Localization has paid off well for McDonald’s in India and the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) giant has just introduced yet another product to suit the Indian palate, calling it the ‘Masala Grill’ burger. Rameet Arora, Senior Director, Marketing & Menu Management, Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt Ltd, tells us what makes McDonald’s Indian and yet global and how its focus remains on affordable pricing and convenience
Q] This is the age of eating healthy and nutrition consciousness. Does the health factor come in the way of formulating, advertising and selling your products, especially promoting fast food to children?
The truth is that we serve millions and millions of customers every day and customers decide what they want to eat. There is reams of data which will tell you that the food we serve is very high quality and very high on hygiene. McDonald’s follows stringent guidelines while talking to its consumers. We have always taken a leadership position to educate and encourage our customers to know more about the nutrition content and value of the food and beverages they eat. We believe that the transparency enables consumers to make choices and can help caregivers teach and model decision-making behaviour in children.
Q] You’ve introduced a new product, Masala Grill at a new price range and a new ‘Pakka Indian’ campaign. What is the message you are looking to convey via your new campaign?
McDonald’s is a phenomenal example of a global brand which, without losing its uniqueness and identity, has managed to localize its products. McDonald’s has both the credibility and the pedigree to launch a burger with a truly Indian taste. We have positioned it as the ‘Pakka Indian’ burger because of its unique blend of spices and masala. You have to bite into it to know why it’s both Indian and so Mcdonald’s, and that’s really what sets it apart from a positioning point of view, to create local taste in a uniquely McDonald’s format. It’s a great advertising tagline and only McDonald’s can carry it off. It’s priced between the McAloo Tikki and McVeggie, so it is a very affordable price point that anybody can access, including consumers who currently consume our more affordable products in our Happy Price Menu.
Q] What are the fundamental principles of your marketing strategy and what does your media mix look like?
We have decided to celebrate all the colour, all the unboring, all the excitement that is India, so you will see Rangoli contests to Ronald McDonald wearing a turban. Our film adds fun to the campaign and celebrates the happy Indian idiosyncrasies, things that are unique to us. So it’s a ‘Pakka Indian’ campaign. McDonald’s is a mass, out-of-home consumption brand, so there is no media plan without Television and Out-of-Home, everything else adds on to the campaign. The largest amount of money is obviously spent on television as it is critical to build reach. We have got a good spread across IPL and across other genres including GECs, youth, music and movies. As for OOH, our innovations have created a viral effect. We have a strong cinema plan as well, but in cinema we chase titles, we don’t chase theatres. We use Digital to engage and be interactive, while Radio is a call to action. Print we use sparingly, to boost our GRPs and as a reach medium and it works effectively for us. We use Print when we have promotions and we find that it works well with call-to-action. Even our restaurants are beautifully decorated right now to launch the Pakka Indian burger.
Q] What are your activities on the Digital platform? Are you looking at an app?
We are engaged with Digital on many fronts - for our home delivery model, we are engaged with search. In display advertising, we use a lot of YouTube, Facebook and youth-centric sites. Our Facebook page is an asset and has picked up over one million friends and there’s our website too. For our latest campaign, we’re doing viral films. We are targeting our own Facebook page and will be doing display on Facebook as well. We don’t have an app and are considering it, but we have a mobile website from where you can order online.
Q] McDonald’s has used SMS as a marketing tool. What’s been the response and learning on this front?
SMS as a tool of marketing is useful when you are reaching the right people and at the right time. They are useful promotion drivers for home delivery as long as you are sending those SMSes to people who order food home, are looking for those promotions and the SMS is sent at the right time. However, the future of SMS lies in the hands of the customer. It will all be enquiry-based or search-based SMS options where the customer is requesting the response or requesting action. I don’t think push SMSes will be marketing strategy for very long, unless they are precision-based, the right people are getting the SMSes at the right time and there is some ROI built around it.
Q] McDonald’s introduced the concept of ‘out of home breakfast’. What’s been the response to this?
It is doing very well and we are picking traction every day. We are very enthused with the response. Of course, we are creating a category. We are really the first organized format to offer a quality customized breakfast option. It is a unique breakfast option, you will find the same kind of innovation even on our breakfast menu, very international, yet very local. The feedback that we are getting from customers is incredible and customers are just ‘lovin’ it’.
Q] Inflation, specially food inflation, has been a concern for a while now. But you have kept your starting price point at Rs 25. Are you looking at maintaining the price point?
We are committed to the price point that we promised to our customers. The Happy Price Menu is a long-standing promise and it will remain so in the foreseeable future. Happy Price Menu is definitely staying where it is.
Q] What are the challenges in marketing McDonald’s?
There is only opportunity and there is unlimited potential in a country like India. The question is how to harness this potential. McDonald’s caters to almost every age group and it has something for everyone and there is this huge opportunity to be present everywhere.
Q] What is the USP of McDonald’s in relation to competition such as KFC, Jumbo King, the big pizza and coffee shop chains?
It’s brand McDonald’s, it’s a rich brand with iconic food products offering quality service, cleanliness and unmatched value. Our very strong value proposition and our emphasis on affordability and credibility around an affordable menu and the familiarity that customers have with the food that we serve holds us in very good stead. Even in these very tough times, customers are rewarding us for the fact that we’ve served great value for their money in good times and in tough times.
Q] Going forward, what will be McDonalds’ focus area?
Value, menu and convenience will continue to be the focus areas and we will continue to deliver quality and service in our restaurants. You will see lots of work around value and menu – those are the foundations around which our customer promises are built.
Feedback: simran.sabharwal@exchange4media.com
