By: Dylan Aaron, Bailey Arionus-Lecouris, Nathan Johnson, and June Jeng

Table of Contents Executive Summary ...... 2 Brand Inventory ...... 3 Hierarchy ...... 4 Positioning ...... 5 Exploratory Research ...... 6 Focus Group ...... 6 Interviews ...... 9 Descriptive research ...... 12 Prototypical Knowledge Structure ...... 14 Analysis ...... 14 Final Recommendations ...... 16 Survey Questions ...... 20 Resources ...... 23

Executive Summary

McDonald’s is a successful company in the fast food industry. Since its founding in 1955, the company has opened franchise locations across the globe. Operating in the fast food industry requires the company to keep costs low and its product offering consistent across regional locations. McDonald’s locations are always accessible and conveniently located, the prices are low and keep the company competitive, and consumers always know what they are going to get. The fast food industry has seen the commoditization of its product offerings, so companies require superior branding and messaging to stand out from the crowd. McDonald’s can achieve better differentiation by improving the taste of its food, ensuring that franchise owners treat employees well, and by flaunting its efforts towards sustainability.

Brand Inventory

McDonald’s provides a range of items from the classic cheeseburger to chicken nuggets, breakfast items, and McCafé beverages and pastries. All the items on their menu range from $1 to $9. They promote their products by offering regular deals such as 2 for $5. McDonald’s uses many different forms of advertisements, such as TV, radio, print and online media outlets worldwide. For example, the signature Big Mac burger alone ran over one million advertisements worldwide (Myer). McDonald’s is also known for their Happy Meals, which cost roughly $3. These are popular among families with children, as they include a toy inside each meal.

All of McDonald’s price points align well with their target market which are men and women ages 8-45 and low income families and kids. Due to their conveniently locations, McDonald’s also attracts young adults who are looking for inexpensive food. They also target consumers who are on the go and need fast service.

The two tables below depict the range of menu items McDonald’s provides along with their target market and usage.

Hierarchy

McDonald’s is one of the world’s largest fast food corporations currently in operation. McDonald’s is famous for its franchised business model in which each of its individual restaurants are individually owned and they pay the corporate offices for the ability to use the brand; under the condition that the franchise owners align themselves, and their individual locations, with the values and goals of the corporation. The company is structured with the corporation at the top that manages the franchises, the franchises then sell the branded products and sub brands to the public. The corporate side of the company was founded by a man named Ray Kroc in the 1950s (McDowell, E., 2020). Kroc was the genius businessman who moved the company to a franchise model and is one of the reasons why the company is so successful today. McDonald’s now has franchise locations not only across the United

States but all over the world. The company has two sub brands that are very tied to the company, McCafé and the Big Mac. Both of these sub brands are exclusive to McDonalds and help to increase awareness and knowledge of what the company offers. Big Mac is a cash cow for the company, it is what comes to mind for many people when they think about McDonald’s and its offerings. McCafé was introduced in 1993 as a new product line extension for the company (McDonald’s, 2020). The McCafé brand was introduced with the intention of broadening the company’s product offerings and to help it become part of consumers’ mourning routines. With many people stopping to get coffee and a quick bite to eat on their way to work in the morning, McCafé was launched to compete with companies that already controlled a significant portion of that market niche, like Starbucks.

Positioning McDonald’s is one of the most well-known fast food establishments not only in the United States, but around the world. In an industry as hotly contested and competitive as fast food, it was required of McDonald’s to build a strongly defined competitive position in the market that provides a clear competitive advantage over competitors. In order to create this distinction from the competition, over time McDonald’s has leaned greatly towards two key market positions: convenience and specific demographic segmentation and targeting.

In the modern age of fast food, convenience in location and time efficiency is one of the most important factors of consideration for consumers. For decades, the entire structure of the fast food industry has been centered around cheap, mass produced food that is ready to go in a matter of minutes. In the past, McDonald’s positioned itself ahead of competitors by innovating and adapting to new methods of automation in the kitchen that increased the rate at which the food could be prepared, thus increasing service speed. Recently however, McDonald’s now sees little to no advantage over competitors in food output speed, although it still has one major advantage in convenience: The amount and location of its restaurants.

