"Kids are no longer passive members of the family."
McDonald's India, which opened its first restaurant in India in October 1996, has virtually spearheaded the 'burger revolution' in the country. Here, how McDonald’s has endeared itself to children
The first commercial talked about the kid in two different environments - a formal school function where he forgets his lines and a friendly McDonald's environment where the lines spontaneously come out of the kid. In another commercial how the dad and mom plan a surprise for the kids who are sad about leaving their old place of residence. And the surprise is in the form of a 'friendly' McDonald's outlet bang opposite their new home.
Well we all agree that kids today are no longer passive members of the family. Those times when a child would sit back and obey every single order of his or her parents have gone by. Today, they take active part in decision-making and have become friendlier to their parents. This is largely true of decisions across the board - from the restaurant to go to or the car and house that the family buys.
McDonald's world over, has been a favourite eating out experience for childrens. It has been a conscious strategy on the part of McDonald's to make children feel special at their restaurants. What has, of course, helped us is that McDonald's is the most children friendly restaurant chain in the world and in India. Today, children are an essential part of the family decision making process - the family in taking decisions for the home and the family takes their likes and dislikes into account.
Several factors have gone a long way in making restaurants the favourite of kids. The most important experience that McDonald’s provide is that their outlet is friendly and completely hassle-free and that has endeared us to the child in each one of our customers.
McDonalds have taken special care to see that the architecture and décor of their restaurants are children friendly. There are special chairs and tables for kids in all McD restaurants - most of McDonalds restaurants have separate play areas for children. Their crew members are also trained to make the experience memorable for the kids. Even all our tables, chairs, stairs have rounded edges to prevent any kind of injury to the kids. Their innovative birthday party packages have been a great hit with the kids. Their icon Ronald McDonald is a great favourite of kids worldwide as well as in India.
What McDonalds learn Indian kids is that if you give them a friendly, warm, hassle-free experience, they are bound to come. Combine that with nutritious, wholesome food and the recipe for success. The McDonald's core value of QSC&V (quality, service, cleanliness and value) has worked successfully everywhere and has proved to be the winning formula for McDonald's in India as well.
McDonalds goes with pull strategy in India where the have various promotions like giving free gifts , they give toys with their product called happy meal, McDonalds has being using everything from plastic toys resembling cartoon characters to soft toys to promote itself. The effort can be said to be grand success considering the queue of children outside its various outlets. Mcdonalds have contest for children from time to time, it recently had a promotion of consumer premium i.e. it gave a coupon with 20percent off on next meal or a soft serve free with next purchase. McDonalds distributes coupons at various college and school campus