CHICAGO -- Old favorites are getting new life under the Golden Arches.
Last month, McDonald's rolled out two new sizes of Big Macs -- the Grand Mac and the Mac Jr. -- and a few weeks ago, it added to its annual Shamrock Shake offer with four new mint-flavored drinks. Other riffs on menu staples are being offered in regions around the country, including the Sriracha Big Mac, garlic fries and Chicken McGriddles.
The strategy behind the introductions is a smart one if it works, observers say. It allows the world's largest burger chain to entice new customers and convince old ones to buy more, while keeping costs low and limiting complications in the kitchen.
"If you look at our past, we were probably too focused on leaning on new products," said Lance Richards, McDonald's vice president of menu strategy. "Now we're celebrating the menu items that are uniquely McDonald's. And we think there are huge opportunities to do more of that across the menu."
Since Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook took the helm almost two years ago, the company has focused on improving the quality rather than the quantity of its menu items, but bringing more customers in the door has been a challenge.
McDonald's needs to entice more customers without going out on a limb to create a flashy new menu item that may not sell, said restaurant consultant Dan McGowan.
"A great hostess walks a step to a step-and-a-half in front of the guest. If they get three or four steps ahead, you'll have people standing around in the middle of the restaurant looking around saying, 'Where'd she go?,'" McGowan said. "It's the same thing with the menu. If you are three or four steps ahead, you might lose them."
Adding too many new items can also bog down a kitchen while workers get used to constructing a new sandwich or using new ingredients.
"You don't want to give employees a whole new binder on how to assemble a sandwich," McGowan said. "They know how to make a Big Mac."
Timing is especially important at quick-service restaurants like McDonald's, which aim to deliver orders in less than two minutes and get most of their business from a drive-thru.
When it comes to menu additions, "McDonald's is a little more sensitive [than other restaurants] because you have 70 percent of your customers coming through the drive-thru," said John Gordon, principal at Pacific Management Consulting Group. "You can have a little bit of relaxed service times in the dining room, but if you're in the drive-thru, things can get a little dicey."
With the Big Mac, McDonald's is hoping that adding more sizes will bring in more customers. McDonald's clientele tends to skew older, Gordon said. The burger chain has had trouble luring millennials away from rivals like Five Guys. By adding a snack size Mac Jr. for those lighter eaters and a Grand Mac with more meat for heftier appetites, McDonald's can entice a wider range of customers to try the sandwich that first came onto the menu 50 years ago. McDonald's has said the Mac Jr. and the Grand Mac are available for a limited time but it hasn't said how long they'll last.
Richards said he "likes the idea" of keeping the Grand Mac and Mac Jr. as limited-time offers and bringing them back at a certain point every year as it does with cult favorites like the McRib and Shamrock Shake.
He said that McDonald's will have a balanced approach to menu innovation going forward, trying some new things as customers demand and also adding to already-popular areas of the menu, such as chicken sandwiches and breakfast.
"Breakfast is a unique place for us in the marketplace but a lot of people can come after us," he said. The burger chain is looking to expand its coffee brews and flavors, and put a bigger focus on specialty coffee, he said.
The Shamrock mint-infused line is intended to be a shot in the arm to McDonald's McCafe brand, which CEO Easterbrook has called a big priority this year. Besides the Shamrock Shake, which has been around since 1970, McDonald's is adding a hybrid chocolate-mint shake, a Shamrock Chocolate Chip Frappe, Shamrock Mocha and Shamrock Hot Chocolate.
Because of the shake's strong following in its annual six-week run-up to St. Patrick's Day, the mint flavor being available in a number of new drinks will likely stimulate more repeat orders from Shamrock lovers but also some new orders from customers who don't tend to order the shakes, McGowan said.
"A good new item stays in the lanes of your menu but is unique enough to draw new customers in," he said.
SundayMonday Business on 02/19/2017