In a 2018 study done by Datafiniti, McDonald’s was found to be by far the most common burger-centered fast food establishment in America, claiming 11.3% of all fast food restaurants in America. The next highest competitor to McDonald’s was Burger King, claiming only 5.7% of all the nation’s fast food establishments. Two other of McDonald’s major competitors, Wendy’s and Jack in the Box, each only owned 4.4% and 1.7% of America’s fast food restaurants, respectively. By establishing such a large reach, McDonald’s has easily achieved a clear advantage for those in the market who simply want a quick, and convenient meal.

Exploratory Research Focus Group

As part of our exploratory research efforts we conducted a focus group containing 5 members. We asked a series of 10 questions to gain a greater understanding of people’s perceptions on fast food and the McDonald’s restaurant chain. We allowed for a free response format where input was based on volunteer basis. Outlined below are the questions that were proposed as well as the responses recorded during the focus group.

First, we asked our respondents what their favorite fast food companies were. Among the responses were companies such as McDonald’s, Chick-fil-a, Burger King, Taco Bell, Starbucks, Wendy’s and Dairy Queen. Some of the reasons that were given behind why these were the favorite of the respondents were, for one, Wendy’s because of its inexpensive cost and proximate location. Burger King because they now offer the impossible whopper. Lastly, Dairy Queen because of the nostalgic emotions that are associated with the restaurants. To clarify with our respondents, we asked our respondents what categorizes fast food, the response we received was that fast food is food at a convenience as well as food where there is no waiter or server.

The next question we asked was for our respondents to name the 5 things that first come to their minds when they hear the brand name McDonald’s. In other words, we were trying to deduce what consumers associate with the brand on a recall basis. The words or phrases given were: Golden Arches, Coke-a-Cola, cheap, hangover food, sobering up at a cheap price, comforting, crutch, fast food for kids, happy meals, childhood excitement. All recorded in that order.

Moving on to the question of, “when I eat McDonald’s I get ___.” The goal of this question was to determine what feelings people have after they have chosen McDonald’s and determine their post-purchase experiences. The responses for this question were: guilty, feels bad as it is for you, happy or comforted, guilt due to dietary concerns, guilty pleasure, guilt from spending money, negative physically, ill or grossed out. What we were able to determine from these responses was that there was a lot of guilt and different forms of it associated with McDonald’s and the post- purchase evaluation. Another idea that was brought up by our respondents after we proposed this question during their free responses was the guilt and consciousness of beef and sustainability of beef which a participant voiced was more important than the quality of food issue. Many also voiced their association with the Super-Size Me

6 documentary that most were forced to watch as kids that outlined some of McDonald’s quality concerns.

We then asked respondents what their preferred method of purchasing McDonald’s was. By this we wanted to find out if our participants routinely visited the drive through to get their meals, dined in, went in the restaurant to take their food to-go, or used a third-party delivery service. Two of our respondents stated that their go to option was delivery services, this being because of free delivery options and partnerships or because they wanted to support delivery drivers and help them make an income. However, almost all our respondents stated that they prefer using the drive through than going inside or dining in. Dining in was only stated as an option under three circumstances, where the respondent is on a lunch break at work, after a childhood event, or with a group of peers.

Next, we wanted to determine McDonald’s closest competitors, so we then asked about the consideration sets of our participants. Meaning, when seeking out a similar food type what are the restaurants you consider as options. Our respondents listed: Arby’s, Burger King, Jack in the Box, Wendy’s. Along with this were other local options exclusive to the areas the respondents live in, one being Boomers if in Bellingham or Dick’s if the participant was in Seattle. From these respondents we were able to determine that most saw Wendy’s, Jack in the Box, and Burger King as the direct competitors to McDonald’s in the eyes of our respondents.

The next question asked was “what do you like about the company McDonald’s?” We posed this question in a general sense, allowing for interpretation and free responses from the participants. The responses received were: the Ronald McDonald Charity, that there has not been a food safety scandal such as other convenient food sellers have, the concept that they hopefully have a more localized supply chain, inexpensive, the amount of restaurants and locations they have and that they are accessible, and lastly the standardization, that the food was predictable and the same no matter what location it was bought from. However, with that notion, it was also said that if the quality was to fall below expectations then it would have been seen as “absolute garbage,” this is because the quality was seen as “it is what it is” and mediocre, so falling below is a big deal.

