As far as marketing success goes, it looks like McDonald’s Canada is performing better that its American counterpart. Last month, McDonald’s US launched its latest “Choose Lovin'” campaign. But despite the new marketing strategy, the world’s most popular fast food chain reported a 4% decline in comp sales. McDonald’s Canada, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying better results with its new “Welcome to McDonald’s” campaign.
Marketing experts believe that the Canadian campaign is more likely to bring in bigger sales because it has taken an approach that is quite different from the ones used by McDonald’s in the past. The “Welcome to McDonald’s” ad reverts to what worked in the 1980s, giving the audience the impression that the fast food chain is a friendly, convenient, and affordable place to go, meet, and eat.
McDonald’s agency N/A travelled across Canada and filmed vignettes with 400 people. Hope Bagozzi, senior director of creative and digital innovation for the chain, explained that the new campaign is about the people, as reflected by her speech in the introductory video of the series.
“This campaign is absolutely all about people. We get to see the humanity, the smiles, the warmth, the values,, the caring. And, you know, that’s what makes people so great,” she said.
According to experts, this is what gave the marketing campaign its “oomph” factor. It shows that McDonald’s is everywhere, which is undeniably one of the strengths of the fast food giant. And with Canada giving it a more positive spin, it is likely to make a very huge impact.
Meanwhile, for 2014, McDonald’s Corporation’s Other Countries and Corporate (OCC) category, which includes its 1,400-store Canadian operation, posted a 6.6% increase in comp sales. In contrast, a 2.1% decline was recorded for the company’s US operations.
While much of the sales may have come from Arcos Dorados, the franchisee that operates 2,070 restaurants in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, Canada clearly has made a significant contribution to the sales increase. It’s doing better than the US and according to experts, its performance is worth analysing by new McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook and his corporate staff.
One of the things that drive McDonald’s Canada sales is the company’s heavy promotion of coffee to compete with local favourite Tim Hortons. It also kept the Angus Third Pounder line, which the US dropped previously, allowing it to go head to head with better burger brands.