Millennium Marketing Research®
Tom Schori DBA Millennium Marketing Research®, 808 Ironwood, Normal IL 61761, 309-532-8466

Hey, McDonald's, we told you 'kids are king' at your restaurants!

By Thomas R. Schori, Ph.D., and Michael L. Garee, Principals,  Millennium Marketing Research, 808 E. Ironwood, Normal, IL 61761-5239. Tel. 309-532-8466 -

Isn’t it fun sometimes to be able to say, "I told you so"? Well, this week we have the pleasure of saying (if only indirectly through this column) that very thing to one of the most powerful, most successful fast-food franchises on the planet, McDonald’s Corporation.

In a USA TODAY article last week, it was announced that, once again, "kids are king" at McDonald’s. "Nearly two years after McDonald’s aired ads for its now extinct line of Arch Deluxe burgers that mockingly snubbed kids," writer Bruce Horovitz said, "the chain has come full circle. . .Clearly, kids are king again at McDonald’s. . . ."

Now, here’s where we can say, "We told you so!"

A key point of differentiation at Millennium Marketing is our proprietary Optimal Brand Positioning Model, a statistical software model which uses real consumer inputs to accurately predict gain (or loss) of market share based upon changing consumer perceptions (either upwardly or downwardly) about key attributes that drive the buying decision.

One of the authors of this column, Tom Schori, in 1996 (about the time McDonald’s began its marketing shift away from kids) wrote and published an article in the scientific literature that served as a seminal element in the development of the OBPM. ["Getting the most out of image: an example from the fast-food industry." Psychological Reports, 1996, 78, 1299-1303.]

In this scientific article, Schori relates the findings of a research project he conducted among 219 upper-divisional college students in one of his marketing classes. Specifically, the students were asked, through a survey questionnaire, to indicate the relative importance of 15 attributes of fast-food restaurants by distributing a total of 15 points among them. For example, if the respondent thought all 15 attributes were of equal importance, then he or she could assign one point to each attribute. Or, if he or she thought that one attribute far out-weighed the remaining 14 in importance, then he or she could assign all 15 points to that single attribute.

The fast-food restaurants rated were Burger King, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and their preferred fast-food restaurant, if not one of the three named.

In addition to assigning 15 points among the 15 attributes being measured, respondents were asked to rate how well they thought each of the named restaurants (as well as their preferred, if not one of those named) performed on the 15 attributes by assigning a number from 1 ("strongly agree") to 5 ("strongly disagree").

(This same basic research approach, incidentally, is that which is taken today in our OBPM.)

A key finding in the research project had to do with McDonald’s.

". . .McDonald’s should do everything possible to avoid changing their image," Schori said. "Almost any changes in beliefs about them would have a negative effect on their share¾especially anything that would result in their being viewed as less kid-oriented."

In the article, Schori predicted that making itself "less kid-oriented" could cost McDonald’s as much as 18 share points.

All of this, of course, practically begs the question of whether or not this information was even communicated to McDonald’s management. The short answer is "yes," and at virtually the same time that the company was in the process of positioning itself away from its mainstay customers, kids. Their reaction? Stone silence, no acknowledgement at all.

At the risk of sounding extremely arrogant (which we certainly don’t intend!), wouldn’t it have been nice, at least for McDonald’s, if they would have at least taken the time to evaluate whether or not this piece of research, small and insignificant though it might have been at the time, had any merit as a viable predictive approach? Clearly, it could have ended up saving the company many millions of dollars in lost market share and many marketing flops, such as the failed Arch Deluxe.

Que sera!

EDITORIAL NOTE: Like to read Schori’s journal article in its entirety? Simply click on this link: Journal article