McDonald’s Perfect Pair Contest:

To celebrate the perfect pairing of strawberry and lemon in the New McCafé Frozen Strawberry Lemonade, McDonald’s USA is asking customers to team up with a friend, co-worker, relative or significant other to answer the question – what makes you McDonald’s Perfect Pair? One grand prize winning pair will split a $5,000 travel voucher for a dream vacation, along with $5,000 in cash. In addition, two runner-up pairs will each receive $1,000 in McDonald’s Arch Cards, $500 for each person.
From May 9 through May 15, consumers can enter McDonald’s Perfect Pair Contest by Tweeting @McDonalds explaining why they are McDonald’s Perfect Pair. Contest entries must include the hashtag, #McDFSLPairs, the official link to the contest rules http://bit.ly/hK0wCH and the Twitter handle of the other person that makes up that pair to be considered.
Entries will be evaluated by an expert judging panel, who will choose 10 finalist pairs to advance to the contest’s second round, where customers will then be asked to select a grand prize winner by voting on their favorite pair’s video submission. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. For complete Official Rules, restrictions and prize info, please visit: www.mcdonalds.com/McDFSLPairs.

McCafe Frozen Strawberry Lemonade Added to McDonald's McCafe Line of Beverages

Today, customers can visit McDonald’s restaurants in Atlanta and across the country to experience the newest blended ice beverage on the McCafé menu - Frozen Strawberry Lemonade. McCafé Frozen Strawberry Lemonade is a unique twist on an old favorite, combining tart frozen lemonade with sweet strawberry syrup swirl.
To celebrate the launch, all Atlanta-area McDonald’s will be offering small-sized Frozen Strawberry Lemonades for $1 through this weekend (Sunday, May 15).
“Especially considering the forecast coming up this week in Atlanta, the new Frozen Strawberry Lemonade is a great, refreshing addition to our line of McCafe beverages,” said Vicki Chancellor, Vice President of the Greater Atlanta McDonald’s Operators Association. “We’re glad to add one more reason to make McDonald’s the premier beverage stop for thirsty Atlantans this summer.”
This new menu innovation is available in small (12 oz.), medium (16 oz.) and large (22 oz.) sizes, and features a taste profile unlike other products currently on the McDonald’s menu, coupling together two of America’s favorite flavors – strawberry and lemon.

Ch 7- Business Marketing

"Business Marketing is the marketing of goods and services to individuals and organizations for purposes other than personal consumption." Mcdonalds focuses on its strategic alliances with suppliers for their coffee. Along with their great marketing skills they still need to maintain the great alliances they have for their new McCafe line.   

McDonalds and McCafes in many national markets are part of the rainforest alliance. All McDonalds outlets and McCafes in Ireland and Australia for two examples offer only Rainforest Alliance coffees.

So far in the U.S. markets Franke Espresso Super automatics are being installed along with Bunn brewers. Three roasters are now the primary coffee suppliers for the U.S. McDonalds and McCafe outlets. They are located regionally: Gavina, Vernon, Califorinia, distant lands of Tyler, Texas; and S&D coffee of Concord, North Carolina.

S & D is currently the largest supplier of McDonalds' coffee plus all of its tea. According to Distant Lands, the McCafe rollout took six years of preparation, closely working with a McDonalds team to realize a unique espresso taste. These roasting companies are privately held and maintain their own ongoing coffee roasting and packaging activities, for their own brands or for the store brand/private label sectors. F. Gavina & Sons, owned and managed by the Gavina family, reportedly generates 100 million dollars in sales, of which 15% is from McDonalds. Gavina sources coffee to more than 3,000 McDonalds/McCafes in the western U.S.

McCafe is not just for McDonalds to become excited by, the entire coffee industry from trees to bars to office and vending services to store shelves ought to be caught up in this major new development, potentially the most vigorous coffee sales initiative since Starbucks' rise. Espresso, especially with McCafe, is gaining a vast new drinking market. And it might as well bring a significant young market to the drink, which coffee needs. Certainly no one should doubt the power of McDonalds or its new commitment to coffee. Here again we watch what could be a brighter future in the brewing for coffee.

mcdonalds commits $100 million to coffee war

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30583933/ns/business-consumer_news/t/mcdonalds-commits-million-coffee-war/ 

NEW YORK — Specialty coffee retailers, now including the nation’s biggest hamburger chain, are hoping new ad campaigns and price cuts that start this week will entice more latte lovers to take a sip.

