McDonald’s Menu Hacks: a Brilliant Marketing Revamp
In recent years McDonald’s has been focused on constantly updating its marketing strategy to match and conquer the rapidly changing reality of the modern world (see).
The latest is the McDonald’s Menu Hacks. If you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s the new McDonald’s menu that combines several burgers or other items together in one. For example, the Surf + Turf combines a Filet-o-Fish and a double cheeseburger (see).
It is a brilliant idea. And here is why McDonald’s was so ingenious in inventing this: they managed to combine the several major fast-food marketing trends. If you haven’t read about the new marketing strategies of the fast-food chains please refer to my previous article on this topic available here. So I would like to point to several key ideas that the Menu Hacks strategy manages to bundle together.
The Menu
Most importantly, the new items seem original. Yes, they use the same ingredients but simultaneously appear novel. It is mostly true in all aspects: taste, look, marketing, ordering. The sense of discovering something new is complete within the customer experience here.
Besides, they seem to be healthier. Of the 4 new burger offerings in the Menu Hacks 3 feature mixing chicken or fish into your burger. It doesn’t necessarily create a healthier or leaner or fewer calories meal but, at the same time, this approach gives an impression that you are eating better.
The App
The Menu Hacks do employ the sales-through-the-app strategy. It has been very popular among the fast food-chains recently. Employed since the COVID crisis when the remote delivery proved its popularity. Selling through the app goes both with
- expediency – you don’t have to verbosely explain that you need these particular components in this particular order, instead, you easily order and get all ingredients mixed together;
- appeal – it allows the company to gently push its customers to download the app, which is one of the key customer binding and retention strategies at the moment in the world of fast-food chains.
The “Celebrity”
Furthermore, the Menu Hacks go with the new marketing approach trying to employ the celebrities promo trend. However, here the idea is not to catch a particular person’s name, but the popularity of the idea of hacks Hack is the “celebrity” here.
The key concepts with this approach are:
- hacks – which is a code word for a particular idea or a hint of how to improve your life (mostly it’s just for entertainment, but sometimes these ideas do have a chance to make your life easier) – are a hugely popular type of online and apps content;
- a generational trend – with the millennials and Gen Z using mostly apps and social networks companies are relying more and more on the popularity in these areas;
- Tik Tok – a popular video app that many young people are using.
The Production
Finally, the new menu relies on the existing production logistics of McDonald’s. The product seems to be new, but the production process stays essentially the same. There are no new ingredients. The only novelty is to combine the Menu Hacks burgers. However, it is not that difficult especially as these meals are ordered with the app and are often subject to remote delivery.
In conclusion, the Menu Hacks idea uses all the recent improvements in marketing. At the same time it comes with a flavor of something new for customers. If it catches up, the idea of a new menu made of a mix of old items could possibly become a new marketing trend not only in fast-food-related business but in other industries.