Listen to customers, watch the market and learn from your competitors

By Simon on 8 Oct 07

new look restaurant new look take away

Look at the pictures above, trendy wine bar or the latest high-concept Japanese sushi restaurant?

Well they're actually pictures of ordinary bog-standard Maccy D's burger joints. Yes, the same MacDonalds that gave the world the Big Mac and Ronald MacDonald, and not forgetting the Hamburglar.

But, what has all this got to do with knowing your market? MacDonalds is a very good example of listening to your market. Cast your mind back a few years, the media was full of stories about the global burger giant getting into real problems. Rising fears over obesity, environmental impact, animal welfare, and globalisation all led to a string of stories about falling sales and dwindling customers. There was a real sense of ‘blood in the Boardroom' and the media felt that this symbol of American capitalism was in for a serious fall from grace.

Now that all seems a long time ago as MacDonald's is probably stronger than ever. So, what changed? Have the concerns about junk food, children's diets and obesity suddenly gone away? No, the thing that has changed is the company itself. They had the foresight and flexibility to respond to the conditions they were trading in. Changes have been pretty wide ranging; from simple headline grabbing PR stunts like scrapping their ‘super sized' menus to seriously costly global infrastructure changes. Menus were overhauled and the presentation of the brand transformed - out went images of kids chomping on super-sized Big Macs and in came adverts of young professional women sharing a lunchtime salad on their way to important meetings.

This may all sound like simple cosmetic changes, but it takes a lot for a business to admit (even privately) that they are getting it wrong and even harder to get the response right. This again comes back to knowing your market, because if you respond to market changes in the wrong way that can be equally damaging.

It's not my place to decide whether these changes are just superficial and the same old MacDonalds is still alive and well underneath a fresh veneer of corporate social responsibility. It is just a great example of listening to your market and being confident enough to change what you offer.

So get out there, listen to your customers, watch the market and learn from your competitors.

Comments