Enhancing Customer Experience at McDonald's

Summary: A number of researchers have identified a tremendous change and increase in competition and market transparency. However it has been proved that the cost of selling a product to a new customer is much higher than selling the same product to an old customer. There is a growing trend for every organization that exists in the market, to pay increasing attention to the experience of their customers as they interact with the company. In today’s competitive market it is clear that delivering the ultimate and world class customer experience will win more customers and retain more customers. In this research I have brought into account the history of McDonald’s and eventually how it started growing and at the current stage how it became a restaurant for providing world class service to its customers. I have also mentioned various methods and ways how McDonald’s has adopted to achieve this.

1. The way it started its franchising
2. Employee training
3. Management training
4. How their world class customer service increased their sales and maintained customer loyalty.

ABSTRACT

An abstract of the dissertation of Poonam Arora for Masters in Business Administration: Presented April 2010

Title: Enhancing Customers Experience at McDonald’s

Today’s market is known to be more competitive and customer oriented. The purpose of my study on this topic is to find out how McDonalds enhances its customers’ values and experiences through various Quality, Service, Cleanliness & Values (QSC&V) and how McDonalds has achieved this over the years.

I have started my dissertation with the History of McDonalds. The purpose of writing the history was to get a perspective of how McDonalds over the years achieved success and increased the number of its customers and customer loyalty. I have also written down how McDonalds, with the help of excellent training, to its staff, and franchising its restaurants, increased its customers in the list and gave them an excellent customer service. I have also tried to gather information on how the management team, marketing team, and staff work together as a team to enhance customers’ experience at every visit.

To conclude with my topic, I have taken 2 sets of interviews, first from the management team of McDonalds, and the second interviews, from the customers themselves. These sets of interviews have given a clear picture of how the different departments of McDonalds work as a team to provide excellent customer service.

The other set of interviews helped me to find what and how customers feel about McDonalds. This information has helped me to find out how customers really feel value for their money, and value for wanting to visit McDonalds again and again. To use their catchphrase: “I am loving it”

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

• Analyse and define the concept of customer satisfaction and identify the relation between customer experience and customer loyalty
• Examine the condition under which customer satisfaction has enhanced profitability
• Promoting loyalty programs along with customer satisfaction and building favourable customer relationships.
• Evaluate the extent to which “Customer Experience Marketing”, makes its contribution to McDonalds success and identify key areas where McDonalds outwits its competitors
• Assess whether enhancing customer experience should form a part of a food industry’s overall business strategy.
• To highlight the difficulties and challenges involved in product offering enhancements

SCOPES AND PURPOSE

This study examines enhancing customer experience at McDonald’s. McDonalds has a short term outlook and is positive as it has responded to consumer demands to broaden its range and variety and it offers exclusive low cost takeaway options for those hit by the recession. McDonald’s has worked hard to address its image problem and appeal to a wider range and variety of consumers, offering scope for increased turnover through sales over a period of years. Expansion is planned through developing its existing markets and providing a more exclusive service rather than moving into new territories, with opportunities in emerging economies due to, for example, increased car usage making drive-through restaurants more viable to the people for easy access. Overall, McDonald’s has good scope to expand its commercial operations and to engage previously ambivalent segments through broadening its service and offers.

CHALLENGES

In spite of its great offers and service, McDonalds is still associated in the UK with unhealthy food, an increase in obesity, and jobs without prospects, requiring long term image-building by the organisation. It helps to develop its staff training through nationally recognised diplomas. McDonalds has also been the target of critical books and films which publicise negative aspects of the organisation. The company’s ‘healthy’ options have been criticized by some people, for example the high fat content in salad dressings. Litigations instigated by the organisation have been seen as overly aggressive by the public because of the company’s financial power in legal proceedings

RATIONAL

The interesting perception with qualitative and quantitative thinking with regards to Loyalty to customers in retail and enhancing customers experience has aroused sufficient interest in me to go in for a research into this elusive concept. The most important aspect of the retail business, are the customers. The business should be molded to understand that business depends on customers and not customers on business. Respect involved in this study and value for the customer made me choose this topic.

