Group 1Elizabath EappenIris GomesNeethu Theresa JacobSwarupa Rani SahuDivyanshi Gupta

China’s Big Mac Attack

LIBA 2

McDonaldization in China• 235 restaurants in China• 158 McD franchises in Hong Kong• One McD for every 42,000 residents• Menu board in Chinese with english in small letters

LIBA 3

Cultural Imperialism through McD

• Thomas Friedman says “McDonald’s serves the interest of middle classes that are emerging in autocratic, undemocratic societies. Countries that have a McDonald’s within their borders have never gone to war against each other”

• Experience: eating in a cheerful,AC, child-friendly restaurant that offers revolutionary innovation of clean toilets

LIBA 4

Localization of McDonald’s

• Daniel Ng, an American-trained engineer, opened Hong Kong’s first McD in 1975, promoting McDonald’s as an outpost to forget that they lived in a tiny colony on the rim of Maoist China

• The signs outside his first restaurant were in English, the Chinese character for McDonald’s didn’t appear until the business was safely established

LIBA 5

McD: Menu Customization

• McDonald’s open a new restaurant every 17hrs• Makes heroic efforts to ensure food looks, feels

and tastes same everywhere• Menus vary only when need for beyond burgers

and friesSpicy Wings – BeijingVegetable McNuggets – New DelhiKosher Big Macs - Jerusalem

LIBA 6

McDonald’s Success Secret• “Golden Arches”• Targeted Children of age 3 – 13 yrs and their

harried, stressed-out parents• Parents wanted their children to connect with

world outside China• “McD important stop on way to Harvard or MIT• Haven for school age children– No smoking, no alcohol– Effectively eliminating drugs and gangs

LIBA 7

Celebrating with the Little Emperors

• Changing lifestyle and family culture helped McD• McD promotes Birthday Party• McD offers a party package (food, cake, gifts,

toys) – Ronald Room• Convenient and welcome place for family

celebrations

LIBA 8

• Entertain children and help frustrated parents– Uncle and Aunty McDonald

• Outlet visits as reward for good behavior or academic achievement• Children are full scale customers who

command respect in today’s economy

Feeding China’s Little Emperors

LIBA 9

McDonald’s: Set Backs

• Often preferred site for anti-American demonstrations

• Past 5 yrs, McD has been targets of violent protests• Like the Stars and the Stripes, the Big Mac stands

for America

LIBA 10

McD: A Cultural Change

• Clean toilets showing public civility• Changing local culture and higher standard of

company• Young crew local workers promoted to

management’s rankings• Changing fast food restaurants into leisure

centers for seniors and after school clubs for students

LIBA 11

Imitating McDonald’s

• McD attracts Chinese – food is safe, clean and reliable

• New model of modernization, hygiene and responsible management

• McDucks, Mcdonal’s, Nancy’s Express(N) and Honggaoliang (H) : dressing uniforms coperate mascots, showing cleaniness

LIBA 12

China’s graying population

• With the increasing of the elders, the locus of consumer power will soon shift generations as the parents of today’s little emperors retire

• McDonald’s : from a child-centered industry to be a welcoming retreat from

the isolation and loneliness of urban life

LIBA 13