Stuart Elliott: At McDonald's, Those Arches Aren't So Golden

OK so it39s not as dramatic as that moment in quotCitizen Kanequot when a sternvoiced newsreel announcer delivering his chronology of Charles Foster Kane39s colorful life mournfully intones quotThen in the first year of the Great Depression a Kane paper closesquot Besides executives at McDonald39s previously had disclosed plans to close 700 underperforming outlets this year in the United States China and JapanBut statistics are abstract until it39s your own local McDonald39s that goes under especially when you can39t recall a time in your adult life when the fastfood chain wasn39t in perpetual growth mode In fact the Associated Press reported last month if McDonald39s closes more American restaurants than it opens this year it would be the first such shrinkage since at least 1970 or possibly everThe store closings are part of turnaround plans with a goal at their heart of transforming McDonald39s into what the new president and chief executive officer Steve Easterbrook calls quota modern progressive burger companyquot In the company39s 2014 annual report he pledged quotbigger bolder actions to connect more deeply with consumers and improve critical aspects of our businessquot There are changes on tap in key operational areas among them simplifying the menu improving the taste of the food and restoring a sense that eating at McDonald39s provides value for money There39s a test underway of a delivery service in New York and in other markets tests of offering popular breakfast items all day And with new global chief marketing and communications officers coming in there will be shifts in advertising and public relationsSome moves already have been made eliciting mixed reactions A return of the 1970s Hamburglar character as a hip dad was cheered and jeered It took a while for McDonald39s to bring to the United States its largest market a successful campaign in Canada devoted to answering consumers39 questions about its fareAnd Adweek applauded as quotpretty coolquot an initiative in some markets to introduce innovative takeout packaging for bicyclists But when I posted the article on Twitter one of my followers wrote quotYou know your food company is in trouble when the best part about the food you serve is the box it comes inquotThere39s just a pervasive sense that McDonald39s is behind the curve in so many ways lagging competitors such as Shake Shack and Five Guys in the quality and appeal of its mainstay hamburgers failing to match fastcasual restaurants such as Chipotle and Panera in eliminating preservatives or artificial colors and ingredients from its food and not moving quickly enough to respond to complaints about how poorly employees are paidIt39s possible that in fast food unlike on Wall Street there39s no such thing as amp8220too big to failamp8221 Just as McDonald39s helped force out of business dining staples like Howard Johnson39s it might be in the early stages of a systemic decline But Madison Avenue loves a challenge so there still may be steps to take to wipe the tarnish off the Golden ArchesWhy doesn39t the McDonald39s marketing brain trust turn to crowdsourcing asking the brand39s biggest fans for ideas to revive its flagging fortunes The most imaginative suggestions could be put up for a national vote and the winners phased in at restaurants around the countryAnother approach mea culpa marketing which worked so wonderfully for Domino39s when its pizza was derided as subpar McDonald39s similarly could apologize for losing its way and promise to improve Of course it would have to deliver on those promises or all is lostMcDonald39s might even borrow another page from the Domino39s playbook and adopt a new name to underline its new course Just as quotDomino39s Pizzaquot became quotDomino39squot so quotMcDonald39squot could become quotMickey D39squot or quotMcD39squot There is some precedent in other countries the company has embraced nicknames in Australia Macca39s and in France McDoIf everything else fails McDonald39s could try a sobadit39sgood positioning There may well be a market for that as evidenced by the huge buzz recently generated in social media by a blogger39s creation a deepfried Big Mac on a stickThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage management or associated bloggers

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Stuart Elliott: At McDonald's, Those Arches Aren't So Golden

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