News

McDonald's transparency campaign grabs millennials' attention

October 21, 2014

McDonald's experienced brief quality perception and purchase consideration lifts with the millennial demographic following the introduction of its new transparency campaign.

However, according to YouGov BrandIndex research, there has not been a similar improvement in quality perception with either mothers or QSR customers so far.

While the news has been mixed across these three demographic groups throughout October in quality perception and purchase consideration – the percentage of each group who would consider buying McDonald's the next time they are in the market for fast food – McDonald's is getting an across the board boost in perception for "coming clean" in their newest campaign.

According to a news release, YouGov measured perception by asking, "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?" Quality score is determined by asking respondents "Does the chain represent good quality or poor quality?" Both scores can range from 100 to -100, with zero equaling positive and negative feedback.

Since Sept. 1, 700 millennials, 500 mothers and 3,600 QSR customers were interviewed for the research.

Milllennials

Millennials had the most positive reaction to McDonald's "Our Food. Your Questions" campaign, pushing their Buzz score up 25 points from -10 on the Monday when it started to 15 over the weekend, its highest Buzz score since early August.

With Monopoly's Sept. 30 debut, the millennials' quality score also increased from -28 and hit 1 six days later.

Mothers 

For mothers, the Monopoly campaign seemed to persuade them to consider going to McDonald's with increased purchase consideration scores, yet at the same time, quality scores went down to their lowest levels since Labor Day.

Mothers had the second best positive reaction to the "Our Food. Your Questions" campaign, jumping 16 points from a -2 score on the Monday it started to an 18 score by Friday, then down to 11 over the weekend.

QSR customers

QSR consumers in general seemed to be the least swayed by either of McDonald's October campaigns.

Monopoly appeared to have the opposite intended effect on purchase consideration compared to the other two demos, by dropping to its lowest mark since mid-August with fast food eaters.

The transparency campaign also moved the perception up only a couple of points, from 40 to 42 percent, and now it's settled at 43 percent.