Assumptions and failures: How and Why didn’t the most expensive campaign of Mcdonald's save their Arch Deluxe Burger
Name one long-standing fast food chain. The chances are that a golden arches logo against the red background will come to your mind. McDonald’s, as the world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue, has grown its business to serve over 100 countries in the world, with effort to fit different markets by providing a variety of food selections based on local consumers’ needs.
Although McDonald’s now has stabilized its market with successful products such as the classic Big Mac and new All Day Breakfast, there were also many products with innovative ideas that failed spectacularly. One of their discontinued product is called Arch Deluxe Burger.
How was the idea created
In order to expand their demographic market from children-centered and family-friendly to a broader one that includes more adult audience, McDonald’s decided to create a new type of sandwich that is made particularly for adult customers. In 1996, the Arch Deluxe Burger, each with a quarter pound of beef on a split-top potato flour sesame seed bun, topped with a circular piece of peppered bacon, leaf lettuce, tomato, American cheese, onions, ketchup, and a “secret” mustard and mayonnaise sauce, was introduced to the market, intended to appeal “urban sophisticates” as their new target audience.
Marketed as the ‘Burger with the Grown-up Taste’, children were advertised to be disgusted by such “sophisticated burger”. Ronald Mcdonald, the mascot of the McDonald’s, was even featured in commercials where he was playing golf in clubs, indicating the high-standard of this product. However, after spending $150 million dollars in the advertising campaign, such burger still failed to win over audience’s heart and discontinued in 2000.
How did the failure happen: a series of wrong assumptions
Assumption 1: “Urban sophisticate adults” will be interested in Mcdonald’s expensive burger
The goal of the Arch Deluxe was to market McDonald’s fine cuisine to the urban adult demographic. Unfortunately, adults weren’t interested in paying more for slightly different burgers. The fact that McDonald’s is a fast food chain limited its main target audience to those who takes cheap and convenience over sophistication and fine taste. In any case, people who want to eat refined food and don’t care about the price, would rather go to a formal dining restaurant instead of a fast food place.
Assumption 2: They only need to address new target audience for their new product
Another reason it failed was that the market campaign contradicted McDonald’s original brand of “Child-friendly” and “Family-friendly”. Designing a new burger that excludes children and emphasizing luxury consumer groups caused the lost of trust and broke the bond with former customers.
Take away
Lesson 1: Avoid confusing customers
The image of a brand should be clear and straightforward, as when customers think about it, they will know what the brand is famous for. Adding products that against the brand identity may confuse customers.
Lesson 2: Time and market trend are the key
Although an expensive burger with unnecessarily good beef and other ingredients in a fast food chain seemed unrealistic back to 1990s, it is a popular trend that has worked well in many fast food chains nowadays. Burgers from fast food chains are no longer just the food for kids. It is not rare to see adults eating burgers with sophisticated ingredients that easily costs $10 these days. It also reports in Business Insider that McDonald’s also started to use Arch Sauce again in their burger this year, with a more affordable price. Therefore, although innovation is important, reliable market research is also the key, since some ideas that may work later isn’t necessarily fit the current market trend as intended.
Reference
https://www.businessinsider.com/mcdonalds-tests-archburger-after-90s-flop-2018-1
https://www.marketing91.com/brand-failure-mcdonalds-arch-deluxe/
