predict interest.
A broader, more diverse flavor offering is clearly in demand in the USA as well as other cities around the world. McDonald’s would be remiss in not offering the concept as well as the alternative menu items in different cities since it competes with a broader palate for people of a more diverse background in today’s modern cities.