METHODOLOGY

In order to approach the above mentioned research objectives, I chose to use both qualitative and quantitative research strategies. Qualitative and quantitative research is applied, both using primary and secondary information that is gathered and assembled specifically for this purpose by the means of survey and interview, which can be found in chapter 5.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATATION

As it says in the McDonalds value statement; “We will be the best restaurant experience by far! We will be people focused and customer driven passionately! We will inspire people with our can-do attitude always!” McDonald’s evolves in its strategic thinking, from being and outstanding food retailer, and an outstanding customer service, to being an information-driven business, constantly searching for different ways and new concepts to act as the value-adding for its customer and making its customer a value-added customers.

CHAPTER 2 LITRATURE REVIEW

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

The Fast Food Industry is another name of Quick service restaurant, food that can be cooked and served very quickly means Fast Food Industry. The Term fast food was recognised by Merriam-Webster in the year 1951. Such types of restaurants must have a balance between the flow of the food and the expected numbers of customers. This helps to avoid discarding the food after time, also helps in better customer satisfaction by providing them quick and easy service, as the customers, is the whole point of the business. Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating, in other words it can be a eat-in or take-away one or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Every franchise’s operations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs delivered to each restaurant from central locations.

The fast food restaurants industry includes about 200,000 restaurants on an average with combined annual revenue of about $120 billion, major companies include McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Pizza Hut and KFC. According to National Restaurant Association (NRA) a typical fast food restaurant on an average can generate $670,000 and a franchised fast food restaurant can generate $1 to $2 million annually. A 2008 research was conducted worldwide for counting the number of fast food restaurants owned per person. The UK has claimed this title with Australia as second and the United States on third. England alone accounted for 25% of all fast food restaurants. The UK’s overall fast food industry has benefited from the recession, with the sector increasing its presence by more than 8% in the last year, research has found. While the leisure sector on a whole has seen a closure rate of 10%, fast food restaurants in the UK’s top 10 cities have risen by 8.2% to more than 1,450, according to a survey by market analyst the Local Research Company.

Products, Operations &Technology

Most Fast Food restaurants specialize in a few main dish categories, including hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chickens, milkshakes, pizza/pasta, Mexican food, Asian food or some other snacks. Among the major fast food chains hamburger restaurants cover almost 50 per cent of the market. Fast food restaurants include National and regional chains, franchises and independent operators. Most fast food restaurants have a food preparation area which adheres to health and safety, hygiene and food safety policy, dining area, car park lot, drive-thru also some restaurants may have children’s play area.

History of McDonald’s

The McDonald’s concept was first introduced in Saint Bernardino, California by Dick and Dude Macdonald at Manchester at New Hampshire. Their business partner, Ray Kroc, of Oak Park, Illinois, modified and expanded their business. He later got out the business interests of the two McDonald’s brothers in the concept and found McDonald’s Corporation

1927: Two brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald opened a hamburger stand in Monrovia, California called “The Airdrome” at the airport.

1940: McDonald’s Bar-B-Que opens. Two brothers Dick and Mac McDonald opened the Bar-B-Que restaurant at The Airdrome building 40 miles from San Bernardino, California, U.S. on Route number 66, at the 14th and E St., on 15th May 1940. It had features of a large menu. Its menu consisted of 25 items, mostly barbecue. They employed around 20 carhops. It became popular and with huge profit and a hangout place for teenager, which was directed Eric VanDemark.

1948: Two brothers then realized they earn maximum in fact all of their profits from hamburgers, the brothers then decided to close the restaurant for three months for implementation of their innovative idea of, “Speedee Service System”, a streamlined assembly line for hamburgers. The restaurant then opened in December that year and with absolutely new features. There were no more carhops, they all were fired, and when the new concept restaurant reopened it sold only hamburgers, cheeseburgers, soft drinks, milkshakes, coffee potato chips and slices of pie. At the price of 15 cents, the burgers were almost about half price as it was at standard diners, and they were served quickly. The restaurant achieved its fame and became extremely successful, and it spread by word of mouth.

1949: in 1949 world famous French Fries was introduced. French Fries replaced Potato chips. Also, the triple thick milkshake made a debut in the same year.

1953: Multimixer salesman Ray Kroc visited McDonalds in San Bernardino with the clear intention of selling more multimixers(a machine that makes milk-shakes) to these two brothers’. Ray Kroc was very much fascinated with the operation and learnt that the two brothers were looking for a nationwide franchising agent; he also learnt that his profitable future would be in Hamburgers. McDonald’s began to franchise its restaurants, with Neil Fox the first ever franchisee. The second McDonald’s opened in Phoenix, Arizona at N.Central Ave. Special about it was that, this was the first restaurant to feature the Golden Arches design; later in the same year i.e. 1953 McDonald’s original restaurant in San Bernardino was torn and was rebuilt in the same style.

