The Golden Obsession – Why is McDonald’s so popular? -

篇名： The Golden Obsession - Why is McDonald’s so popular? -

作者： 蔡嬋蓁。國立台南高商。應用外語科三年甲班 鐘聖翔。國立台南高商。應用外語科三年甲班 鄭宜旻。國立台南高商。應用外語科三年甲班

指導老師： 黃燕鴻老師

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A. Background

When it comes to fast-food chains, without a doubt, the first sight going through our mind is McDonald’s. When being introduced into Taiwan, it was popular with most Taiwanese. From then on, we have been all enamored of McDonald’s. It opens for 24 hours to provide us with steaming hot food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and even a night snack rapidly anytime. Since modern people are occupied, the principle of fast-food turns out to be the best alternative.

McDonald’s offers a diversity of meals, from main meals to desserts. In addition, not only does it invent “Happy Meal” for kids, but it also furnishes safe recreation facilities. Most of all, it offers cordial receptions as well as comfortable environment so that we will be pleasant during the meal. Moreover, McDonald’s also offers “drive-through” for drivers’ convenience.

We can watch McDonald’s commercials pop out on TV all the time. With popular talents as endorsers, we can’t help ceasing to stare at the screen owing to the creative and original content of the commercials. On an unfixed basis, McDonald’s releases toys drawing children’s attention, successfully winning their hearts.

B. Motivation

Nowadays, there are lots of , like KFC, MOS Burger, and so on, selling similar products, such as , fried chicken, fries, etc. What we wonder about is why and how McDonald’s can stand out amid the fierce competition between fast-food restaurants. We would like to comprehend the chief reason of everybody resorting to McDonald’s. Perhaps there’s a critical element, or maybe we just walking in it subconsciously. McDonald’s, which we see everyday, probably is not what it seems; there’s more than the golden arches and its fancy food. We never give it a thought on what the crucial factor is as we are soaking in its meal. Therefore, we seize this chance to dispel our doubts

C. Research Questions

McDonald's, which is known as a fast-food chain, can be seen everywhere. And there are always people thronging to it. In other words, McDonald's has become a part of our life. The tactic McDonald’s applies to its business is worth our consideration. We are longing to know what makes it popular and the differences in McDonald’s around the world. Consequently, we investigated three research questions as follows:

Q1. What is origin of McDonald's? Q2. What is the difference of McDonald’s around the world? Q3. What is the general picture of potential consumers of McDonald’s?

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In order to relieve us of our doubts, we accumulated information via Internet. For question one and three we keyed in some keywords with a view to gathering the information, such as McDonald's origins, the founder of McDonald's, McDonald's characteristics and so on. Besides, we scanned through McDonald's official website, providing the most primitive and accurate data.

As to question two, we solve it by means of questionnaire. First, we divided 200 questionnaires equally into two groups, male and female. Next, we focused on 200 people filling the questionnaire and brought them into different age groups, the age of 10 to 20, the age of 21 to 30, the age of 31 to 40 and beyond the age of 41. Finally, the results of statistics were displayed in the form of figures.

RESULTS

A. The origin of McDonald's.

McDonald's Corporation is one of the world's largest fast-food chains, possessing more than 30,000 branches in 110 countries, serving nearly 47 million customers daily.

The business began in 1940, with McDonald’s Bar-B-Que opened by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. The brothers McDonald shut it down for alteration, and then reopened it as McDonald’s, establishing the principles of the modern fast-food restaurants.

The one who looked highly upon McDonald’s’ marketing and got the franchise was Ray Kroc, establishing the ninth McDonald’s in Des Plaines, Illinois on April 15, 1955. Owing to the ambitious satisfactory of the pursuit of enterprise, Kroc dismissed the McDonald brothers from the fast-food industry by force, giving rise to the feud over the control of the business. the original restaurant by brothers McDonald was turned into a monument.