This leads us into the next question which was what respondents did not like about the company. These respondents varied from phrases such as, “no warm fuzzy feelings about the quality of food,” that the cheapness of the products often translated to low quality or that somewhere along the way was getting shortchanged in order to keep prices low.

This brought in the concept that some may think that McDonald’s engages in “shoddy business practices” in order to keep prices sustainably low. Some thought that McDonald’s was over predatory with their marketing, meaning that they market specifically to kids even with the known health risks of their food. Others brought up safety concerns and concerns over how the employees are treated and accommodations to employees like healthcare benefits. Some brought up that they have worked in the industry previously, so they are automatically cynical when it comes to fast food. Overall, there were a lot of different negative associations to go off. Spanning from employee treatment, food quality, concerns with environmental sustainability, and the ethics of the business as a whole.

We then asked how the respondent feels about the food quality of McDonald’s as well as how important it is to them. One of our respondents came up with the term, “McDonald’s-esk” meaning that it sort of is what it is, and one does not expect to get high quality food from them. Others stated that it was mast produced, consistently sub- par, or a “level or mediocre I am willing to accept for that day.” Some said that their expectations are always low but at the same token no place really does it better for the same price point. That the food is better than it could be and should be ranked about a 3.5 out of 5 if they were ranking on food quality alone. Many brought up issues with certain items specifically, like stale buns, odd tasting condiments, or the rumors of refried food. A consensus of the group seemed to be that there was a compromise between cost and reward, that the food quality in itself is poor but is acceptable for the price point. One took the other route, that McDonald’s now utilizes nutrition facts and nutrition calculators on their website, making the appearance they are striving to be better and healthier.

Next, we asked our respondents about the treatment of employees, this was briefly touched on in our earlier question of what participants did not like about McDonald’s and those answers were then reiterated. There is concern with lack of safety for employees, an issue with how little employees make and their wages and whether they are given equal opportunities to healthcare options. Another concept that was brought up by a participant was automation. This being the replacement of employees with machines that can take orders. The question of what McDonald’s is doing for those employees who could potentially be losing their job to this.

The last question that we asked our participants was, “does it matter to you if McDonald’s is making an attempt to be more sustainable or not?” Wanting to judge the groups views on sustainability and if they believe that McDonald’s engages in sustainable practices. One concern was with deforestation, others held issues with cattle farming, how McDonald’s obtains its meat products and the negative impacts

8 that it has. With McDonald’s being as large of a corporation as it is many though they are responsible for a lot of the environmental issues that we see and that they should be making efforts towards more sustainable options because of their invested interest. One respondent mentioned that they knew McDonald’s was taking steps toward more environmentally sustainable packaging methods and that they actually appreciated that effort. Most thought that being more sustainable should be the norm for all businesses and in this focus, group setting our respondents said they would choose the comparable more sustainable option over McDonald’s even if it was at a little higher cost. That concludes the questions and responses that we asked and received from our focus group attendees. From here we conducted several interviews with the same questions in order to expand our responses and get a tighter grasp of the main issues and perceptions that consumers have of the McDonald’s company.

Interviews

Nicholas Shiraishi Nicholas Shiraishi is a 22-year-old college student at Western Washington University. He is a fast food consumer and frequents McDonald’s. He fits well within the limits of the company’s targeted segment. The main reasons Mr. Shiraishi patronizes McDonald’s is because it is “cheap and fast.” He is a fan of the business and holds the company in a positive light. He likes the relative price point that McDonalds offers its food, and that he can always depend on a McDonald’s location being nearby. Despite his positive view of the brand, he believes that the company could improve in some areas; he discussed three in particular: sustainability, employee treatment, and food quality.

During the interview Mr. Shiraishi mentioned that he believed corporations had an obligation to do what they could to help protect and improve the environment. He was impressed to learn that McDonald’s has been taking the initiative to become a more sustainable business. Since McDonald’s is already taking action to increase the environmental sustainability of its operations, generating awareness about this fact could increase the brands perceptions in the mind of the consumer.