1953: McDonald’s third franchise restaurant opens in Saginaw, Michigan at the corner of State Street and N. Center Road, it was rebuilt in the year 2006 but was at the same location since opening, and it was directed by Silvia Gonzales

1953: McDonald’s fourth franchise restaurant opened, in Downey in California at Lakewood Blvd and Florence Avenue, which is known to be the oldest McDonald’s restaurant in operation.

1954: The milkshake-mixer salesman Ray Kroc was fascinated by the McDonald’s restaurant during his sales visit; he found the first day overall sales visit was $316.12. He learnt the extraordinary capacity and its popularity. There were many others who had visited the restaurant and were inspired are James McLamore, founder of Burger King, and Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell. After finding the restaurant in operation, Kroc approached the two brothers, who had already started franchising, with a proposition on letting him to franchise McDonald’s restaurants outside the company’s home base of Arizona and California, with himself to be the first franchisee. Ray Kroc worked hard to sell McDonald’s. He even tried to prevail on his old acquaintance with the man Walt Disney, but unfortunately his hope of opening a McDonald’s at the soon-to-be-opened Disneyland failed.

Ray Kroc’s first ever franchised restaurant, which was the tenth-ever location was rebuilt twice in Fresno, California.

1955: “McDonald’s Systems, Inc.” on 2nd March 1955, was found by Ray Kroc, which was a legal structure for his planned franchises. Ray Kroc opened his ninth McDonald’s restaurant on 15th April 1955 in Des Plaines, Illinois, in suburban Chicago.

1956: Ray Kroc hired Fred Turner, CEO and Chairman, as a grill man in his store in Des Plaines, Illinois. Fred Turner soon became head of the McDonald’s operation defining the quality, service and cleanliness for the restaurant.

1958: McDonald’s got a great achievement in its hamburger business, by selling its 100 millionth hamburger

1959: Very soon it got another great achievement, in opening the 100th McDonald’s restaurant in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

1959: McDonald’s started billboard advertising.

1960: Kroc’s company was renamed as “McDonald’s Corporation”.

1961: The two brothers agreed to sell Kroc their business rights to operate for $2.7 million, Kroc borrowed money from a number of investors, including Princeton University; Kroc considered the sum extreme, which strained his relationship with the brothers. In a handshake agreement with Kroc, the two brothers would also receive a royalty of 1% on the gross sales. At the closing table of this handshake agreement the Ray was told by the two brothers, that they were giving the real estate and rights to the original unit to the founding employees. Ray Kroc closed the transaction, and then he refused to give the royalty portion of the agreement because it wasn’t in writing. The two brothers then decided to keep their original restaurant; they failed to retain the right to remain a McDonald’s franchise and were forced to rename it as “The Big M”. Ray Kroc opened his own McDonald’s just one block in north.

1961: Hamburger University was opened in this year in the basement of the Elk Grove Village, Illinois.

1962: McDonald’s published its first national magazine advertisement in Life magazine.

1962: This was the first ever restaurant which have a seating facility. The first ever McDonald’s restaurant which has seating opened in Denver, Colorado.

1963: Advertising McDonald’s hamburgers to families and children’s, was one of Kroc’s marketing thoughts. John Gibson and Oscar Goldstein, franchisees from Washington D.C. named as Gee-Gee Distributing Corporation they sponsored a children’s show on WRC-TV called Bozo the Clown, Willard Scott, who played franchised character from 1959 until 1962. Soon after the show was cancelled, Franchise Oscar Goldstein hired Scott to portray McDonald’s new mascot, named Ronald McDonald. After changing its character’s first name to “Ronald” and replacing Scott with a new actor, and giving him the more familiar red, white, and yellow clown features, the character eventually became popular to the rest of the country through an advertising campaign.

1963: The world famous Filet-O-Fish was introduced in Cincinnati, Ohio, in a restaurant located in a neighborhood dominated by Roman Catholics where meat was avoided on Fridays. It went nationally the following year, with fish supplied by Gorton’s of Gloucester.

1963: McDonald’s sold its one billionth Hamburgers.

1963: McDonald’s opened its 500th McDonald’s restaurant in Toledo, Ohio.

1964: First annual report was issued by McDonald’s.

1965: This was the year when McDonald’s celebrated its 10th Anniversary with the first public stock offering at $22.50 per share.

1966: Ronald McDonald appears in his first national television commercial. He appeared on his flying hamburger in 35 one minute color spot on the NBC and CBS networks. He got wide TV exposure in the year 1966 at Macys Thanksgiving parade. Ronald McDonald was an instant hit.

1967: The first McDonald’s international restaurant outside the United States opened in Canada and Puerto Rico. Today with the success ladder it is proudly open for business in 118 countries around the world.

1968: The Big Mac was first introduced by Jim Delligatti, one of Ray Kroc’s earliest franchisees, in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania market in 1967. The Hot Apple Pie is also introduced this year.

1968: The achievement of opening 1000th McDonald’s restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois.

1969: McDonald’s decided to change its logo, the massive logo change and remodeling of restaurant did away with the old red and white buildings and more emphasis was placed on the ever-more-famous Golden Arches.

1971: Hamburglar, Grimace,Mayor McCheese, Captain Crook and the Big Mac join Ronald McDonald in McDonaldland.

1971: Asia’s first McDonald’s opened in July in Japan, in Tokyo’s Ginza district.

1971: On 21st August, the first European McDonald’s outlet opened, in Zaandam (near Amsterdam) in the Netherlands. The franchisee was called as ‘Ahold’.

1971: The first McDonald’s in Germany (Munich) opened in December. This was the first McDonald’s to sell alcohol, as it offers beer.

1971: The first Australian McDonald’s opened in Sydney suburbs of Yagoona in December the same year.

1972: McDonald’s generated $1 billion in sales from 2200 restaurants.

An amazing and early-1970s McDonald’s sign in Austin, Minnesota, which displayed the number of burgers sold. From the year 1969, the number on its board was displayed in billions, which increased with every 5 billion. In 1993, the signs of this era were changed to display 99 billion permanently.

1972: In Des Plaines, Illinois McDonald’s opened its 2000th restaurant

1972: In Strasbourg, France McDonald’s opened its first restaurant.

1973: McDonald’s opens its first Swedish restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, 23rd October.

1973: The Quarter Pounder and Quarter Pounder with cheese was introduced to the menu.

1973: McDonald’s opened its first every Playland in Chula Vista, California

1974: McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in the United Kingdom on October 12th in Woolwich, southeast London. This was company’s 3000th restaurant.

1974: McDonalds opens its first Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1973, Fred Hill, a football player with the Philadelphia Eagles, had the need for such a facility at children’s hospital in Philadelphia, where his child was being teated for Leukemia. Hills dilemma led to the first Ronald McDonald house.

1975: The Egg McMuffin, was introduced to the menu by owner and operator of Santa Barbara franchise, Herb Peterson.

1975: The first McDonalds in Salverland open in Bay City on Mayteon Street on July 2.

1975: McDonalds introduced its drive thru in January in

1976: McDonald’s paid its first cash dividend.

1977: First McDonalds’ All American High School Basketball Team is selected. The roster included former NBA superstar Earvin Magic Johnson. They played against the capital All Stars team chosen from Washington, D.C./Maryland/Virginia area in the McDonalds Capital Classic.

1978: McDonald’s restaurant opens its 5000th restaurant in Kanagawa, Japan.

1978: McDonald’s celebrated the graduation of its 15,000th student in Hamburger University 1979: The Happy Meal was introduced in the U.S. with a circus wagon theme.

1979: McDonald’s opens its first restaurant in Southeast Asia, in Singapore.

1980: McDonald’s introduced its first poultry item, the famous McChicken sandwich. It flops, and was removed from the menu, but was later reintroduced after the success of Chicken McNuggets. Chicken McNuggets became successful by early-1983.

1980: McDonald’s restaurant opens its 6000th restaurant in Munich, Germany.

1980: McDonald celebrates its Silver (25th) Anniversary.

1981: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in the Philippines, in Morayta, Manila.

1982: McDonald’s opens its first branch in Malaysia, at Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.

1983: This was the year when McDonald opens in 32 Countries worldwide. There are 7,778 restaurants at the end of the year.

1984: This was the year of the great loss. Ray Kroc, founder and Chairman of the Board of McDonald’s, died on 14th January 1984.

1985: on April 15, McDonald’s celebrate its 30th year of operation.

1985: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Italy, Bolzano.

1985: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Mexico City, Mexico.

1987: Freshly tossed salads were added to McDonald’s menu on May 15.

1987: On August 12, a Piper Cheyenne, which started in Augsburg, Germany, the plane crashed into the McDonald’s restaurant in the Wasserburger Landstrasse. Fourteen people died in the incident: 4 in the plane, 3 on the street or in a bus, which was also struck by the plane, and 7 in the restaurant. The McDonald’s has since been rebuilt.

1988: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in a communist country, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). Budapest, Hungary follows in the same year.

McDonald’s in Saint Petersburg, Russia

A McDonald’s in a Toronto, Ontario, Canada Wal-Mart store.

McDonald’s in Barcelona, Spain

McDonald’s in Sanya, Hainan (China). This one was the soft drink/ice cream stand.

First McDonald’s restaurant in Zamboanga City, Philippines which opened on February 28, 2005

1990: 31st January 1990, the first Soviet McDonald’s opened, in Moscow. At the time it was the largest ever McDonald’s in the world. In this year many other McDonald’s restaurants opened in Eastern Europe.

1990: In October 1990, the first McDonald’s restaurant opened in mainland China, in the city and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) of Shenzhen, Guangdong province.

1992: McDonald’s restaurant opened in Warsaw, Poland, breaking a record of opening day sales.

1992: The first McDonald’s opened in Africa, in Casablanca, Morocco.

1992: Derek Wood, an employee of McDonald’s, and his two friends robbed a McDonald’s in Sydney River, Nova Scotia, killing three and severely injuring another.

1992: On 23rd April 1992, the world’s largest McDonald’s opened in Beijing, China (over 700 seats).

1992: The fried apple pie was replaced with a baked apple pie (fried pies can still be found today in some restaurants)

1993: The Company launched its first sea-going restaurant aboard the Finnish cruise ferry Silja Europa, sailing between Helsinki and Stockholm.

1994: McDonald’s was given Catalyst Award in honor of their program to foster leadership development in women.

1995: The new advertising theme came into picture “Have You Had Your Break Today?”

1995: McDonald’s launched the Arch Deluxe sandwich with a massive advertisement campaign, but was discontinued due to its failure.

1995: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in South Africa.

1996: McDonald’s Corporate Internet siteMcDonalds.com was launched.

1996: McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in Belarus, marking its chain’s of 100th country

1996: The first McDonald’s opened in India.

1997: The McFlurry (Ice-cream in a cup) was invented by a Canadian franchisee.

1998: Jack M. Greenberg succeeds Michael R. Quinlan as CEO.

1999: McDonald’s opened its first Restaurant in Tbilisi, Georgia in Eastern Europe. Jack Greenberg was elevated to Chairman and CEO.

2000: Eric Schlosser published Fast Food Nation, a book critical of fast food in general and McDonald’s in particular.

2000: The Company opened its 1000th British restaurant, inside the Millennium Dome.

2001: McDonald’s new premiere lettuce and tomato Big N Tasty sandwich launches on February 16.

2002: McDonald’s was ranked 15th by a survey in Restaurants and Institutions magazine in food quality among hamburger chains, highlighting the company’s failure to enforce standards across its franchise network.

2002: McDonald’s posts the company’s first quarterly loss ($344m), for the last quarter of 2002. It responds to the tough competition from other fast-food restaurants, which offered higher quality burgers and more variety, by attempting to move more up market and by expanding its menu and refitting restaurants. It announced it is withdrawing from three countries (including Bolivia) and closing 175 underperforming restaurants.

2002: McDonald’s this year opened the first of 2 corporate stores in Lincoln, Nebraska to test concept restaurant called “3N1”. The concept incorporated a “Sandwich & Platter” casual dining area, a “bakery and ice cream” area featuring gourmet coffees, and a traditional McDonald’s into one building. The second store was launched approximately six months later. The concept was spearheaded by Tom Ryan, who was Executive Vice President and Chief Concept Officer at the time. The concept was abandoned in less than a year, and Ryan left McDonald’s to join Quiznos Sub.

2003: McDonald’s premium salads were added to the menu.

2003: James Richard Cantalupo was elected as the Chairman and Chief Operating Officer (CEO), succeeding Jack M. Greenberg. Just prior to assuming his post Cantalupo shuts down Project Innovate, a global consulting project that had already spent $170 million of a projected 5-year budget of $1.2 billion.

2003: McDonald’s started a global marketing campaign which promotes a new healthier and higher-quality image. The campaign was tagged as “I’m Lovin’ It” and started simultaneously in more than 100 countries around the world.

2003: A market research firm, Technomic, researched that McDonald’s share of the U.S. market had fallen down by three percentage points in five years and was at 15.2%.

2003: A $126M USD loss was reported for the fourth quarter.

2003: McDonald’s added their premium salads, the McGriddles and the chicken selects to the menu.

2004: Happy Meals celebrates its 25th year from 1979-2004.

2004: Morgan Spurlock directs and stars in Super Size Me documentary film in which he ate nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days to the great detriment of his health.

2004: After the release of the film “Super Size Me”, McDonald’s did away with their Supersize options.

2004: Chairman and CEO Jim Cantalupo died at the age of 60 in his hotel room of an heart attack while attending the annual franchisee convention in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 19. A 30-year veteran of the organization, Cantalupo had previously served as President and CEO of McDonald’s International. He was credited with introducing the premium salad line and reformulating Chicken McNuggets to include leaner, all-white meat. Andrew J. McKenna, Sr., a prominent Chicago businessman and a McDonald’s director, is elected Nonexecutive Chairman and Charlie Bell of Sydney, Australia was elected President and CEO of McDonald’s Corporation. A month later Bell was diagnosed with colorectal cancer during a physical exam required for his new post and passes away in January the following year. Like retired chairman and former CEO Fred L. Turner, Bell started his McDonald’s career as a crew member. He was promoted frequently, serving as the corporation’s Chief Operating Officer and as President of both McDonald’s Europe and of the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa Group. (APMEA)

2005: Jim Skinner was elected President and CEO. Skinner started his McDonald’s career as a trainee restaurant manager at a McDonald’s in Carpentersville, Illinois in 1971 after serving nearly ten years with the US Navy.

2005: McDonald’s experiments with call centers for drive-through orders.

2005: McDonalds celebrated its wonderful 50th Anniversary

2005: Owing in part to competitive pressure, McDonald’s Australia adopts “Made for you” cooking platform in which the food was prepared from pre-cooked meat after the customer orders (as opposed to the firm’s normal procedure since 1948, in which the food was cooked then sold as needed). The practice had earlier been tested, and abandoned, in the U.S.

2005: McDonald’s in Singapore started their McDelivery service: customers placed their orders over the phone, and it was delivered to the customer’s wherever they were. The service was available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

2005: McDonald’s opened a Wi-Fi service in some restaurants with Nintendo for Nintendo DS.

2005: Ronald McDonald got a leaner, and a sportier look.

2006: The snack wrap was introduced to the menu.

2006: McDonald’s announced that it will include nutritional information on the packaging for all products beginning from March and that its upcoming menu changes will emphasize chicken, salads, and other “fresh foods” rather than just hamburgers.

2006: McDonald’s and Disney ended their 10 year promotional partnership. Split allegedly with a mutual understanding although the generally accepted reasons was that, McDonald’s no longer saw any benefit from being with one studio; due to the increased competition from other studios, as well as having to promote flop films, and Disney no longer wanted to be associated with a company so strongly tied to childhood obesity.

2006: McDonald’s started their “forever young” branding by redesigning their restaurants.

2007: The 42-ounce super-size soda was reintroduced under the new name Hugo.

2007: McDonald’s introduced its new packaging features 24 faces from first-ever global casting call.

2008: McDonald’s introduced the McSkillet burrito. This larger breakfast which consists of scramble eggs, red & green bell peppers, onions, potatoes, salsa and sausage wrapped in a flour tortilla. Later in the year, Chicken was added.

2008: The Chicken Biscuit and the Southern Style Chicken Sandwich was introduced.

2008: In November, McDonald’s started phasing in new designs for their containers. They also introduced a new menu board designed that featured warmer, darker colors, more realistic photos with the food on plates and drinks in glasses.

2009: Lattes, Cappuccinos ad Mochas were added to the menu on May 5.

2009: McDonald’s introduced its three versions of Angus Burgers.

2009: McDonald’s in Papakura, New Zealand had opened it first car wash in the Country named a UWASH

2009: Nickname “Dub” was given to the McDouble