The mascot of McDonald’s has its history. The original mascot “Speedee”, a man with a chef's hat on top of a hamburger shaped head, was eventually replaced with Ronald McDonald, a clown shaped man having a puffed out costume legs. Moreover, McDonald’s loge also experienced several changes, from the Speedee to a slashed M logo to the Golden Arches that we see today. pic1.slashed M logo

The birth of McDonald’s catches up with the advent of the modern life with fast and automation in place of leisure. McDonald’s service fulfills the need of people nowadays, and by means of continuous innovation, McDonald’s wins over the masses’ heart. pic2. Speedee 3

PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com The Golden Obsession – Why is McDonald’s so popular? - B. The difference of McDonald’s around the world.

To food and drink industry, nothing is more important than to blend into the local life. Due to the diversity of every country around the globe, such as culture, diet preferences, religion, etc, McDonald’s has to squeeze the brain to cater to the local’s tastes. As a result, we cite some countries as examples.

“Everybody knows that Indian worship cow. As a result they refuse to eat beef; they also don’t eat pork because of Islamism.”(Indian cuisine, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

That Indians say no to both beef and pork is a religious influence, which is definitely a challenge to McDonald’s. Maybe you are wondering about what kind of meat they eat. Well, don’t forget the chicken. On the McDonald’s menu in India, besides Chicken McNuggets and Filet-O-Fish, there are other kinds of burger—chicken burgers, such as McChicken and Chicken Maharaja-Ma ,and potato burgers!

“Between two buns is no meat existing, instead, there is hash brown with some beans, seasonings and spices mixed in it, and this godsend is known as ‘McAloo Tikka’”(黃伯康(2009)。印度創意).

In , you can always see these words – region limited, period limited, or season limited, which means that you can only buy some special goods in one or some specific region or during one period of time or season. On television, you notice the commercials of some food or drink which is region, period, or season limited, and even in many stores you can see these words. By the same token, McDonald’s applies it to its food. There is a variety of food on menu, some of which are limited. If the product sells well, it will show up again and be sold to people someday after passing the limited period, just as the other stores do. Due to the witty strategy, McDonald’s in Japan can show us a wider range of in lots of flavor. Another surprise, you can buy birthday cakes in McDonald’s, too!

In our hometown—Taiwan, what would you think of when it comes to food? It must be our staple food, . McDonald’s once sold a special burger called “”. Well, what on earth is rice burger? Let’s imagine an ordinary burger first, and then replace the buns on the top and in the bottom with the pie-shaped grilled rice. And this is it! Have a bite, and you can get a completely unique taste. The surface is crunchy; on the other hand, inside of it is chewy. It’s a pity that the rice burger was not sold any more.

Other countries have their special meals, too. Take Malaysia for instance, McDonald’s in Malaysia sells Bubur Ayam McD, known as chicken porridge. In Egypt, McDonald’s has one kind of burger that uses kofta to supersede the meat in a burger. “Kofta is a Middle Eastern and South Asian meatball or meatloaf. In the simplest form, koftas consist of balls of minced or ground meat — usually beef or lamb — mixed with spices and/or onions.”(Kofta, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) In Greece, McDonald’s sells spring rolls and shrimp burger.

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C. The result of McDonald’s questionnaire.

The survey on why McDonald’s is so popular:

With the help from the 200 people including pedestrians, teachers, classmates and their parents, we finish the investigation. Among them, there are 97 males and 103 females. For some questionnaires, we sort them by sex to know the differences between the male consumers and the female ones. For some of the questionnaires, we divide them into groups based on age to understand the different opinions between them.

1. SEX：□ MALE □ FEMALE

Figure1: Sex

104

102 FEMALES 100 103 MALE

98 FEMALE

96 MALES 94 97

2. AGE：□ 10～20 □ 21～30 □ 31～40 □ beyond 41

Figure2: Distribution of Age

beyond 41 10-20 years years old old (25%) (25%) 10 ~ 20 21~30 31~40 beyond 41 21-30 years 31-40 years old (25%) old (25%)

As the two diagrams above show, we examined 97 males and 103 females, dividing the 200 people into four different ages. The interviewees aging from 10 to 20 are students. Those who age from 21 to 30 are college students. And those aging from 31 to 40 are our school teachers and the passersby. Furthermore, the people beyond the age of 41 are some classmates’ and junior classmates’ parents.

