| Company and Marketing Strategy: Partnering to Build Customer Relationships 41

Chapter 2 | Company and Marketing Strategy: Partnering to Build Customer Relationships 41

products, place, price, and promotion. While Real Marketing 2.1 the five Ps smack of corny corporate speak,

company officials maintain that they have pro- foundly changed McDonald’s direction and pri-

McDonald’s: orities. The plan, and the seemingly simple shift On a Customer-Focused Mission

in mission, forced McDonald’s and its employ- ees to focus on quality, service, and the restau-

More than half a century ago, Ray Kroc, a

rant experience rather than simply providing the 52-year-old salesman of milk-shake-mixing

per year. The new stores helped sales, but cus-

cheapest, most convenient option to cus- machines, set out on a mission to transform

tomer service and cleanliness declined because

tomers. The Plan to Win—which barely fits on a the way Americans eat. In 1955, Kroc discov-

the company couldn’t hire and train good work-

single sheet of paper—is now treated as sacred ered a string of seven restaurants owned by

ers fast enough. Meanwhile, McDonald’s in-

inside the company. Richard and Maurice McDonald. He saw the

creasingly became a target for animal-rights

activists, environmentalists, and nutritionists,

McDonald brothers’ fast-food concept as a

Under the Plan to Win, McDonald’s got perfect fit for America’s increasingly on-the-

who accused the chain of contributing to the na-

back to the basic business of taking care of go, time-squeezed, family-oriented lifestyles.

tion’s obesity epidemic with “super size” French

customers. The goal was to get “better, not Kroc bought the small chain for $2.7 million,

fries and sodas as well as Happy Meals that lure

just bigger.” The company halted rapid expan- and the rest is history.

kids with the reward of free toys.

sion and instead poured money back into From the start, Kroc preached a motto of

improving the food, the service, the atmo- QSCV—quality, service, cleanliness, and value.

Although McDonald’s remained the

sphere, and marketing at existing outlets. These goals became mainstays in McDonald’s

world’s most visited fast-food chain, the once-

McDonald’s redecorated its restaurants with customer-focused mission statement. Apply-

shiny Golden Arches lost some of their luster.

clean, simple, more-modern interiors and ing these values, the company perfected the

Sales growth slumped, and its market share fell

by more than 3 percent be-

fast-food concept—delivering convenient,

tween 1997 and 2003. In

good-quality food at affordable prices.

2002, the company posted its

McDonald’s grew quickly to become the

first-ever quarterly loss. In the

world’s largest fast-feeder. The fast-food gi-

face of changing customer

ant’s more than 32,000 restaurants worldwide

value expectations, the com-

now serve 60 million customers each day, rack-

pany had lost sight of its fun-

ing up system-wide sales of more than $79 bil-

damental value proposition.

lion annually. The Golden Arches are one of

“We got distracted from the

the world’s most familiar symbols, and other

most important thing: hot,

than Santa Claus, no character in the world is

high-quality food at a great

more recognizable than Ronald McDonald.

value at the speed and con-

In the mid-1990s, however, McDonald’s

venience of McDonald’s,” says

fortunes began to turn. The company appeared

current CEO Jim Skinner. The

to fall out of touch with both its mission and its

company and its mission

customers. Americans were looking for fresher,

needed to adapt.

better-tasting food and more contemporary at-

In early 2003, a troubled

mospheres. They were also seeking healthier

McDonald’s announced a turn-

eating options. In a new age of health-conscious

around plan—what it now calls

consumers and $5 lattes at Starbucks,

its “Plan to Win.” At the heart

McDonald’s seemed a bit out of step with the

of this plan was a new mission

times. One analyst sums it up this way:

statement that refocused the company on its customers. Ac-

McDonald’s was struggling to find its identity

cording to the analyst:

amid a flurry of new competitors and changing consumer tastes. The company careened from

The company’s mission was

one failed idea to another. It tried to keep pace

changed from “being the

by offering pizza, toasted deli sandwiches, and

world’s best quick-service

the Arch Deluxe, a heavily advertised new burger

restaurant” to “being our

that flopped. It bought into nonburger franchises

customers’ favorite place and

like Chipotle and Boston Market. It also tinkered

way to eat.” The Plan to Win

with its menu, no longer toasting the buns,

lays out where McDonald’s

switching pickles, and changing the special sauce

wants to be and how it plans

McDonald’s new mission—“being our customers’ favorite

on Big Macs. None of these things worked. All

to get there, all centered on

place and way to eat”—coupled with its Plan to Win, got

the while, McDonald’s continued opening new

five basics of an exceptional

the company back to the basics of creating exceptional

restaurants at a ferocious pace, as many as 2,000

customer experience: people,

customer experiences.

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