Since the 1940s, McDonald's has enjoyed a mainstream popularity
other fast food companies could only dream of having. For better or worse,
McDonald's has immense power and influence around the world, thanks in large part to
its marketing and advertising. Here are some of the tricks the chain uses.
Human eyes are attracted to movement, and McDonald's puts
this to good use in their marketing with animation. According to Market Watch,
"McDonald’s uses subtle animation to direct customers’ attention
away from the lower-priced value meal options and point them toward the pricier ones."
This helps to tempt customers away from their old favorites,
like the classic Double Cheeseburger or Filet-O-Fish, and to try something new.
These types of animations are so small you could easily miss them. Sometimes it's just
a brief highlighting of a word or the spinning of a new menu item's title. You'll see these
animations not only on the kiosks, but also on the digital displays and menus at the checkout.
The reason it works is because our eyes are meant to track changes in color, speed, or shape.
Additionally, by forcibly moving our eyes around the digital displays,
McDonald's is also injecting a wider variety of menu options into our short-term memory.
With more options to choose from, it's more likely customers will divert from
their usual order for something different and more expensive.
"Oh it looks good. Look at this beauty."
It's probably safe to say that many people go to McDonald's to have a healthy meal.
But as consumers become more knowledgeable about food sourcing and nutrition,
McDonald's has had to battle the guilt that can come from eating fast food.
According to Behavioral Economics, research has shown that simply including healthy
options on a menu can actually encourage consumers to purchase more unhealthy items.
Even an image of a simple salad or a bottle of water behind a McDonald's
burger can give the overall impression of a healthier restaurant, which takes away guilt,
and encourages indulgence. Obviously, it's all just an illusion, as the food is not actually
healthier and many of the meals don't come with salad or water, but the tactic still works.
The curated menu board is an example of several different
McDonald's advertising practices combined, but on a smaller scale. The menu board is
not simply an innocent list of all the McDonald's items you'd expect,
but rather a last-ditch effort by the company to influence your decision-making. Like on the
kiosks, the menu boards will use subtle animation to draw the customer's eyes onto specific items,
influencing the buyer to consider more items without them even realizing it.
While a hamburger may not even take up a line on the menu,
a new or expensive item may take up a quarter or more of the board,
and include a picture. The majority of the menu is therefore just advertising space,
and this is why it's hard to find old classics and easier to find deals or new items that make you
spend more overall. It's all about breaking customers out of their value-menu habits.
While McDonald's might be quick to highlight the prices of certain deals,
you're unlikely to see the actual cost of most items on its promotional material. This is all a
purposeful attempt to lessen the psychological pain of eating out and spending money.
According to Behavioral Economics, consumers tend to care more about the money lost than
the goods they get in exchange. So even if you purchase something you really wanted,
your mind will apparently still be more focused on the money you had to pay for it.
McDonald's advertising makes sure we only think of the joy of purchasing food, not the pain of
spending money. That's why there is almost no mention of price on any of the photos.
Any mention of spending money, however, is put in the context of how much money you're
saving in exchange for the delicious goods you'll receive. It's no accident that the restaurant's
most well-known set of items is the Dollar Menu, which they've brought back again and again.
"But I don't have money problems."
McDonald's knows how to use competition to its advantage and the Dollar Menu plays a role in
this competition. McDonald's uses price anchoring to create emotional responses
to different menu items. By pitting the Dollar Menu or cheaper, classic menu items
against newer lines or limited edition items, McDonald's is able to manipulate our behavior.
For example, McDonald's recently scaled back its Dollar Menu while simultaneously pushing
its Signature Crafted items, which were, unsurprisingly, more expensive. The general
feeling was that McDonald's was going to become more costly and, as a result, the traditional
items appeared cheaper. This apparently influenced people to not only buy more of the traditional
items but to opt for size upgrades or add-ons too. According to Behavioral Economics, McDonald's was
shifting our entire perspective and, all the while, we thought we were getting a great deal.
The day McDonald's kiosks unleashed their beautiful glow on the world was the day McDonald's
endeared itself to a generation of people who grew up addicted to screens. Not only do they reduce
social interaction anxiety, they also give the customers more control over their orders and allow
them to make their decisions in their own time, without pressure from a cashier or other customers
in line. In other words, McDonald's kiosks are designed to make the ordering and dining
experience easy and pain-free. This even makes people more likely to come into the restaurant
in the first place. And since customers don't feel judged by another human while ordering, they have
less guilt, and this often makes people order more food or feel better about upgrades and add-ons.
Humans love patterns and groups, especially when they come in threes. McDonald's uses
simple repetition like this to increase interest in its products. It's not uncommon to see their
promotional images consist of three burgers in a row, three nearly identical sundaes in a row,
or three milkshakes in a row, which is apparently much more attractive to the human brain.
For example, back when McDonald's was heavily promoting its Signature Collection, it had three
very similar-looking burgers of the same type that were often shown together. These were The Classic,
The Spicy, and The BBQ. And, when they were re-promoting the Quarter Pounder in 2019,
McDonald's presented it as one of three, being the Quarter Pounder Bacon, the Quarter Pounder Deluxe,
and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese. Again, it's pretty much the same burger, just
changed ever so slightly to make a list of three, therefore making it more desirable to customers.