Shiraishi stated that the reputation for poor treatment of employees in the fast food industry was aggravating. Even still because he saw this as an issue across the industry as a whole, he said that such an issue would not stop him from eating at McDonald’s.

Mr. Shiraishi, despite his continued patronizing of McDonald’s franchises, is disappointed with the quality of the food served at the restaurants. He stated that the food at McDonald’s usually makes him feel ill after he has finished eating it and he does not believe the food to be remotely healthy. That said, he continues to purchase food from McDonald’s, stating his apathy he says, “you pay for what you get.”

It seems that to this consumer price and convenience are the deciding factors for a fast food purchase and that not even food quality is of greater concern. Although Nicholas Shiraishi would like to see some changes made to McDonalds and the industry as a whole, his primary point of consideration is price.

Yuvia Marquez Yuvia Marquez is a 22-year-old student at Western Washington University. Being a college student, she fits well into McDonald’s target market, with low disposable income and on the hunt for quick, inexpensive food that will satisfy her cravings. When asked what her favorite fast-food restaurants were, she immediately responded with McDonald’s, followed by Taco Bell and Dairy Queen. However, she specified that she only goes to Taco Bell for their quesadillas and Dairy Queen for their Blizzards. She attributes McDonald’s for having “good deals like the 2 for $5” promotion, being “convenient and cheap,” having “variety,” and “socializing.” The word “socializing” stood out to us because unlike other interviewees and focus group members, Marquez specified that she “only goes to McDonald’s with her friends” and “would never go by herself.” This shows that there is more meaning behind eating at McDonald’s for her than simply satisfying her physiological needs.

Marquez loves that she can always count on McDonald’s being consistent in taste, price, and service. She credits McDonald’s employees for always being friendly and accommodating to her wants and needs. “They don’t question if my order is wrong, they just handle it. They are never rude either if anything I am the one who’s rude.”

While Marquez was quite excited to talk about one of her favorite fast food companies, she had some negative comments as well. When asked to fill in the phrase, “When I eat McDonald’s I…” she answered without hesitation “I get sick,” yet that doesn’t stop her from choosing McDonald’s over other brands. She thinks that McDonald’s can do better with healthier options in the United States, even bringing up the wide menu variety McDonald’s has in other countries. McDonald’s does customize menus in order to fit different cultures around the globe, often resulting in more to choose from. Marquez says “I want to try what they have in France or Mexico. I’ve heard that

McDonald’s in the U.S. has the worst nutrition and variety. I know they are working to incorporate more vegan options, but they could definitely still do better when it comes to healthier options and wider variety.”

Unlike those in the focus group, Marquez was aware of McDonald’s efforts in sustainability and charitable work. However, she doesn’t think advertising their “good deeds” would make consumers choose McDonald’s over other fast food restaurants. She says, “I think the people who truly care, would have already done their research beforehand.”

Nour Bibars Nour Bibars is also a Western Washington University student. She is 21 years old and frequently eats fast food, McDonald’s included. Nour also fits McDonald’s target market in both age and other demographics. When asked what her favorite fast food companies are, she listed McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Taco Time. When asked what came to mind when the company McDonald’s was said to her, her responses were food focused. She mentioned items like chicken nuggets, chicken sandwiches, “gross meat”, happy meals, and pink slime. While other interviewees associated McDonald’s with socializing and more of an experience and the context in which it is eaten. Nour instead focused specifically on the food that McDonald’s has that she likes and does not like, as well as convenience and price. It is important to note that when asked about her consideration set when seeking food comparable to McDonald’s, she noted Wendy’s as their biggest competitor, mentioning that Wendy’s is even less expensive and tastes better.

When asked what she liked about the McDonald’s brand the biggest component for her was the convenience and location of their restaurants. This along with their inexpensive price is the major pull for her to patron McDonald’s. However, when asked what she did not like about the brand she said that she does not like how they have consistently marketed their food as healthy, even after they have been exposed for their unhealthy ways, they continue to stay consistent on this front and refuse to change their ways. Another big negative for Nour was how unappetizing their food is to her; she views the food as very low quality. However, she also noted that the low quality of food does not prevent her from patronizing.