3. DO YOU GO TO McDonald’s MORE OFTEN THAN OTHER FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS？ 5

PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com The Golden Obsession – Why is McDonald’s so popular? - □ McDonald’s □ Kentucky Fried Chicken (needless to answer question 4) □ Mos Burger (needless to answer question 4)

Figure3: The fast-food chain where consumers go

100 80 MALE 60 FEMALE 40

20

0 McDonald's Kentucky Fried Mos Burger MALE 92 2 9 FEMALE 80 3 14

We acquire some information from this chart: the rate of males and females resorting to McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Mos Burger. According to it, we learn that there are 172 interviewees (86%) who often go to McDonald’s including 92 males and 80 females. And there are 5 interviewees (2.5%) going to Kentucky Fried Chicken more often than other restaurants, including 2 males and 3 females. Besides, there are 23 interviewees (11.5%) going to Mos Burger more often, including 9 males and 14 females. The result of this statistic indicates that most people often go to McDonald’s. In comparison with it, few people go to Kentucky Fried Chicken and Mos Burger. Owing to the outcome, we can learn that McDonald’s has successfully satisfied everyone’s appetite

4. WHAT IS THE REASON YOU OFTEN GO TO McDonald’s FOR？ (MULTIPLE CHOICES) □ delicious meals □ various meals □ identical quality of meals □ excellent Sanitation □ cordial attitude □ quick offering □ other reasons:

Figure4: The reasons of going to McDonald's frequently

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 MAN 5 FEMALE 0 Deliciou Various Identical Excellen Cordial Fast Other s Meals Meals Quality t Attitude Offering reasons MAN 39 14 14 25 31 27 47 FEMALE 31 31 24 15 22 41 11

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Among the interviewees going to McDonald’s more often than other fast-food restaurants, nineteen percent of them (males: 60%; females: 40%) think the meals offered by McDonald’s are delicious. Twelve percent of them (males: 30%; females: 70%) think the alternatives for meals are various. Eleven percent of them (males: 40%; females: 60%) think the quality of meals is identical. Ten percent of them (males: 60%; females: 40%) think McDonald’s has excellent sanitation. Fourteen percent of them (males: 60%; females: 40%) think the attitude in attending to customers embracing reception and welcome is cordial. Eighteen percent of them (males: 40%; females: 60%) think the clerks speed customers their orders. In addition, 16% of them have other explanations for why they often go to McDonald’s. As a consequence, we can comprehend that the reasons why the multitude like McDonald’s so much and the rate of each reason is about 10% to 20%. In light of the reasons, we can learn that most people like to go to McDonald’s because of the relish. In accordance with different sex, it shows that most males (24%) like McDonald’s due to other reasons; however, most females (23%) like it because of swift offering.

5. HOW OFTEN DO YOU GO TO McDonald’s PER MONTH？ □ never □ once to three times □ four to six times □ seven to nine times □ over ten times

Figure5: Frequency

50

40 10~20 years old

30 21~30 years old

20 31~40 years old

10 beyond 41 years old 0 once to three four to six seven to nine never over ten times times times times 10~20 years old 6 40 4 0 0 21~30 years old 3 44 3 0 0 31~40 years old 3 43 4 0 0 beyond 41 years old 16 30 4 0 0

From this chart, we can be informed that most consumers (78%) go to McDonald’s once to three times a month, fourteen percent of whom don’t go there, eight percent of whom go there four to six times a month, and no one goes there over seven times a month. The analysis is as follows: In the parity age 10~20, there are forty people go to McDonald’s once to three times a month; six people don’t go there; four people go there four to six times a month; no one goes there over seven times a month. In this age group are almost students, most of whom don’t have the capability for enormous expending. Compared with college students, they have meals at home more often than in McDonald’s. In the parity age 21~30, there are forty four people go to McDonald’s once to three times a month; therefore, most