McDonald’s Corp. on Tuesday began a more than $100 million marketing campaign including TV, radio, print, online and outdoor ads for its McCafe line of espresso drinks. The drinks are now being rolled out to the chain’s 14,000 U.S. locations.

The ads portray the drinks as the antidote to a miserable day and aim to get consumers to see the beverages as affordable, quality alternatives to lattes at more gourmet chains like Starbucks Corp. “We think that the timing is right,” said McDonald’s USA President Don Thompson. “We think the opportunity is right.”

Just two days earlier, Starbucks ran — on a full page in the Sunday New York Times — the first ad of its new campaign, which positions its drinks as higher in quality than the competition and less pricey than consumers might expect.

Starbucks sales have slid as consumers bypass lattes and other small luxuries to save money.

 

Video: Dollar menu bringing in a lot of dollars

 

The company has been trying to appeal more to value-conscious consumers to bring sales back up and announced Tuesday it will sell grande iced coffees for $1.95 — 25 cents to 45 cents less than usual. Most of the chain’s prices vary by location, but all company-owned stores will sell grande iced coffees for $1.95 through June 29.

Jean-Pierre Dube, professor of marketing at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said it is “extremely important” for McDonald’s to advertise their new drinks right now during the recession because they cost slightly less than others in the sector.

McDonald’s and Starbucks aren’t the only ones trying to bring in customers through ads or price cuts.

Dunkin’ Donuts said Monday its New York, New Jersey and Connecticut locations are rolling back latte prices about 15 percent.

 

A small hot latte will now cost $1.99, down from $2.59 on average, and a small iced latte will be $2.49, down from $2.79.

Flavors like vanilla or hazelnut can be added at no extra charge, the company said.

Dunkin’ is also offering its Chicago customers small lattes — hot or iced, with flavors added or without — for 99 cents beginning May 11 through June 20. Dunkin’ Donuts is owned by Dunkin’ Brands Inc., which also owns Baskin’ Robbins. Dunkin’ Brands is owned by Bain Capital, The Carlyle Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners.

Shares of Starbucks fell 10 cents to $14.14 in afternoon trading while shares of McDonald’s rose 59 cents to $53.36.

Ch 8- Segmenting and Targeting Markets

“Marketers use segmentation bases, or variables, which are characteristics of individuals, groups, or organizations, to divide a total market into segments.”  The key is to identify significant and assessable segments that attract different marketing mixes. Geographic segmentation is important when you are thinking of opening up a McCafe restaurant. We need to know what consumers are appealed to and arrange our McCafe to their taste. Marketers often use demographic segmentation because it is available and it is related to consumers buying behavior. Age, gender, income, ethnic background and family life cycle are all taken into effect when it comes to a new McCafe.  Young children, tweens and generation y are all likely to go to a mcdonalds, while generation y and x are more likely to visit the environment of a McCafe. I believe the most beneficial segmentation bases we should focus on are benefit segmentation. The one intention a marketer should have is to know your consumer is satisfied with the product they purchased. This focuses more on what the consumer needs and wants instead of focusing on their age or gender. When targeting consumers for McCafe we know what they want is a quick and affordable tasting coffee and that’s what they will receive.

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

The McDonald's starting of McCafe is an excellent example of diversification and new product development. By starting McCafe, McDonald's is offering new products that were not available in traditional McDonald's stores. McCafe specializes in serving cafes, which attracts customers that usually don't come to McDonald's to eat fast-food. McCafe is also not only a product development. McCafe has its own section of the store and clearly distinguishes itself from the traditional McDonald store. The store has a modern, yet relaxing mood. This is important to attract new market segments. Perhaps customers who go to a cafe don’t go to satisfy hunger, but possibly to take a sip of coffee and chat in a relaxing environment. Thus, McDonald's McCafe serves as an example performing diversification by developing both new products and new markets. 

Jan Fields COO of McDonalds was asked why are they opening up their new McCafe line and he answered "Drinks overall, beverages are a huge growing part of the business and from an industry standpoint, beverages make up $60 billion."          The McCafe idea was originally tested at McDonalds locations in Melbourne, Australia. The testing in Australia was successful. McDonalds restaurants who offer McCafe drink choices made 15% more profit than locations that did not. It eventually became the largest coffee chain in Australia. The same result happened when testing was expanded to New Zealand.