Lastly, when asked about McDonald’s treatment of employees and McDonald’s sustainability she said that neither issue would stop her from patronizing the restaurant. To her, McDonald’s treats their employees as, “parts of working machine instead of humans.” For sustainability, she voiced that sustainability matters to her, but not in so

11 much of a way that would stop her from going to a restaurant that is not sustainable. Mentioning that the quality of the food itself is more important. However, she does believe that all restaurants, McDonald’s included should make an effort to be more environmentally sustainable and treat those who work for them well.

Descriptive research The next phase in our brand audit was to run a convenience survey to assess the associations that McDonald’s targeted consumers had with the brand as well as its top competitors. The survey had a total of 91 respondents, however, 5 of which answered that they do not eat fast food and were then prompted to exit the survey. This brought our total number of participants to 86, all of which were accumulated from convenience. Meaning that our respondents were derived from people that us as researchers know or people that those people know. Due to this there may be biases in our data since our data was not derived randomly. However, we are going to use this data to draw conclusions for our brand audit with these biases in mind.

The first type of question the respondents were asked was about what attributes they view most important when choosing a fast food restaurant. The categories were, speed of service, price, environmentally sustainable practices, healthy food, taste, treatment of company employees, menu variety, accessibility of restaurant, and if the company makes charitable donations. The question was asked on a scale of 1 being not at all important to 7 being extremely important for each category. The two most important categories to our participants were taste and price, with averages of 6.11 and 5.63, respectively. The two least important attributes to our participants were charitable donations (3.50) and environmentally sustainable practices (3.99).

The next objective was to find out how often our respondents actually consumed fast food as well as what they associate specifically to McDonald’s and its competitors. To find out how often our respondents eat fast food we used a scale, 1 being once a month or less and 7 being every day. The average for our respondents was a 2.17. We then used a Likert scale to assess the association of different terms with McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Jack in the box. These being the top competitors based on the consideration set of our interview and focus group participants.

The terms and averages on a scale of 1 being strongly agree and 7 being strongly disagree are illustrated for each company in the chart below.

Jack in the McDonald’s Wendy’s Burger King Box Cheap 1.95 2.31 2.36 2.44

Fast service 2.15 2.37 2.72 2.75

Healthy 6.09 5.25 5.7 5.65

Tasty 3.38 2.68 3.85 3.81

Wide menu variety 3.3 3.23 3.64 3.33 Environmentally sustainable business 5.11 4.7 4.77 4.76 practices Treats employees well 4.58 4.21 4.46 4.49

Makes charitable donations 4.11 4.4 4.54 4.43

Restaurants are conveniently located 2.02 3.05 3.59 3.59

The next question was to assess the importance of environmental sustainability of fast food for our respondents. On a scale of 1 being not at all important and 7 being extremely important, respondents were asked how important it is for companies to make efforts towards carbon emission sustainability, beef sustainability, and packaging sustainability. Both beef and packaging sustainability had an average of 5.35 and carbon emissions had a slightly lower average of 4.96.

The next objective was to find out under what circumstances our respondents purchase fast food. Being after a night out, only with peers, when on the go, when in need of comfort food, and for typical mealtimes. This question was also asked in a scale format of 1 being very rarely and 7 being very often. The highest average was after a night out with 4.58 and the lowest average was for typical meals with 1.86.

Lastly, we asked demographic questions to derive the ethnicity, age, gender identity, and income of our respondents. For ethnicity, 75.61% of our respondents were White/Caucasian, 9.76% Asian, 1.22% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 3.66% Hispanic or Latino, and 9.76% other. The average age of our respondent was 21.68 which rounds to 22 years of age, this question asked for in input integer format. The next question of monthly income was also asked in input format, the average monthly income of our participants was 887.96 or 888 dollars rounded. Lastly, for gender

13 identity, 37.04% of our respondents identify as male, 61.73% female, and 1.23% as other.

