Junk Food Strategy

If you’ve spent any time watching television over the past few decades you’re probably already aware of the artificially shaped and formed pork sandwich from McDonald’s called the “McRib”; if you are particularly fond of unusual junk food and have no sense of your personal safety you may even have eaten one. There’s a widely held belief that McDonald’s uses the product as a means of drawing attention to – or at least increasing interest in – some of its more obscure venues and menu items by rotating where and when the McRib is available each year. The fact that the sandwich is popular, but only available for limited periods, means that whenever it appears local aficionados will turn out in large numbers. But now it appears that the company may have a broader (and more sinister) use for the product as well…

There’s a story on the Dayton Daily News website this week that claims McDonald’s uses the McRib to prevent competing organizations from developing their own “pork-based” sandwich offerings. Since the arrival of a McRib sales window will (at least in theory) both drown out attempts to publicize a competing product and also draw the attention of pork consumers to the local McDonald’s franchise, any other pork sandwich product is likely to go unnoticed during such a period. The company need only maintain the sales window until the competitor gives up and stops offering the (presumably unnoticed) pork products, which it can do, since “limited time only” does not specify how limited a time. The larger question is whether the company would actually bother with such tactics – and if that matters in any way…

Certainly, if a national competitor (Burger King, or Quiznos) were to launch any new product that gained enough popularity to draw customers away from McDonald’s, this could negatively impact the company’s sales, and make it worthwhile for them to counter such a launch. But unless the competitor was also using a “limited time” and “selected locations” promotional strategy, McDonald’s would have to counter the new product in markets across the country, and maintain that presence indefinitely, both of which would undermine their existing McRib strategy. Such a tactic could be used with great effectiveness against a regional company, or to counter a competitor’s own limited time promotion, but as a strategic-level approach it seems unlikely. However, there’s no question that McDonald’s could do it, and no guarantee that they wouldn’t attempt it just because it seems illogical…

On the other side of the issue, it seems probable that McDonald’s will use any means that is both legal and ethical to build and maintain market share – since it’s hard to imagine why any company run by sane people wouldn’t do so. Offering menu items that have greater appeal to local customers than those available from the competition is a standard tactic, and McDonald’s already offers different menu configurations in different parts of the world (I noticed Japanese-style noodles in a franchise in Hawaii, for example, and some European McDonald’s serve alcohol). If pork sandwiches, fresh pastry or calamari become key to a specific market, it’s not unreasonable to expect that McDonald’s will find some way of using that consumer preference to their advantage. The more immediate issue is what the competition should do about it…

McDonald’s isn’t invincible; competing firms have taken them on at the local, regional and even (occasionally) national levels and won. In this case, a competitor will need to come up with a product that tastes better, sells for less, or offers greater value in some other fashion than the McRib. If you can do that, you could even counter-program the McRib; offering it in markets where a McRib sales window has just opened, and effectively beating McDonalds at their own game – assuming that they use such a strategy in the first place. The real trick will be inventing a new product with the potential to do this in the first place…