The Hamburglar’s identity crisis
McDonald’s: The once-mighty fast-food chain is suffering, thanks to competition, higher prices and controversies; a makeover is in order
Ask any five-year-old today who the Hamburglar is and you’re likely to get a blank stare, as they scan their memory banks for the names of Lego characters, Skylander fighters, SpongeBob protagonists and Stampylongnose references that might offer a clue.
And that, in a nutshell, is the trouble with McDonald’s.
You might have missed it, but the granddaddy of fast food, the worldwide chain that started with a California barbecue joint and then a hamburger stand in 1948, morphing into a corporate behemoth with more than 35,000 restaurants worldwide and a universally recognized logo, is suffering.
In business terms, things aren’t going well. The corporate image has taken a battering, and the company recently reported a 21-per-cent decline in quarterly profit compared to last year, as sales plummet.
The quick fix seems to be Steve Easterbrook, who is from the branding side of the firm and who was announced as the new McDonald’s boss last week, replacing former CEO Don Thompson, who is out March 1 after less than three years at the top.
Among McDonald’s problems are company surveys indicating that young people are increasingly staying away, a marked change from decades ago when it was the only game in town for a quick cheap meal, an inexpensive family outing.
But McDonald’s is no longer the bargain it was back in the 29-cent burger days. Take a family of four out for dinner today and you might be better served, value and nutrition-wise, at a sushi or pasta restaurant.
Today, competitors like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Subway, Chipotle Mexican Grill and Wendy’s have saturated the North American fast food market, and continue to steal the Hamburglar’s thunder, looting the Golden Arches vault with their trendy social media campaigns and increasingly diverse and affordable menus.
Meanwhile, McDonald’s minimum-wage woes, the foreign workers issue and its McJobs reputation have been compounded by the drubbing the company has taken over the “pink slime” beef controversy, epic menu failures like McRib and McDLT, the lacklustre McCafe, and the promotional French fry-making video by a Mythbusters host that backfired when he detailed the 19 ingredients, including a lot of oil, that goes into that bag of fries.
It doesn’t help, either, that we are a continent of fatties, and that those trying to fight the obesity epidemic, especially in children, are the first to point their accusing fingers at the calorific content and the super-size trend fostered by the fast-food giant.
We just aren’t loving it anymore.
McDonald’s may simply have overstayed its welcome, outmatched by the new kids on the block, no longer unique enough, or relevant enough, or inventive enough to maintain its once unprecedented stranglehold on the market.
Whether the once-mighty fast food king can regain its crown is iffy but there’s no question it’s time for an overhaul.
Some suggestions, then, for Mr. Easterbrook from a longtime customer and admirer of McDonald’s still-affordable plain cheeseburger. Start with the menu. Your salads and McWraps are decent, and signal your intention to provide a healthful alternative to your famously fulsome Big Mac. We’re still loving the simple Filet-O-Fish, too. The freshbrewed coffee is good, and your fries? Second only to In-N-Out.
But the menu is simply too complicated, and changes so often with its combinations and extras that it’s hard to keep up at the counter, except to continually rebuff requests for super sizing.
Your staff could be more helpful, too. They’re mostly young, of course, so need more training to fully understand the basic tenets of good manners and customer service.
It may be a McJob, but it’s their McJob, so you need to install pride in that huge workforce of yours. Pay them a bit more and then teach them to listen better, so that we don’t have to triple-check our order every time we go through the drivethru.
And, please, do something about your packaging. Too much plastic and Styrofoam, too many containers and mounds of paper that we have to dump into what clearly aren’t recycling bins in your restaurants.
And then there are the play areas. The kids apparently aren’t coming around as much as they once did, so give them a reason to.
The indoor play areas are a great, and rare, feature in a restaurant. They draw in families, but they need to be bigger, and cleaner, and more fun, with interactive non-video games and separate areas for toddlers.
Oh, and bring Ronald McDonald out of retirement. He may be a creepy clown, but the kids still seem to love him.
And, aside from that cheeseburger, the food is just too expensive in these economic times. You’re running a company with annual, if shrinking, profits of about $5 billion. But that’s surely going to keep going down if you don’t make yourself more affordable to the middle class and the budget-stretched, to all those people for whom dining out is an increasingly rare treat.
How about a McFamily Meal Deal for four, under $20?
The Hamburglar is having an identity crisis, Mr. Easterbrook, and it’s on you.