Prototypical Knowledge Structure

Based on data collected from interviews, focus groups, and the survey, McDonald’s is most closely associated with fast service, low prices, and convenient and accessible locations. These three aspects of the company’s branding are points of parity when compared to the competition. Approximately 90% of respondents to the survey associate low prices, fast service, and convenient locations with McDonald’s. The company is slightly behind the competition when it comes to the health factor. From the interviews and the survey, it has been determined that people find the food at McDonald’s to be unhealthier than its competition. Additionally, from exploratory research it has been determined that people have weaker associations between McDonald’s and words and phrases like quick, on-the- go, crispy, and dry. Brand associations like the word “dry” have a negative impact on the brand’s perceptions and can assist in setting the company behind the competition.

Analysis

Overall McDonald’s has relatively strong associations where it counts. Their strongest positive associations are Cheap (72% Agree/Strongly Agree), Fast Service (70% Agree/Strongly Agree), and Restaurants are Conveniently Located ( 81% Agree/Strongly Agree). McDonald’s strongest negative association was Healthy (79% Disagree/Strongly Disagree). When consumers were asked which attributes are important when choosing a fast-food restaurant, “Healthy” was third to last in importance with a score of 4.17, on a scale of 1-7 where 1 is “not important at all and 7

14 is “extremely important.” This shows that even though consumers do not think McDonald’s is healthy when it comes down to it, health is not the most important factor

when consumers are choosing fast food. Below is a chart showing which attributes are most important to consumers when choosing a fast-food restaurant. **Scale: 1-7, 1=Not at all important, 7=Extremely important

In comparison, below are attributes consumers associate with McDonald’s and their competitors, where 1 is Strongly Agree and 7 is Strongly Disagree.

The data shows that McDonald’s has stronger associations with the top three attributes (Cheap, Restaurants are conveniently located, and Fast Service) than the three competitors. When comparing that to the top three factors consumers use to choose fast food, McDonald’s has stronger associations in Price and Accessibility than the competition, except for Taste where Wendy’s pulls ahead with 2.68 (between Agree and Somewhat Agree).

Overall, McDonald’s either has stronger positive associations than its competitors or has no significant difference with them. The most noticeable shortcoming McDonald’s has is being seen as unhealthy. McDonald’s score is almost a whole point lower than its competitors. Although the survey data shows that health is not a top concern when considering fast options, the interviews suggest otherwise. In both the focus group and interview with Yuvia Marquez, consumers mention feeling “sick” when consuming McDonald’s. Nour Bibars says that she “does not like how [McDonald’s] has consistently marketed their food as healthy, even after they have been exposed for their unhealthy ways.” Though feeling “sick” and not condoning McDonald’s unhealthy ways, they all said that it does not stop them from choosing to eat McDonald’s. Marquez mentions that she does wish McDonald’s would add more healthier options.

While the focus group shared strong feelings about McDonald’s sustainability efforts, the survey data shows that sustainability is second to last on the list of attributes consumers consider important in fast food (see table one). Interviewees showed support for businesses that made an effort to be sustainable. Nicholas Shiraishi believes that corporations have an obligation to protect the environment. And that showcasing McDonald’s sustainability efforts would increase their brand equity. On the other hand, Yuvia Marquez said that she does not think that increasing the promotion of McDonald’s “good deeds” will make consumers choose McDonald’s over other restaurants. She says that “the people who will let that sway their decision, probably have already done their research and know if McDonald’s is sustainable.”

Final Recommendations

Take a Stance on Employee Treatment

Our first recommendation for McDonald’s is to take a strong, franchise-wide stance on employee treatment, and set franchise-wide standards of employment. Because the company is set up under a franchise structure, working conditions, employee wages, and benefits are not always universal between all restaurant locations. In 2016,

McDonald’s stated “We do not direct or co-determine the hiring, assignment wages, hours, or any other essential terms and conditions of employment of our franchisees’ employees, (Gibson)” showing that corporate leaves the treatment of employees entirely to the individual franchise owners.

In 2016, McDonald’s corporate raised the wages for all 90,000 employees at the 1,500 company-owned locations to over $10 per hour, however this raise completely ignored the 750,000 employees at the 12,500 franchised locations (Gibson). Decisions like these, as well as a lack of regulation regarding equal treatment for all franchised employees have raised public concerns regarding McDonald’s treatment of employees.