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PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com The Golden Obsession – Why is McDonald’s so popular? - consumers are in this group. Besides, there are three people going to McDonald’s four to six times a month; three people don’t go there, and the rates of other frequencies are 0%. In this age group are most university students and they almost work part-time. The possibility of preparing their three meals every day is very low so they always eat out. On account of it, there is a good possibility of having meals in McDonald’s. In the parity age 31~40, there are forty three people going to McDonald’s once to three times a month, four people going there four to six times; three people don’t go there, and the rates of other frequencies are 0%. In the parity age beyond 41, there are thirty people going to McDonald’s once to three times a month; moreover, fewest consumers are in this group. In it, sixteen people don’t go there, four people go there four to six times a month, and the rates of other frequencies are 0%. Besides, in this group are most office workers, housewives and the married. Take housewives for example, they have less time to eat out and may emphasize health more so the frequency of going to such fast-food restaurants as McDonald’s is decreased. Furthermore, those who are beyond 41 years old have difficulty fitting in with these fast-foods, and this may be one of the reasons why they seldom go to McDonald’s.

6. WHAT ARE THE REASONS YOU GO TO McDonald’s FOR？ (MULTIPLE CHOICES) □ satisfying the appetite □ studying □ resting and chatting □ reunion or celebration □ other reasons:

Figure6: The Reasons for Going to McDonald's

40 30 20 10~20 10 21~30 0 satisfying resting and reunions or other 31~40 studying the appetite chatting celebrations reasons beyond 41 10~20 21 18 18 10 5 21~30 17 20 11 0 1 31~40 38 17 4 0 1 beyond 41 36 0 8 7 2

From this chart, we can learn that the chief reason for going to McDonald’s is to meet consumers’ appetite (48%). The secondary is to study (24%), and consequentially is to rest and chat (18%), reunions or celebrations (7%), and other reasons (3%). And the analysis of the statistic is as follows: The distribution of the people going to McDonald’s because of the appetite meeting gives us some information: 31~40 (16%), beyond 41 (15%), 10~21 (9%), and 21~30 (7%). From this data, we are informed that most consumers beyond 31 years old go to McDonald’s principally for the reason, appetite meeting. What’s more, most office workers and housewives are in this group, going there for satiating themselves. The reason, studying: 21~30 (9%), 10~20 (8%), 31~40 (7%), beyond 41 (0%). The consumers who choose this reason are almost students. Not only can they have meals in McDonald’s, but

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PDF created with pdfFactory trial version www.pdffactory.com The Golden Obsession – Why is McDonald’s so popular? - they can make good use of time to study there. The reason, resting and chatting: 10~20 (8%), 21~30 (5%), beyond 41 (3%), 31~40 (2%). The reason, reunions or celebrations: 10~20 (4%), beyond 41 (3%), 21~30 (0%), 31~40 (0%). Other reasons: 10~20 (2%), beyond 41 (1%), 21~30 (not surpassing 1%), 31~40(not surpassing 1%)

7. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE SERVICE OF McDonald’s？ □ very satisfied □ satisfied □ middle □ unsatisfied □ extremely unsatisfied

Figure7: The Degree of Satisfaction

extremely not satisfied 1 not satisfied

14 middle 8 18 17 33 35 beyond 41 satisfied 32 31 31~40 2 21~30 7 very satisfied 1 10~20 2

0 10 20 30 40

The statistic demonstrates that the degree of the content for the service is diverse. Most people (65%) are satisfied with the service and approximately twenty-eight point five percent of people think the service is middle. Moreover, six percent of people are satisfied with it very much. Nevertheless, zero point five percent of the people aren’t satisfied with it. In terms of the statistics, portions, and the distribution of each parity age, we can infer that most people are pleased with the service of McDonald’s. It’s one of the reasons why McDonald’s is so prevalent and well received.

8. WHAT IS YOUR VIEWPOINT ABOUT THE PRICE of McDonald’s MEALS？ □ too expensive □ a little expensive □ average □ cheap □ very cheap

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Figure8: Viewpoints on the price

50 40 10~20 30 21~30 20 31~40 10 beyond 41 0 too a little average cheap very cheap expensive expensive 10~20 4 37 9 0 0 21~30 2 38 10 0 0 31~40 0 47 3 0 0 beyond 41 10 37 3 0 0

On the basis of this chart, we can deduce that eight percent of people think the price is too expensive, seventy-nine point five percent of people think the price is a little expensive, twelve point five percent of people think the price is average. None the less, among the interviewees, no one thinks it is low-priced or exceedingly cheap. We presume from the event of the investigation that most consumers still think the price of McDonald’s meals is a little expensive. If McDonald’s can lower the price, maybe there will be more people fond of McDonald’s. The more consumers there are, the more profit McDonald’s can make.

