Scribd
Upload
167 views2 pages

Failur of MC Arch Delux

The document summarizes the failure of McDonald's Arch Deluxe burger launch in the 1990s. It was marketed as a "burger with grown-up taste" not associated with children. However, the advertising focused too much on not appealing to kids rather than the actual product. Most importantly, customers go to McDonald's for convenience rather than sophisticated taste. The Arch Deluxe failed to recognize McDonald's strength is consistency and familiarity rather than competing on taste. Centralized decision making from McDonald's headquarters also contributed to the product's failure to connect with customers.

Uploaded by

Amna Jahangir
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
167 views2 pages

Failur of MC Arch Delux

The document summarizes the failure of McDonald's Arch Deluxe burger launch in the 1990s. It was marketed as a "burger with grown-up taste" not associated with children. However, the advertising focused too much on not appealing to kids rather than the actual product. Most importantly, customers go to McDonald's for convenience rather than sophisticated taste. The Arch Deluxe failed to recognize McDonald's strength is consistency and familiarity rather than competing on taste. Centralized decision making from McDonald's headquarters also contributed to the product's failure to connect with customers.

Uploaded by

Amna Jahangir
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Marketed as the Burger with the Grown-up Taste, the idea was to have a burger which wasnt associated

with children. Indeed, the advertising campaign for the Arch Deluxe rammed the message home with various images of kids shunning the sophisticated product.\ Marketed as the Burger with the Grown-up Taste; the idea was to have a burger which wasnt associated with children. Indeed, the advertising campaign for the Arch Deluxe rammed the message home with various images of kids ignoring the sophisticated product. The trouble was that nobody goes to McDonalds for sophistication, they go for convenience. Part of this convenience knows exactly what to expect. McDonalds restaurants may serve up gazpacho in Spain and lamb burgers in India, but on the whole they are the same the world over. Most people who walk into a McDonalds restaurant know what they are going to order before they reach the counter. They dont want to be bombarded with a million and one variations on what is essentially the same product a hamburger. The other problem with the Arch Deluxe was the fact that it was sold on taste. Everybody knows that McDonalds is never going to be awarded a Michelin star, yet everybody still comes back. In an article headlined McDonalds Missing the Mark, which appeared in Brand Week on 12 Classic failures 31 November 2001, Dave Miller attacked the compete on taste strategy apparent in the promotion of the Arch Deluxe: We dont come to the Golden Arches on the merits of taste and tantalization and culinary delight. We prize your brand on friendliness, cleanliness, consistency and convenience. They are value propositions that youve abdicated in recent years and luckily competitors have neglected to capture. Exactly how many failed menu concepts does it take before all of those development dollars are instead ploughed into the value proposition? However, the problems encountered with the Arch Deluxe are symptomatic of an even bigger problem. As with other brands of such an enormous scale, McDonalds has been accused of losing touch with its customers and being too far behind the market. Indeed, this is a problem acknowledged by the companys CEO, Jack Greenberg, who arrived in 1998. We have been taking much too long to develop an idea and get it to the market, then too long to decide whether we want to do it or not, he told The Financial Times in that same year (in an article entitled A mission to buff up the golden arches). As you would expect with a brand that has built its name through uniformity,

McDonalds is heavily centralized. Most branding and marketing decisions need to go through the companys headquarters in Oak Brook, Illinois. The recipe for the Arch Deluxe itself came from the Oak Brook kitchen. This contrasts with McDonalds major product successes such as the Big Mac, the Hot Apple Pie, the Egg Mc Muffin and the Filet o Fish, which were all invented in operators kitchens out in the field (whereas other flops such as the McLean burger and Mc Pizza were also conjured up at the Oak Brook headquarters). Another interesting aspect of the Arch Deluxe failure is that the product was well researched. After conducting masses of market research, it emerged that people would love to eat a burger designed specifically for adults. Unfortunately, these people seemed to be in short supply when the product was finally launched.

You might also like