To accomplish this, we suggest that McDonald’s Corporate should get more involved in regulating the workplace conditions, wages, and benefits of all franchises, not just company owned locations. Because of the lack of regulation by McDonald’s Corporate, employees around the country have been involved in many protests and strikes throughout the years fighting for increased wages and better benefits that individual franchises refuse to offer. Rather than impacting the image of the individual franchises, the image of the McDonald’s brand as a whole takes the largest hit whenever these issues arise.

The data from both our survey and exploratory research found that most fast food consumers do think it is important how well a company treats its employees. This was shown when our survey respondents averaged a score of 4.99 (1 to 7 scale, with 1 being not at all important, and 7 being extremely important) when asked how important the treatment of employees is when selecting a fast food restaurant to eat at, ranking as the fifth most important attribute. Although other attributes, such as affordability, service speed, and convenience ranked higher, McDonald’s lead the competition in many of those fields.

When looked at, ranked by importance to the consumers, employee treatment is the first attribute that our survey found consumers to think unfavorably of McDonald’s. Respondents also viewed McDonald's treatment of employees as worse than their competitors, Wendy’s, Burger King, and Jack in the Box. This shows that, although McDonald’s is leading competitors in many ways, improving employee conditions is one of the most effective ways to generate a better image of the McDonald’s brand.

Increase Amount of Healthier Alternatives

Our second recommendation for McDonald’s is to put more effort into offering a wider variety of healthier meal options. Although fast food such as McDonald’s is not generally thought of as being a health-conscious meal decision, we believe McDonald’s could expand the reach of their brand by offering a few healthier options. As we have discussed, McDonald’s thrives largely on its ability to serve fast, cheap food; a combination that generally results in a nutritionally unhealthy product. However, in the last few decades, McDonald’s has been able to make small alterations to the items on their menu, slowly making their food slightly healthier over time. We believe McDonald’s should continue this push, not to completely rework their menu, but to make small changes and add additional options that can improve the nutritional quality of their product.

During our exploratory research, one of the first concerns about McDonald’s food that was brought up by almost all participants was the health quality of the food. Most members of the focus group, as well as each individual interviewee, mentioned in some form that they looked negatively on McDonald’s food because of this. While most respondents claimed to still eat at McDonald’s despite their nutritional views on the product, many claimed that it leads to eating fast food less frequently, and sometimes drives them towards competitors such as Wendy’s when they desire fast food that they believe is slightly healthier.

These initial findings were supported further in our survey, where the average respondent claimed the importance of the healthiness of fast food is a 4.17 (1-7 scale with 1 being not at all important and 7 being extremely important). Although this factor was not as high as others, it shows that how healthy fast food is does still affect most consumers’ decisions. When asked about their perception of how healthy they see different fast food chains, respondents saw McDonald’s as the least healthy by a sizable margin, with a mean response of 6.09 (1-7 scale with 1 being strongly agree, and 7 being strongly disagree). In fact, McDonald’s score for healthiness was by far the least successful category for the company, highlighting it as the biggest weakness of the brand. The brand with the closest score was Burger King with a mean of 5.7, followed by Jack in the Box and Wendy’s with scores of 5.65, and 5.25, respectively. We believe this data shows that McDonald’s certainly has potential to improve their brand image by offering more health-conscious options.

Because McDonald’s has a well-defined and well-known brand inventory that has been well developed over decades, a full menu-wide rebrand is obviously not realistic for McDonald’s. Throughout the history of McDonald’s, although they have been true to

18 their brand history, they have understood that sometimes small changes are required. The former executive chef, Dan Coudreaut, once said “Society is shifting in a major direction, so guess what-McDonald’s is going to shift, too” (Specter). We believe that McDonald’s needs to continue this pattern of adapting to changes in society with their menu options, especially as people continue to become more health conscious about their food.