CONCLUSION

Nowadays, McDonald’s is ubiquitous all over the world. Who are we supposed to attribute this great achievement to, Brothers McDonald or the administration director Ray Kroc? Literally, all of them devoted themselves to the management in McDonald’s.

According to the results and statistics above, we summarize some reasons why McDonald’s is so popular: first of all, it provides people with delicious meals. Second, the time management is well-controlled. Third, most customers are satisfied with the quality of service. Last but not least, it furnishes people a comfortable clean environment.

No matter where you are, you are able to discover huge golden arches in the city. McDonald’s develops special meals representing their country and a reflection of the difference of life style. For instance, there are chicken burgers in India and chicken porridge in Malaysia.

During the making of the senior project, we faced a series of difficulties from the beginning to the end. Nevertheless, we held a constant mind, struggling to accomplish our goal. Owing to this occasion, we promoted our better capability of judging the validity of the information.

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According to the question we went into for this project, the conclusion revealed after we took use of Internet resources and results of the questionnaire, taking them into deliberate consideration, and eventually analyzed, classified them; eventually finished the project smoothly.

With its decent service and better prestige among the other fast-food restaurants, McDonald’s gain its consistent position, which is the very reason of McDonald’s’ popularity. Nonetheless, there is still room for improvement. If putting more all-round and comprehensive investigations into this project, like the management of McDonald’s, we will gain more complete outcome.

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The questionnaire of McDonald’s

Dear friends, We are the students of National Tainan Commercial Vocational Senior High School. And we are conducting a proposal, working on a questionnaire to survey why so many consumers love McDonald’s. This questionnaire is only for our assignment, and it won’t leave any personal information. Thus, please fill it out with relief. No matter what opinions you offer will help us a lot. Thank you for spending your valuable time on this questionnaire. Sincerely yours

1. SEX：□ MALE □ FEMALE 2. AGE：□ 10～20 □ 21～30 □ 31～40 □ beyond 41 3. DO YOU GO TO McDonald’s MORE OFTEN THAN OTHER FAST-FOOD RESTAURANTS？ □ McDonald’s □ Kentucky Fried Chicken (needless to answer question 4) □ Mos Burger (needless to answer question 4) 4. WHAT IS THE RESON YOU OFTEN GO TO McDonald’s FOR？ (MULTIPLE CHOICES) □ delicious meals □ various meals □ identical quality of meals □ excellent Sanitation □ cordial attitude □ quick offering □ other reasons: 5. HOW OFTEN DO YOU GO TO McDonald’s PER MONTH？ □ never □ once to three times □ four to six times □ seven to nine times □ over ten times 6. WHAT ARE THE REASONS YOU GO TO McDonald’s FOR？ (MULTIPLE CHOICES) □ satisfying the appetite □ studying □ resting and chatting □ reunion or celebration □ other reasons: 7. ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE SERVICE OF McDonald’s？ □ very satisfied □ satisfied □ middle □ unsatisfied □ extremely unsatisfied 8. WHAT IS YOUR VIEWPOINT ABOUT THE PRICE of McDonald’s MEALS？ □ too expensive □ a little expensive □ average □ cheap □ very cheap

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REFERENCES

A. Content

1. Indian cuisine, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Retrieved November 26, 2009, from http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E5%8D%B0%E5%BA%A6%E8%8F%9C 2. 黃伯康(2009)。印度創意。大公網。 http://www.takungpao.com/news/09/10/30/HY-1163914.htm 3. Kofta, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Retrieved November 19, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kofta

B. Picture

1. http://www.aboutmcdonalds.com/mcd/our_company/mcd_history.html 2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SpeedeeGentilly.JPG

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