In the past, there were fast food restaurants and dine-in restaurants. You were either in for
a quick, cheap, and easy meal or a full-service, pricier, sit-down experience. There wasn't really
a place where you could pop in wearing sweatpants, but still treat yourself to nice decor,
high-quality food, and fast but friendly service. Cue the fast casual restaurant trend,
where diners can have it all. These days, sit-down restaurants can relax a little
and make use of an assembly line, while fast food joints can make their venues a little more classy.
McDonald's jumped on this bandwagon, and McCafe was born. Additionally, McDonalds also began
offering table service, where customers have the option to request that a McDonald's employee bring
the order to their tables. In a creative move, McDonald's was able to revamp its reputation,
appearing more customer-friendly and socially attentive. Instead of going the route of cutting
costs and reducing staff, McDonald's reinvested in its service, and it seems to have paid off.
Humans are impatient creatures, especially when it comes to food
and perhaps even more so when we've chosen to eat at a fast food establishment. McDonald's
has always promised to feed us quicker than everyone else and as technology improves,
we continuously expect McDonald's to keep up. In a world of two-day delivery and instant streaming,
waiting more than five minutes for a burger seems ridiculous.
Therefore, McDonald's must convince us that we're barely waiting around for our food.
One way they do this is by breaking up the lines. The way the human brain works,
waiting in one line for ten minutes feels longer and more irritating than waiting
in two different lines for five minutes each. According to Behavioral Economics, the variety
and movement from one area to another gives the illusion of less time spent waiting overall.
That's why McDonald's has not only two separate ordering areas from which to choose,
it also has a separate section devoted solely to food pick-up. Not only that, but breaking up the
process actually makes it faster, since the server has fewer responsibilities to deal with at a time.
Lastly, another trick McDonald's uses to reduce wait time irritation is to give out
order numbers. Knowing exactly how long we have to wait actually makes us more patient.
McDonald's has stayed up to date with mobile technology. Thanks to the McDonald's app,
customers can order ahead of time then check in to pay before receiving their orders.
As Behavioral Economics explained,
"[Breaking] the order and collection moments makes for an overall faster
feeling experience by removing the order moment from the in-store experience."
The app also increases the sense of control consumers have over their dining experience.
And for the many people who want to minimize in-person interaction,
this is a great option. For those who are looking for less contact and more service,
the curbside pickup, which is available through the app, adds a bit of luxury. The app also makes
use of the drive-thru. All you have to do is tell the speaker your special code and your food will
be ready for you. In many ways, the app simply takes the many modern changes McDonald's has
made to its service and integrates them into a format that consumers are most comfortable with.
Again and again, McDonald's has proven that in times of stress or boredom, convenience is a
major consideration in terms of food. Some McDonald's locations even offer delivery,
which makes for the ultimate easy meal. And as you may already know, takeout can quickly grow
from an occasional treat to a biweekly or even weekly habit. While you may have only ordered
McDonald's on road trips in the past, McDonald's has since become more accessible than ever.
You can simply order on the app and wait for your meal to arrive at your door.
It's really no surprise that the release of the McDonald's app was one of the most successful
modern changes McDonald's has made to increase sales. The use of mobile-only offers and coupons
also helped to boost the app's popularity and led to an increase in business.
One of the greatest tricks McDonald's uses on us is the lure of nostalgia. The legacy of McDonald's
is in creating an emotional bond with its clients. Even from the fast food chain's slogan,
"I'm lovin' it," it's clear that McDonald's has a way of pulling on our heartstrings. According
to Profit Works, as early as 1967, the company spent as much as $2.3 million on advertising,
something that was unprecedented for a fast food joint at the time.
The invention of the family-friendly Happy Meal in the late 1970s was a wildly successful business
venture, and a cultural icon that has proved to have staying power. McDonald's doesn't just sell
food. It sells memories. Or at least that's what McDonald's tricks you into believing.
Customers have found a couple ways to pull one over on McDonald's, too.
Although McDonald's is already very affordable, many of its popular sandwiches and burgers
can actually be created with add-ons and sides at cheaper costs. The most commonly
mentioned example is the Sausage Egg McMuffin. By ordering a Sausage Muffin with an added egg,
you could theoretically save yourself around a dollar. There's also the option
to order a muffin with egg and cheese rather than the official Egg McMuffin.
Eat This, Not That! Reported that, if you really wanted, you could even add
a side of sausage to make a bootleg Sausage Egg McMuffin, and save some money at the same time.
There's also the option of ordering a Happy Meal then upgrading it to an adult size to save a few
bucks. Overall, though, it might not be worth the trouble and awkwardness. As a consumer,
those couple dollars are well worth the simplicity and time saved,
but to McDonald's, those extra bucks add up to a whole lot of breakfast bacon.
"Joey doesn't share food!"
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