One example of such a change is to allow customers to customize their burgers more, with options such as replacing the bun with a lettuce wrap. Despite this option being very common at many other restaurants, McDonald’s has refused to ever allow this change. During the focus group, one participant even claimed this as a specific reason he sometimes choses competitors, such as Wendy’s. Another suggestion is to incorporate more options to replace fried foods at the restaurant such as increasing the amount of fresh grilled options or offering more alternatives to side dishes such as fruit or salads. Although these changes will likely not impact every McDonald’s customer, increasing how healthy consumers see the McDonald’s brand can certainly help to attract some extra customers that would normally turn to competitors.

Survey Questions

1. Do you eat fast food? Yes or No a. If “no” then exit survey

2. How important are the following attributes when choosing a fast food restaurant? 1 being not at all important and 7 being extremely important. a. Speed of Service b. Price c. Environmentally sustainable practices d. Healthy Food e. Taste f. Treatment of the company’s employees g. Menu variety h. Accessibility of restaurant locations i. Company makes charitable donations

3. On a 1-7 scale, how often do you eat at McDonald’s? 1 being very rarely and 7 being every day.

4. I associate the following terms with McDonald's. 1-7 scale, Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. a. Cheap b. Fast Service c. Healthy d. Tasty e. Wide Menu Variety f. Environmentally sustainable business practices g. Treats employees well h. Makes charitable donations i. Restaurants are conveniently located

5. I associate the following terms with Wendy’s. 1-7 scale, Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. a. Cheap b. Fast Service c. Healthy d. Tasty e. Wide Menu Variety

f. Environmentally sustainable business practices g. Treats employees well h. Makes charitable donations i. Restaurants are conveniently located

6. I associate the following terms with Burger King. 1-7 scale, Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. a. Cheap b. Fast Service c. Healthy d. Tasty e. Wide Menu Variety f. Environmentally sustainable business practices g. Treats employees well h. Makes charitable donations i. Restaurants are conveniently located

7. I associate the following terms with Jack in the Box. 1-7 scale, Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Neither, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree. a. Cheap b. Fast Service c. Healthy d. Tasty e. Wide Menu Variety f. Environmentally sustainable business practices g. Treats employees well h. Makes charitable donations i. Restaurants are conveniently located

8. How important is each aspect of environmental sustainability for fast food companies? Rate the importance on a 1-7 scale with 1 being not at all important and 7 being extremely important. a. Makes efforts towards carbon emissions sustainability b. Beef sustainability c. Packaging sustainability

9. On a 1-7 scale, how often do you purchase fast food under these circumstances? With 1 being very rarely and 7 being very often.

a. After a night out b. With friends c. On the go d. When you need comfort food e. Typical meals

10. What is your ethnicity? a. Black or African American b. American Indian or Alaska Native c. Asian d. Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander e. Other

11. How old are you?

12. What is your average monthly income? Please enter a number in the box provided

13. What gender do you identify with? a. Male b. Female c. Other

Resources

Gibson, K. (2016, March 11). Should McDonald's be responsible for how its franchises treat workers? Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/is-mcdonalds-on- the-hook-for-how-franchisees-treat-workers/

McDonald's McCafé History - The Tue Story. (n.d.). Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://retailhoreca.net/mccafe-mcdonalds-history

McDowell, E. (2020, February 10). THEN AND NOW: Photos show how McDonald's has changed through the years, from its menu to its mascot. Retrieved May 20, 2020, from https://www.businessinsider.com/then-and-now-mcdonalds- restaurants-through-the-years#in-1954-future-mcdonalds-corporation-founder- ray-kroc-a-multimixer-milkshake-machine-salesman-came-across-a-small- burger-joint-run-by-brothers-dick-and-mac-mcdonald-1

Meyer, P. (2018, September 4). McDonald's Marketing Mix (4Ps) Analysis. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/mcdonalds-marketing-mix-4ps-analysis

Mohammed, S. (2019, August 15). Brand Positioning Strategy -McDonald's, An Example. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@shahmm/brand-positioning- strategy-mcdonalds-an-example-6102932e21

Scale for Good. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/scale-for-good/using-our-scale-for- good.html

Specter, M. (2015, October 26). Freedom from Fries. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/freedom-from-fries

Tyler, J. (2018, June 24). These are the biggest fast-food chains in America. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/biggest-fast-food-chains-in-america- 2018-6#14-jack-in-the-box-7