To launch the Quarter Pounder in Japan, McDonald's leaves out the Golden Arches, Ronald and even the chain's name.
500 people lined up for a Tokyo Quarter Pounder store opening.
The McDonald's Quarter Pounder made its debut in Japan with no trace of the Golden Arches, bright yellow plastic or McAnything. Temporary shops set up to sell the signature sandwich in Tokyo don't exhibit the fast food giant's name, logo or any other McDonald's signifier—so Japanese diners only get beef and no branding.
Part of a limited-time promotion, two McDonald's stores in fashionable Tokyo neighborhoods were closed, remodeled and reopened as unbranded Quarter Pounder shops on November 1. The minimal black and red shops, said to be operated by the "Quarter Pounder Secretariat," feature Le Corbusier sofas and only two menu items: meals with the Quarter Pounder with cheese or Double Quarter Pounder with cheese at a little more than $5.00 and $6.00 respectively. Extending the motif, all food is served in solid red packaging with black block lettering.
The Quarter Pounder is new to Japan and the unbranded stores are intended to provide Japanese consumers with a "blind test" of the new burger.
"We want consumers to discover great taste and not care about who produced it," a shop spokesman said. "Those who think of McDonald's as fast food can just focus on taste and find a premium burger, without prejudice or preconception."
The black and red design (more photos below) leaves the traditional McDonald's aesthetic for something more in line with the Tokyo fashion districts, Omotesando and Shibuya East, where the shops are located.
Japanese agency Dentsu contributed to the project. The promotion also includes sweepstakes for trips to the United States on the Quarter Pounder Web site.
Wow gutsy move by a major fast food chain!
4 comments:
I wouldn't say that these stores are exactly unbranded...even if there are no golden arches, the Quarter Pounder is one of McDonald's brands.
A press release from McDonald's (at least according to a few other blogs) says that this is just to create buzz marketing for the Quarter Pounder (not yet on menus at McDonald's in Japan) as it's introduced.
Dr. Tantillo's just published a post on McDonald's on his marketing blog, in which he praises McDonald's for being so flexible and adapting to demand but prefaced this with: "The big things about McDonald’s cosmetic image (i.e., colors, designs, clown mascot) have never essentially changed. Neither has the basic serving and restaurant setup."
Guess they are even more flexible though... Tantillo's full post
Even though this is supposed to just be temporary/buzz marketing, I wonder if cultivating this sort of aesthetic wouldn't make sense for them--a move to diversify their holdings (they own a significant portion of Chipotle, or did last I knew) and expand/diversify their customer base (Ex. their 'unsnobby coffee' campaign. Tantillo did a post on Starbucks/Dunkin' Donuts mentioning McDonald's coffee, too.
Choosing the right packaging can be crucial to getting products. Things like cost, functionality, durability and the environment all need to be. We have found that vacuum packing in plastic pouches was best for our burgers.
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Even though this is supposed to just be temporary/buzz marketing, I wonder if cultivating this sort of aesthetic wouldn't make sense for them--a move to diversify their holdings Last day i read an areticle that was on health ,that was soo amazing i never see like that such an amazing and intersting information Prenatal DNA testing
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