Skip to footer

Is McDonald's giving up on wealthier customers?

McDonald's couldn't find success with its Jalapeňo Kicker line of spicy burgers, but now McDonald's is rolling out a smaller $2 burger. What does that mean for McDonald's attempt to attract wealthier customers?

|
Ng Han Guan/AP/File
A giant logo of fast food restaurant McDonald's is displayed at a train station in Shenyang in northern China's Liaoning province, May 21, 2011. McDonald's is rolling out a smaller $2 burger, but that doesn't mean McDonald's has given up on attracting higher-income customers.

It may be a sign of the troubles and doubts that have beset McDonald’s that its desire for a noteworthy jalapeňo burger has been scaled back to the new $2 Jalapeňo Double burger. This addition to the Dollar Menu & More has been spreading to McDonald’s menus across the South and seems destined to be proclaimed a national product any day now.

Last November the chain had a more ambitious, more “premium” vision of a spicy line in test. The Jalapeňo Kicker line included a Quarter Pounder version, a Premium Chicken version and even Jalapeňo & White Cheddar Cheese McMuffin and Biscuit breakfast sandwiches. But that was just as McDonald’s was coming to grips with the truth that its menu was overloaded and overcomplicated. In the end, the chain didn’t pull the trigger on a Jalapeňo Kicker launch.

Instead it is rolling out this $2 junior version that resembles the pricier precursor. Marketing materials described the Jalapeňo Kicker Quarter Pounder as having “cream cheese sauce, jalapeño pepper Jack cheese, crunchy jalapeño crisps, pickled jalapeño slices, farm fresh tomato and a crisp lettuce leaf.” The new Jalapeňo Double is close (Dollar Menu burgers rarely get lettuce and tomato), described as “two beef patties, white Cheddar cheese, jalapeno aïoli, and both pickled and crispy jalapeňos. A must have for those of you that like a little kick in your sandwich!”

During last week’s quarterly conference call with analysts, “value” was the first of four “foundational elements” that CEO Don Thompson said the brand is strengthening (the others are operations/service, marketing and simplification). On value he said that McDonald’s is “evaluating the relationship between pricing and quality perception across our menu board and that’s because value is one of our grand pillars. So we must continue to fortify our position within this key consumer attribute.”

McDonald’s has been leaking customers from higher-income households (Chipotle hardly has a strong inner-city presence). The downgrade from a pricy Jalapeňo Kicker Quarter Pounder to a $2 Jalapeňo Double is an important nod to the budget-conscious diners who continue to be the brand’s bedrock. That’s not to say McDonald’s won’t try to recapture those who buy premium-price burgers, however. The “build-you-own” customization option it is testing is one such lure to those higher-income diners. In the end, as always, McDonald’s will try to have something for every subset of its clientele.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Is McDonald's giving up on wealthier customers?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/The-Bite/2014/0729/Is-McDonald-s-giving-up-on-wealthier-customers
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe