McDonald’s, Hurting Globally, Turns to Digital Pay Platforms—and Brunch?

2014-10-14 / 品牌溝通要訣, 品牌部落格 / julia

指導者 / 總編輯張蕙娟分享者 / 陳萾

麥當勞營收在全球受重創之餘轉向發展電子付費平台及早午餐

麥當勞之前爆發的過期肉品事件導致其在中國大陸的營收快速下跌，而在美國市場方面，近年來亦委靡不振，營收也有下跌的現象。為此，麥當勞以創新電子化點餐及服務方式，和研發早午特餐來吸引顧客回流，試圖挽回速食市場大餅。

麥當勞的全球銷售額在上個月下跌了3.7%，亞洲/太平洋地區的銷售額更是因中國的過期肉品事件影響而驟跌14.5%。雖然麥當勞已經終結與過期肉品供應商上海福喜食品有限公司的契約，並保證未來會嚴加控管並監視其肉品供應商，但此傷害已經造成，而中國人民對麥當勞的負面印象不知還會持續多久。

在歐洲地區，麥當勞的銷售額也降低0.7%，俄羅斯甚至因過期肉品事件關閉境內多家麥當勞連鎖餐廳，以此表達對食安保證失敗的抗議。有分析師更指出，俄羅斯此做法在間接呼籲美國別干預俄羅斯與烏克蘭事件，才會因此限制美國速食龍頭在其境內的發展。

但麥當勞海外銷售額的降低並不比在美國本土境內的發展來得令人訝異，其在美國八月份的銷售額比前期降低了2.8%，新任執行長Mike Andres上任更是要首先解決各類難題才能改善麥當勞目前的狀況。

麥當勞目前所面臨的難題包含要與提供新鮮食材和快速取餐服務的Chipotle等餐廳競爭；麥當勞員工與人權份子抗議要求提升最低薪資；以及麥當勞近期缺乏知名的明星商品支持來增加買氣。

麥當勞更是面臨長期品牌形象的敗壞。根據Sandelman & Associates，麥當勞已失去原有速食業「兒童喜愛」的龍頭地位，現由Chick-fil-A所領。由此可知，千禧年後的兒童父母較重視為孩子選取食材較新鮮，較高品質的速食，而麥當勞若不加緊改進，便無法挽回其市場大餅。而根據Brand Keys，美國人近年已漸漸失去對傳統速食的熱愛，不論是嬰兒潮時期出生者或是千禧年世代，都已對傳統速食食品失去興趣。

為了改善公司目前的處境，麥當勞開始學習Applebee’s和Panera等餐廳已經採用的平板點餐模式，希望以此減少人力成本，卻沒有回應抗議者期望提升最低薪資的要求。麥當勞更是首先表明願意採用蘋果公司的Apple Pay服務，並開始在美國各地規劃設置其系統。在創新餐點方面，麥當勞已註冊McBrunch商標，希望增長早餐時間，如同Taco Bell一般增加日間用餐時段來創新菜單，但此註冊商標目前尚未發表正式聲明是為研發還是實驗階段。

麥當勞向來的競爭優勢為餐點低廉的價格與其餐廳「無所不在」的便利性，而非餐廳搭配科技點餐的先進性。若麥當勞不加緊穩固自身原有的優勢，其未來發展會如何將難以預測。

There may be a silver lining to McDonald’s supplier woes in China: The mess has hurt the chain’s overall results so badly that its continuing decline in the US market doesn’t look so bad by comparison. Now McDonald’s is turning toward digital transaction technologies to save its bacon.

McDonald’s global sales fell by 3.7 percent last month as its Asia-Pacific region dropped by 14.5 percent thanks to the food-safety scandal in China, in which an expose showed workers at supplier Shanghai Husi Food Co. repackaging expired meat. McDonald’s cut off the plant in Shanghai and vowed to increase audits and video monitoring at suppliers, but the damage already was done in the minds of Chinese consumers, and who knows for how long.

Meanwhile, things weren’t so hot in Europe either, with sales dipping 0.7 percent, certainly not helped by the fact that food-safety regulators in Russia shut down a bunch of McDonald’s outlets citing food-safety concerns—a move that many analysts believe actually is a geopolitical gambit meant to send a message to America to stay out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

In any event, at least all of those woes took eyes off McDonald’s intractable problems in its home market. New US operations chief Mike Andres is coming on board only to be greeted by a spate of problems that seems to keep growing. US same-store sales in August declined by 2.8 percent, a result that seemed to reflect the fact that just about every major trend in the restaurant industry has been moving against McDonald’s lately.

There’s the continued rise of fresh-fare and fast-casual competitors such as Chipotle; protests at McDonald’s restaurants by living-wage activists and McDonald’s employees; and the lack of a truly big new-product hit at McDonald’s lately, as the “Build Your Own Burger" test in Southern California and a new Bacon Clubhouse burger don’t really rank as major innovations.

McDonald’s also faces long-term brand erosion. It has lost its first-place position as the fast-food chain with the most “kid appeal," according to new research by Sandelman & Associates, a position now occupied by Chick-fil-A. No doubt much of that is due to how Millennial parents of young children are favoring fast feeders with reputations for higher-quality and fresher food than McDonald’s.

And as No. 1 in the US quick-serve restaurant industry, McDonald’s faces the biggest share of the burden from the fact that Americans in general seem to be losing their taste for traditional fast food, according to new research by Brand Keys. This is true with other generations, such as boomers, as well as Millennials.

Desperate for measures that will reverse its momentum, McDonald’s has been experimenting with tablet ordering, something that fast-casual chains such as Applebee’s and Panera already have been rolling out. One potential advantage of human-less ordering would be to cut labor costs at its restaurants at a time when the zeitgeist is pushing McDonald’s to raise its entry-level wages. In the meantime, McDonald’s also was among the initial merchants to raise its hand for Apple Pay and is rolling it out across all US locations.

The company also confirmed today that it filed a federal trademark for “McBrunch," but wouldn’t say whether the term was connected to a new product platform currently in development or testing. The chain has been toying with the idea of extending breakfast hours and creating new day-parts, ala Taco Bell, in order to add excitement to the menu.

But for McDonald’s, its popularity always has been about price, convenience and ubiquity, not a me-too digital-ordering platform. If that’s all Ronald McDonald has left up his sleeve, this won’t be the last bad month under the Golden Arches.